Martin Eden (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Jack London
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1996-11-01
Features: In the illustrated edition of Martin Eden, the impoverished sailor Martin Eden meets the Ruth family by chance. Ruth is extraordinarily beautiful, leaving him spellbound. He resolves to study hard and improve himself in every way to be worthy of her. Ruth is also drawn to his strong physique and abundant energy and falls for him unconsciously. Martin sets out to become a writer and begins a rigorous career of writing, but none of his manuscripts are accepted, and he lives in poverty. Ruth also cuts him off. When he becomes disheartened and stops working hard on his writing, he suddenly gets lucky—a manuscript is published in a major magazine, and other manuscripts he has been rejected countless times for also become highly popular. He achieves fame, and Ruth comes to him and throws herself into his arms. However, Martin becomes completely disillusioned with this materialistic society. While sailing at sea, he quietly climbs onto the porthole and throws himself into the embrace of the sea. Of course, the work that most vividly reflects both the positive and negative aspects of his creative philosophy is his masterpiece—Martin Eden, a novel published in 1909. In this semi-autobiographical novel, Jack London poured his heart into it, writing about how he struggled through poverty and hardship while studying and writing under the disdain of the mediocre bourgeoisie. He also fully elaborates on his social views, which are a mix of Marxist class consciousness, Spencer's Social Darwinism, and Nietzsche's "superman" doctrine. Martin Eden is a sailor on an ocean-going ship. By chance, he meets the Ruth family and falls deeply in love with the liberal arts student, seeing her as his ideal lover. To match her, he dedicates himself to studying, arming himself with cultural knowledge, especially various philosophical ideas. He believes his experiences will interest people, and his views urgently need to be expressed, so he diligently studies and practices writing. But his attempts fail one after another, and his life deteriorates to the point of utter destitution. Despite often being starving and even pawning his coat, he still ignores everything to study and write. Although his sister, landlord, and working-class friends like and sympathize with him, they don’t understand him. Meanwhile, the upper-class gentlemen and ladies mock and ridicule him, but he presses forward,ing his own path. In terms of this spirit of hard struggle and self-reliance, it is positive.