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The Star Rover

by Jack London, Lorenzo Carcaterra (Introduction)

4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 · rating details · 865 ratings · 62 reviews

The Star Rover is the story of San Quentin death-row inmate Darrell Standing, who escapes the horror of prison life—and long stretches in a straitjacket—by withdrawing into vivid dreams of past lives, including incarnations as a French nobleman and an Englishman in medieval Korea. Based on the life and imprisonment of Jack London’s friend Ed Morrell, this is one of the aut...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published November 11th 2003 by Modern Library (first published 1913)

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Apr 18, 2013 I, Curmudgeon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-adventure, classic, historical-fiction, kindle-book, science-fiction, substance-abuse-mental-health, colorful-supporting-characters, controversial-fiction, good-read, history

I’ve struggled with how to review this one. It’s getting five stars because I think it’s greater than the sum of its parts. The book description states that this is a collection of closely related short stories. Having read it, I think that’s either a mistake or a very sad attempt to water down, what I feel is a very thought provoking story.

Jack London, for his day, was a great researcher and shrewd observer of the human condition. In fact, I think that particular aspect of his genius for writi...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Stefania T. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-più-amati

Mettiamoci tutti in fila, sparpagliati ad entrambi i lati della strada, ad osservare con smorfia solenne e cipiglio indignato (scuotendo il capo in segno di palese disapprovazione) il cammino del Vagabondo delle stelle verso la Mensola dei Miei Libri Preferiti.
Signori, questo è un libro RACCOMANDATO.
Sì, avete letto bene (signora, lei non svenga, per cortesia!): "Il vagabondo delle stelle" appartiene a quella feccia di libri-figli-di-papà che siamo obbligati ad amare a prescindere, perché hanno c...more

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May 16, 2013 Ilenia Zodiaco rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"La mia mano nella tua, vecchio compagno! So che, anche con la corda al collo, sarai tu ad aver vinto la partita. Non avranno la dinamite".

Tra le mille riflessioni, credo che la più forte, quella che si ostinava a riemergere senza sosta in me, durante la lettura di questo magico romanzo, sia questa presuntuosa volontà di vivere a testa alta. Darrell Standing, il vagabondo delle stelle, l'unico prigioniero di San Quintino libero di vagare nel firmamento. Le guardie ottuse, il direttore sanguinar...more "La mia mano nella tua, vecchio compagno! So che, anche con la corda al collo, sarai tu ad aver vinto la partita. Non avranno la dinamite".

Tra le mille riflessioni, credo che la più forte, quella che si ostinava a riemergere senza sosta in me, durante la lettura di questo magico romanzo, sia questa presuntuosa volontà di vivere a testa alta. Darrell Standing, il vagabondo delle stelle, l'unico prigioniero di San Quintino libero di vagare nel firmamento. Le guardie ottuse, il direttore sanguinario, il regime poliziesco sono i limiti, gli argini della sorte che cercano di trattenere la straripante fantasia e volontà di potenza del nostro protagonista. "Ma la vita continuava a scorrere in me prepotentemente". La droga che il nostro Darrell usa per viaggiare è la sua volontà. La volontà di non piegarsi, di sorridere di fronte alle più atroci torture e di trapassare la carcassa del suo corpo per danzare in alto tra le stelle.

"Esiste della gente che ammira e adora la carne, questa carne nata dal fango, e che nel fango è destinata a ritornare. Se conoscessero le celle della prigione di San Quintino, capirebbero la superiorità dello spirito sulla materia".

Note a margine: le storie interne alla cornice più significativa del duro racconto in carcere sono certo frettolose e non c'è per niente introspezione psicologica o tentativo modernizzante ( al contrario della struttura e dell'escamotage narrativo - questo delirio quasi postmoderno). Sono storie d'avventura, esotiche, modellate su un intreccio semplice di flussi e riflussi della sorte che abbassa e eleva i protagonisti in modo arbitrario. Si prestano bene come semplici riproposizioni, metafore della crudele situazione in cui versa Derrell: se in carcere c'è un despota senza cuore così il racconto nel racconto avrà un tremendo carnefice a sua volta. Insomma, gli spunti per i parallelismi sono tanti. Lo schema e i temi affrontati (in particolare quelli della sopraffazione e della reincarnazione) mi hanno0 ricordato una recente lettura: Cloud Atlas. Se vi è piaciuto questo London, potete dargli una chance. (less)

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Aug 21, 2007 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: most anyone

There are exactly three reasons why this book isn't regarded as an American classic and taught in high schools across the country:

#1 - The critics hated it when it came out. Oddly they slammed it for all the wrong reasons. Thinking this to be an absurd descent into London's imagination they tore it apart as inferior to his loosely autobiographical fiction. The book is in fact largely based on the life and times/crimes of one very real man who was kind/wise enough to share his story with Jack. Th...more There are exactly three reasons why this book isn't regarded as an American classic and taught in high schools across the country:

#1 - The critics hated it when it came out. Oddly they slammed it for all the wrong reasons. Thinking this to be an absurd descent into London's imagination they tore it apart as inferior to his loosely autobiographical fiction. The book is in fact largely based on the life and times/crimes of one very real man who was kind/wise enough to share his story with Jack. The 'fantastic' premise as sheer imagined folly doesn't really even register as all that fantastic today, and the prison descriptions and the indictment of the justice system are still very much applicable today. In short: he got slammed because this book spoke the truth about the hearts, minds and trials of men and didn't filter it through the eyes of a sled dog to make the unpleasant more palatable.

#2 - The modern reader - especially the savvy hip urban reader - can't help but note that Jack gets cute about five times too many with characters remarking to the protagonist that with his imagination he should be writing novels. The self- aggrandizing thing works for McSweeny writers and jammin' MCs across the land who rule the world with a mic in their hand- but that kind of cute gets old quickly. Very late 20th- early 21st century of him though. Props on being a hundred years ahead of his time in annoying?

#3 - He just had to revisit the time of Christ. Oh he just had to go there. And then, while painting a decent enough political/social account (as far as history holds) - he doesn't really do anything with it. It is not daring or bold, it refuses to say anything even remotely controversial. It does a decent job of getting into the mind of a man whose primary knowledge of Christ is second-hand, but he could have done that exploration just as easily with anyone in any time period. The fact that we had to visit the then and there felt... forced? Tacky? Too obvious? I'll have to meditate on why this move bothered me so much. It may simply be my own bias -

Anyway - it's objection number three that would keep this off my reading list were I teaching high school seniors. The objectionable passage is one of the shorter jaunts in a novel that is otherwise fairly spectacular. Well worth a read and very much recommended.

(less)

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Dec 12, 2008 Cwn_annwn_13 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: on-my-shelf-home-library

The Star Rover is unknown compared to Londons other works but this is an amazing book. A straight jacketed prisoner is brutalized and basicly left in the dark in solitary confinement, wills himself to learn astral projection, and relives past lives from previous incarnations. Very unique book that is unlike anything else Jack London wrote. Although the theme of struggle, defiance, strength of spirit and willpower are one of the main themes in The Star Rover as in most of Londons other work, but...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Michael William West rated it 4 of 5 stars

About a third of the way into the Star Rover, I decided that Jack London was about to do something magnificent; to encapsulate the experience of transcendence of the body while under conditions of torture without ever leaving the intense, layered claustrophobia of San Quentin. Almost immediately the book digressed into a series of hallucinatory experiences in which other characters were semi-forcibly developed and then retraced back into the thinning story of his incarceration. A little disappoi...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Ritchie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, fiction, gutenberg, transferred-to-screen

The main protagonist of "The Jacket" is Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder.

Due to some low-level intrigue amongst prisoners, he is suspected of hiding dynamite and sent to solitary confinement. There he is put into the jacket, a canvas jacket which is tightly laced to compress the whole body and at first he experiences excruciating pain. However, another prisoner, Ed Morrell introduces him to a "trick" that would make his co...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Todd rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's a pretty cool conceit -- although one I think London explored better in "Before Adam" -- that we all have a collective memory, or "spirit" as the narrator of this story would say, that is passed down through our genes from our ancestors. A subconscious notebook of experiences that define our thoughts and actions in ways we may not be aware of.

Pretty cool context here, mixing musings on capital punishment/the horror of prison systems in the early 1900s with a handful of stories relating hist...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Simone Scardapane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

L'ho comprato attirato dal bellissimo titolo, e devo dire che non mi ha affatto deluso. Inizia come una storia carceraria, dura e senza lieto fine, ma presto si scopre come il protagonista riesca, autoinducendosi una morte apparente mentre è rinchiuso nella camicia di forza, a rivivere precedenti esistenze. Quindi, si cominciano a snodare sottoracconti in Egitto, nelle regioni Nordiche, nel West... Addirittura fra le stesse stelle, come da titolo. Un libro per tutti i gusti, in cui si mescolano...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Francesca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-modern

Il romanzo si può considerare sviluppato seguendo tre piani diversi interconnessi tra loro: la detenzione del protagonista in carcere, la scoperta di un nuovo senso del concetto di vita/morte e corpo/anima, mini racconti sulle visioni delle vite passate.
Se i primi due punti sono mirabilmente intensi, benché per aspetti diversi (il primo è crudo, realistico; il secondo squisitamente lirico), gli inserti sui ricordi delle vite precedenti, alquanto lunghi, mi hanno affaticato la lettura. Di sicuro...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Christina added it

"ALL my life I have had an awareness of other times and places. I have been aware of other persons in me. Oh, and trust me, so have you, my reader that is to be. Read back into your childhood, and this sense of awareness I speak of will be remembered as an experience of your childhood. You were then not fixed, not crystallized. You were plastic, a soul in flux, a consciousness and an identity in the process of forming? ay, of forming and forgetting."

This must be one of my all time favorites. Thi...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Sam Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Star Rover is one of my most favorite books. An agriculture professor, who had visions from his previous lives, kills his colleague and after a whole chain of event finds himself on death row. He learns a technique from another inmate how to subdue his suffering during a torture by strait jacket, which he modifies and becomes able to leave his body. At first, he travels among stars, but then he begins waking up in his previous lives and discovers a violent end of each of them, gradually iden...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Clare rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

In this book the main character is an inmate on death row. The torture he endures in the prison allows him to remember his past lives, of which we learn of a few of them in detail. He conjectures that each of these past lives had added something to the person he was in the present time and that each man is all men as each woman is all women. These concepts are something to think about whether it is your belief or not. All I kept thinking while reading the tales of his past lives was that no matt...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Van_weyden rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Das Buch ist im Ganzen unglaublich und besitzt eine sehr starke Ausdruckskraft.
Auch wenn ich bei fast jeder neuen Geschichte, die Darrell Standing über eines seiner vielen gewesenen Ichs erzählt, anfangs nicht die geringste Lust hatte, mir wieder ganz neue Namen zu merken und mich schon wieder auf eine komplett neue Situation einzustellen, hat es sich jedes einzelne Mal gelohnt, dass ich es doch tat.
Die Erzählung über Pontius Pilatus und den nordischen Soldaten war Erfurcht erbietend und hat mir...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Yodhey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was a good experience reading this book....so much similarity to what the verse of holy Geeta says...Nainam Chindanti Shastraani, Nainam dahati paavakaha.....
The soul is something that every religion has believed in....
The incidents of Darrel Standings' past incarnation experiences have been carefully chosen by the author from almost each era of the history of mankind....thats something really entertaining..and finally the confession (I call it confession)....that it is all about THE Woman......more

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Jun 05, 2012 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

Jack London's output never ceases to surprise me with its diversity. There's a lot more to him than stories about dogs and the Arctic. For example, the sailing adventure cum debate about evil, The Sea Wolf, autobiographically inspired story of a self-educated writer, Martin Eden, pro-Communist revolutionary tale, The Iron Heel, tongue-in-cheek philosophical action adventure,The Assassination Bureau, Ltd., and various science fiction shorts (many of them also pro-Communist) including ones with pr...more Jack London's output never ceases to surprise me with its diversity. There's a lot more to him than stories about dogs and the Arctic. For example, the sailing adventure cum debate about evil, The Sea Wolf, autobiographically inspired story of a self-educated writer, Martin Eden, pro-Communist revolutionary tale, The Iron Heel, tongue-in-cheek philosophical action adventure,The Assassination Bureau, Ltd., and various science fiction shorts (many of them also pro-Communist) including ones with pre-historic settings. This book takes us into another area again; specific and direct social protest, specifically regarding the California penal system circa 1910. It also covers quite a bit of ground overlapping with the works mentioned above, including two sea-tales and a story set in pre-history. Historical fiction can be added to the list and even a Wild West story. Which might seem a little odd, considering this is ostensibly a novel.

In fact it is a collection of short stories linked by being found in the memoirs of a Folsom Death Row inmate. Said inmate, who openly admits to being guilty of murder, rapidly gains our sympathy when he describes his experiences in a California prison where he is beaten, abused, threatened and tortured. The torture comes primarily in the form of solitary confinement whilst strait-jacketed for days at a stretch. This jacketing is not to prevent self-harm; the protagonist is not an inmate of a secure psychiatric facility; he is simply being punished for perceived willful refusal to co-operate with the prison authorities. I have no idea how accurate a depiction of the California prisons of the time this is, but it reminds me very strongly of Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol in both intent and power to move. It also provides cogent arguments against capital punishment, including the fact that it is institutionalised revenge that makes all tax payers of the State involved no better than the murderers usually subject to it. Reducing the entire populace to the level of its worst criminals seems to me a peculiar form of justice. I'm a victim of it; when I lived in Illinois, the USA Federal moratorium on executions ended. I paid, in part, to kill a man for crimes I know nothing of. Of course, that is nothing compared to my forced complicity in the various resource wars of recent years...

But back to the book. The fact is that the material warrants only a short story, not a full length novel, but a full length novel is what we have. The bulk is made up of the experiences the protagonist has whilst strait-jacketed. He puts himself into a trance during these days-at-a-stretch sessions in the jacket and relives previous lives. London seems to have taken everything he has ever read or heard about mystical trances, sensory deprivation and hypnotic regression and mixed it all up for these passages about how the protagonist resists the prison governor and escapes his abusers whilst squeezed more than half to death in a basement solitary cell where he was kept for a period of years. And this is how we come to get such a varied collection of settings and stories within a novel that has almost no plot of its own.

The prison material is powerful but limited and repetitive, which eventually weakens it. The various past-life-retold adventures are almost as varied in interest as the they are in setting. Personal taste will no doubt vary, but my favourite was the desert island survival story. London was the Grand Master of survival stories and knew the oceans from direct experience. The Roman perspective on the Christ story was primarily interesting for its take on Pontius Pilate's character and motivations. The historical Korean story vies with the pre-historic story as my least favourite. (See how crazily diverse they are?)

Despite the clever and powerful framing, this book really feels too episodic for its own good. I found it very easy to put down and I read a handful of other novels in the time I was also reading this. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile and I recommend it to anyone who ever liked anything else by Jack London. His capacity to mix philosophical and moral musings with adventure stories was his great strength and it is on show once again here.(less)

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Nov 19, 2010 Lena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 18, 2012 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-book-from-amazon, favorites, from-timberland-regional-library

Jack London is as good after all these years as he was when I first read his incredible trips back in time as an imaginary prisoner surviving multiple times in a straight jacket.
He traveled through past lives via what his character called the little death. Ranging all over past time and space he gives us glimpses of ancient and more recent history. We also get a view of how rough prison used to be.

I reccommend this book very highly.

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Apr 06, 2010 N rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fascinating! Fantastic idea, interesting plot, amazing descriptions of major character’s adventures, affectionate relationships with women. Iron will, triumph of spirit over the body – that’s a propaganda.
“I’ve got so much life within you’ll never be able to exhaust it” – I think it should be the credo of every human being.

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Oct 04, 2012 Francesco Camagna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzo

Racconto onirico di un carcerato condannato a morte che sogna la sua vita in epoche diverse per non pensare alle torture giornaliere che gli danno... Racconto breve ma davvero affascinante, che fa comprendere l'importanza della libertà, e che anche se essa manca in realtà si ha lo stesso...

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Jan 24, 2009 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

This Jack London book introduced me to the world of science fiction adventure after reading his adventure stories of the sea and Alaska. The story of a prisoner who is able to project himself to other places and times to avoid the harsh pain that he endures in prision. Still a favorite.

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Aug 19, 2012 Harold rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is indeed a most beautifully written and thought out book. The book is at once fast-paced, yet a deep study of human psychology. To top it off, London carries us far afield to worlds of fantasy. The novel was ground-breaking in its day, and still remains fresh.

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Nov 25, 2009 Clifford rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jack London knew how to tell a story. The characters are fine tuned and their expressions show just what's on their minds. In Star Rover Jack expresses his thinking on the subject of reincarnation. On reading this book, I couldn't help but think about L Ron Hubbard and all his beliefs on the subject of the spirit outside the body.

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May 01, 2012 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Очень сильная вещь. Все произведения Д. Лондона про сильных личностей, но эта книга про очень сильного человека. Читайте все произведения Д. Лондона таких сейчас книг не пишут уже.

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Sep 30, 2009 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: magic-realism-fantasy

Impressive. Moving. There is no telling what Jack London could have accomplished had his life not been cut short at the age of 40...

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Mar 05, 2009 Christan rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite books of all time. Oh the power of the human spirit! I can't recommend this forgotten gem highly enough.

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Nov 18, 2010 monica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Non mi sarei immaginata mai una storia del genere. Pensavo di trovarci le pene di un ergastolano, rinchiuso nelle quattro mura di una cella di isolamento.
Ho trovato invece, oltre a questo, un viaggio nel tempo, racconti di vite e storie emozionanti, che mi hanno commossa e fatto arrabbiare. Storie di duellanti, naufraghi, di re diventati mendicanti, di bambini nel lontano Far West fucilati crudelmente, perfino romani ai tempi di Gesù.
Ogni personaggio con al fianco una donna, forte e innamorata,...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Mohammed rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, science-fiction, general-fiction, favorite-books

This book was complex and metaphysical in its nature. I liked how he used those themes so well in the story.

Also the book was two stories in one. The passionate views on prison reform was very interesting. Horrific prison system in those days. That side of the story was very brutal.

"The Star Rovings" was written so beautifully. His constantly changing writing styles are something to behold. Not to mention his vivid,energy filled storytelling,strong characters.

Few writers i have been in awe of...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Darryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I read this a couple of times when I was 13 or 14. It had a profound impact on me.

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Sep 10, 2012 Ernesto Ortiz-ariza rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book very different from the Jack London I have read previously.

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About Jack London

Jack London was an American novelist and short-story writer whose works deal romantically with elemental struggles for survival. At his peak, he was the highest paid and the most popular of all living writers. Because of early financial difficulties, he was largely self educated past grammar school.

London draws heavily on his life experiences in his writing. He spent time in the Klondike during th...more

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The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Other Stories (World's Classics)

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“Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel. ” — 72 people liked it

“To be able to forget means sanity.” — 66 people liked it

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