When the World Was Young

by Jack London

Short story.

Genres: Short Stories

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".

Reviews

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to on Classic Tales podcast. "He was a very quiet, self-possessed sort of man, sitting a moment on top of the wall to sound the damp darkness for warnings of the dangers it might conceal. But the plummet of his hearing brought nothing to him save the moaning of wind through invisible trees and the rustling of leaves on swaying branches. A heavy fog drifted and drove before the wind, and though he could not see this fog, the wet of it blew upon his face, and the wall on which he sat was wet."

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack London is a masterful storyteller. In this short story he tells the suspenseful story of a modern man who also houses in his body the mind and the strength of a neanderthal man who rules him by night.

[Cynthia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

to me so very different coming from him. Loved this, for a much needed change

[Misheel Munkhtsetseg · Rating 5 out of 5]

classic instance for Dissociative Identity Disorder