The sea wolf

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The Sea-Wolf , first edition

The Sea Wolf ( English original title The Sea-Wolf ) is a novel first published in 1904 by the American writer Jack London (1876-1916). The book immediately became a bestseller.

content

The sea wolf tells the story of the esthete Humphrey van Weyden, who went overboard in a shipwreck on the way from Sausalito to San Francisco and was rescued by the seal schooner "Ghost". Wolf Larsen, the captain, a man of great physical strength and brutality, terrorizes the crew. At the same time, he is also highly intelligent and has created his own philosophy based on social Darwinian principles. For him people are “pieces of a fermentation” of no value, whose struggle for survival he likes to watch; The pursuit of immortality is sentimental nonsense, altruism a stupidity that only someone who, like van Weyden, was born into prosperity can afford.

Wolf Larsen plays with van Weyden by humiliating him, letting him work as a kitchen boy and later making him a helmsman without his knowledge of seafaring. Van Weyden learns to assert himself in this world and, as Larsen states, "to finally stand on his own two feet."

Over time, van Weyden managed to rise in the reputation of the team and the captain. In the latter he finds a profound interlocutor, and even if he never completely sheds his suspicions about Larsen, something like a relationship of trust develops between the two men. Their relationship is put to the test when the "Ghost" saves the shipwrecked Maud Brewster. Like van Weyden, Larsen is now holding her, a humanistically educated author, on board against her will.

Van Weyden finally falls in love with Maud Brewster, and when Wolf Larsen sexually harasses her one night, he stabs the captain with a knife. The two manage to escape in a lifeboat, and after wandering for weeks they end up on an uninhabited island. Weeks later, the "Ghost" also runs up on the island. There is only one crew member on board: Wolf Larsen. His crew was lured away from him by his rival brother Tod Larsen - also a seal hunter - and he was left alone on his no longer seaworthy ship.

Larsen is now blind, probably due to a brain tumor . It is no longer a real threat. Van Weyden and Maud Brewster decide to repair the ship, but Larsen, who wants to die on the island, sabotages all repairs. After an attempt to murder van Weyden, he remains paralyzed on the right side. Van Weyden and Maud Brewster take care of him even when he tries to set the ship on fire. His condition worsens more and more, he loses mobility on the left side. During this time there are repeated discussions about the physical strength and the value of the soul. The last conversation between the two men also revolves around this topic. Again van Weyden asks Larsen for his opinion on immortality. Wolf Larsen, who can hardly speak anymore after another stroke, formulates his answer with the last of his strength "Nonsense."

Van Weyden succeeds in making the "Ghost" seaworthy and they leave the island. Wolf Larsen dies during a severe storm. Van Weyden hands it over to the sea and continues the journey. The moment a steamer finds Van Weyden and Maud Brewster and their adventure is over happily, they confess their love and kiss for the first time.

background

In a letter dated November 5, 1915 to the writer Mary Hunter Austin , London wrote:

“Long years ago, at the very beginning of my writing career, I attacked Nietzsche and his super-man idea. This was in The Sea Wolf . Lots of people read The Sea Wolf , no one discovered that it was an attack upon the super-man philosophy ”

“ Many years ago, at the very beginning of my writing career, I attacked Nietzsche and his idea of ​​the superman. That was in the sea ​​wolf . Many people have read the sea ​​wolf , but none have discovered that it was an attack on the superman philosophy. "

According to this, Wolf Larsen would be an embodiment of the Nietzsche superman , whom London portrays in the course of the story as impressive, but above all as mean, only to dismantle him in the end.

role models

The model for the character of Wolf Larsen was the American captain Alexander McLean, whom Jack London met in the pub Heinold's First and Last Chance in Oakland .

Film adaptations

The novel has been filmed several times since 1920, but with different focuses in the film plot.

Stage version

The Bielefeld Theater showed the first stage version in April 2016.

media

Literature (selection)

The novel has been published by various publishers.

Secondary literature

  • Oliver Kellner, Ulf Marek: "Sea Wolf & Co. - The great adventure four-parters of the ZDF", Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf (2005) - ISBN 3-89602-632-1

Audio book

Web links

Commons : The Sea-Wolf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: The Sea-Wolf  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jack London, Letter to Mary Austin, November 5, 1915, cited in No Mentor But Myself , Jack London, Dale Walker, Jeanne Reesman, Second Edition 1999, p. 159
  2. ^ Antje Doßmann: Theater Bielefeld succeeds in an exciting adaptation of "Der Seewolf" Neue Westfälische , April 5, 2016