The call of the wild

Jack London (1876-1916)

Approximate level: B2
Length: 32,261 words
Reading time: 2 h 41 min
Chapters: 7
Language: English
On Project Gutenberg since: 2008

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Jack London’s 1903 adventure novel follows Buck, a powerful dog whose comfortable life in California is changed by the Klondike gold rush. The book explores survival, instinct, human cruelty, and the pull of the wild. Its prose is mostly direct, but descriptions of landscapes and work sometimes use long, detailed sentences. You will also meet older or literary words, including terms for cold, wilderness, and dogs, alongside clear narrative language and a few poetic passages.

29,853 downloads on Project Gutenberg

Subjects

Dogs -- Fiction
Adventure stories
Nature stories
Klondike River Valley (Yukon) -- Fiction
Sled dogs -- Fiction
Pet theft -- Fiction
Feral dogs -- Fiction
Animal welfare -- Fiction

Questions about this book

What level of English do I need for this book?

The estimate is B2, based on how common the words are and how long the sentences run. It is an approximation, not a test result. With a translation under every sentence you can start one level earlier than you would with a paper copy.

Is this book really free?

Yes. The text is in the public domain and comes from Project Gutenberg, so it costs nothing. In Lingo7 you open the book and read the first page for free; a subscription unlocks the whole library, the audio and the word practice.

How does reading with a translation work?

Lingo7 shows the original sentence and, right under it, the same sentence in your language. Tap a word to see what it means, hear it, and save it for practice. The translation is made while you read, so it works for any book and for 50 languages.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 h 41 min at a native pace, spread over 7 chapters. In a foreign language plan for more: half an hour a day finishes a book of this size in a few weeks.