There is a patience of the wild-- dogged, tireless, persistent as life itself-- that holds motionless for endless hours the spider in its web, the snake in its coils, the panther in its ambuscade; this patience belongs peculiarly to life when it hunts its living food; and it belonged to Buck as he clung to the flank of the herd . . . Stolen from his home in Santa Clara Valley, California, Buck-- a powerful St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd who is the pampered pet of Judge Miller-- is kidnapped, sold, and shipped to Canada where he is trained as a sled dog. Ill-treated and subjected to extreme conditions under various cruel masters, Buck struggles and turns into a wild beast. Will Buck survive the harsh conditions and answer the call of the wild? Set against the backdrop of the Klondike Gold Rush, Jack London's The Call of the Wild is a classic work of animal fiction. An example of American pastoralism, the book was an immediate success after its first publication. One of his most well-received works, it has never gone out of print.