The Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤 英文版原著

　　一部表现野性与人性之间角斗的动物小说
　　再现弱肉強食、適者生存的丛林法则
　　入选美国兰登书屋推荐的“20世纪百部杰出英文小说”

　　《野性的呼唤》，又名《荒野的呼唤》是作家杰克?伦敦于1903年发表的著名小说。故事叙述一名叫巴克的狗历经磨难，最终回到了自然的野生环境。小说十分畅销，后被多次改编成电影。整个故事以阿拉斯加淘金热为背景，讲述了在北方险恶的环境下，巴克为了生存，如何从一条驯化的南方狗发展到似狗非狗、似狼非狼的野蛮状态的过程。巴克是一条硕大无比的杂交狗，它被人从南方主人家偷出来并卖掉，几经周折后开始踏上淘金的道路，成为一条拉雪橇的苦役犬。在残酷的驯服过程中，它意识到了公正与自然的法则；恶劣的生存环境让它懂得了狡猾与欺诈，后来它自己将狡猾与欺诈发挥到了让人望尘莫及的地步。经过残酷的、你死我活的斗争，它最后终于确立了领头狗的地位。虽然巴克只是一条狗，但是它艰苦卓绝的生存道路，反映了作家所生活的时代中的个人奋斗的真谛。这也是当时处于尔虞我诈的资本主义发展时期的美国社会所盛行的自然主义思潮的一种反映。它反映了达尔文的自然环境下“适者生存”的自然选择思想以及斯宾塞的社会进化论中的社会选择观。

　　杰克·伦敦（Jack London），美国20世纪著名现实主义作家。他出身于美国旧金山的一个破产农民家庭。从1900年起，他连续发表和出版了许多小说，讲述美国下层人民的生活故事，揭露资本主义社会的罪恶。他的作品大都带有浓厚的社会主义和个人主义色彩，因此有人认为他是宣扬社会主义的作家，也有人认为他是表现个人主义和民众哲学的自然主义作家。他的作品在全世界都广为流传，是最受中国读者欢迎的外国作家之一。他一生著述颇丰，留下了19部长篇小说、150多篇短篇小说以及大量文学报告集、散文集和论文，最著名的有《马丁?伊登》、《野性的呼唤》、《白牙》、《热爱生命》、《海狼》、《铁蹄》等小说。他是世界文学*早的商业作家之一，因此被誉为商业作家的先锋。

Chapter I Into the Primitive
Chapter II The Law of Club and Fang
Chapter III The Dominant Primordial Beast
Chapter IV Who Has Won to Mastership
Chapter V The Toil of Trace and Trail
Chapter V! For the Love of a Man
Chapter VII The Sounding of the Call

　　Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.
　　Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller’s place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide, cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by gravelled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even a more spacious scale than at the front. There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants’ cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller’s boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.

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