Klondike Tales

Jack London’s Klondike tales is a wonderful, vivid collection of the harsh life of the Klondike during the gold rush. Never have I felt in such danger of starving or freezing to death while reading.  The Klondike was a brutal place populated by Indians and hard white men and women seeking their fortunes, or escaping their lives. The Great Cold, the Great Silence, the Fear of the North it doesn’t sound pleasant. People would travel hundreds of miles over the snow with their dogs.  When the food ran out first they would eat the dogs that were too weak to continue, then boil up parts of their moccasins and skin on the inside of their fur coats and eventually collapse into the snow from weakness and freeze to death. London joined the Klondike Gold Rush for a summer in 1897, which provided the inspiration for his stories. Though knowing some of his background I would guess most are actually someone else’s stories. Definitely worth reading even if you don’t enjoy every story. Going through just a few tales will make you glad of your hot supper and warm bed every night.