Martin Eden
by Jack London
Martin Eden, Jack London's semi-autobiographical novel about a struggling young writer, is considered by many to be the author's most mature work. Personifying his own educational dreams and literary fame in his youth in San Francisco, London, Martin Eden's neutral but ultimately ineffective struggle to overcome his gloomy circumstances makes him one of the most memorable and poignant characters ever created by Jack London. As Paul Berman notes in Introduction, "Martin [London] created one of the greatest twisted heroes of American literature ... He is a hero who has been condemned from the very beginning, because his own passions are greater and more complex than any human being can endure."
