The book "Moon Valley" by Jack London represents the late work of the writer. When he, already caressed by recognition and greatly disappointed in the ideas that he pursued in his youth, decided to write about what he had wanted since the time of the "Game". At the same time, he remains the same London: a realist, a romantic and a socialist idealist in one bottle. We will analyze what came out of this mixture and whether it is worth undertaking its later works at all.
Key actors
The protagonist of the novel “Moon Valley” is surprisingly similar to the once-created boxer Joe from the already mentioned “Game”. However, if the reader is faced with this story, which is worthy of representing even early London, perhaps he remembers that the creator mercilessly kills his character in the ring right in front of his beloved girl, who, in theory, should marry immediately after the fight. This is the whole early author, he is categorically straightforward and, of course, a fighter in every act and thought.
Apparently, this boxer Joe was sweetly resurrected in the novel “Moon Valley”. And obviously, with the goal of continuing its existence, as if fate had nevertheless provided him with a chance to find a family, settle down, give birth to children and achieve the all-American dream of prosperity, live happily ever after and die on the same day with his beloved.
Accordingly, there is his other half, which was much luckier than the heroine of the "Game". In general, the writer takes this couple away from the working outskirts, so that, as expected, in his characteristic style, he begins to test their vicissitudes of the fate of living together in the hostile conditions of bourgeois America.
Late london
And here the tricks of the new, late London begin. The protagonist somehow too quickly ceases to fight for a just cause, his youthful maximalism suddenly all disappears somewhere. A month of prison for him and the ordeals of lack of money is enough for her so that the persistent character suddenly turns into a dud. He no longer wants to struggle, but give calm home happiness somewhere far away from the bustle of the city. So the reader gets an interesting epic of road adventures of a couple of wanderers, united by a common desire to find the promised land.
Jack London is a great storyteller. The novel "Moon Valley" turned out to be extremely interesting in terms of describing the life of agricultural America. His personal family idyll clearly migrated to the pages of this undoubtedly talented work. But the feeling that London is not the same is clearly pursuing, disappointing the reader so accustomed to it. He completely forgot his idealistic calls for a struggle for a socialist society. Now his goal is a strong farm, in which everything is correctly arranged.
By the way, “Moon Valley” is a novel written in 1913, when the author already had a difficult experience managing his own household, and he had to cover the debts from his management while doing writing work. However, this idea of ​​a modern economy, reasonable and incredibly profitable, clearly prevails in the work.
Socialist background
An inveterate socialist, of course, also has it here. But the manifestations of these ideas are already completely different, in many respects different from early London. Critics often combine the novel "Moon Valley" with his other famous work - "The Iron Heel", which is a vivid example of dystopia. But there is a fundamental difference between these novels. If in the second the heroes continue the struggle for a glorious socialist future, then in the first they don’t think about it, they simply very easily and harmoniously live with the idea of ​​communism in family relations.
Indeed, the idyll here is just classic. Their family is a miniature communist paradise. Then a man pays his woman for services, and she gives him her property for rent, they agree in the common opinion that common property is the limit of perfection. So London wrote a beautiful fairy tale, which I want to believe in, but that's just not very successful.
Conclusion
In the Soviet Union, the most printed was, as you know, Hans Christian Andersen. And in second place on this list, oddly enough, Jack London. "Moon Valley" is a vivid example of the work of this remarkable writer in the late period. He was loved by the whole Union for sincerity and naive directness. Reading it is a pleasure, and this book is clearly no exception.