Work record

Martin Eden

Name: Martin Eden
Author: Jack London

Jack London

1909 · Early 20th Century · Novel · English

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Abstract

Written: 1907-1908
Setting: Early 1900s; Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area
Author: Jack London
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Autobiographical novel
Form: Novel in 46 chapters
Recommended: Grades 11–12 (Ends in suicide; mature themes; upper high school.)

Hero. A young merchant seaman with little schooling is invited to a cultivated family's home in Oakland and falls in love with the daughter, a university student.

Effort. To deserve her he reads day and night, masters grammar, devours philosophy and vows to earn a living by his pen.

Struggle. Poverty and constant rejection follow. His sweetheart urges him to take a steady office job, and her family distrusts his ideas.

Losses. After a newspaper wrongly labels him a socialist, the engagement ends. His mentor, a gifted consumptive poet, takes his own life.

Fame. Abruptly the magazines buy everything he wrote. Society flatters him and the girl comes back, but he answers that nothing in him has changed since they spurned him.

End. Weary and empty, he sails for the Pacific islands and lets himself sink beneath the sea. London's semi-autobiographical novel questions whether self-made success can satisfy the soul. London said he meant the book as an attack on individualism, though many readers have taken it as an inspiring tale of self-education. Mature students can debate both readings and consider what Martin lacked: friendship, faith, or a purpose beyond himself.

Main characters

Martin Eden: A sailor who becomes a writer.
Ruth Morse: A refined young woman of a wealthy family.
Russ Brissenden: A dying poet and socialist.
Gertrude Higginbotham: A hard-working, kind woman.
Bernard Higginbotham: A mean-spirited shopkeeper.
Maria Silva: A poor Portuguese widow who helps Martin.

Summary

Martin Eden, published in 1909, is Jack London's most autobiographical novel, the story of a working-class sailor who teaches himself to become a writer and finds that success brings him no happiness. Martin, a rough young seaman in Oakland, rescues a young man from a fight and is invited to the home of the wealthy, cultured Morse family. There he falls in love with Ruth Morse, a pale, refined university student, who seems to him the embodiment of beauty and culture. To win her, Martin sets out to educate himself. He reads voraciously in libraries, studies grammar, and discovers the philosophy of Herbert Spencer. He decides to become a writer and works with fierce energy, sleeping only a few hours a night, while living in poverty with his sister's family and later in a rented room, pawning his clothes to buy stamps. Editors reject his stories again and again. Ruth loves him but wants him to take a steady job, perhaps in her father's office. Martin's friend Russ Brissenden, a brilliant, dying poet, takes him to a socialist meeting; when a newspaper falsely reports Martin as a socialist speaker, the Morses break the engagement. Brissenden dies by suicide after his great poem is published and ridiculed. Then, suddenly, Martin's work begins to sell, and he becomes famous and rich. The same people who scorned him now invite him to dinner, and Ruth returns to him. Martin, bitter, insists that his work was already done when they rejected him; it was work performed, and nothing in him has changed. He gives money to those who helped him in poverty, but he feels empty and has lost the will to live. Sailing for the South Seas, he slips through a porthole into the ocean and drowns himself. London intended the novel as an attack on individualism, though many readers took it as a celebration of self-made success. Because of its suicide and bleak ending, it suits mature upper-level readers.

Virtues in this work

Industry: Martin works tirelessly to educate himself.
Fortitude: Martin endures poverty, hunger and repeated rejection while he teaches himself to write.

Plot or Argument

Love and ambition
Martin meets Ruth Morse and resolves to educate himself.
Apprenticeship
He studies, writes and suffers rejection and poverty.
Loss
Ruth breaks the engagement; Brissenden dies.
Success and despair
Martin becomes famous but empty, and drowns himself at sea.

Characters

Martin Eden, protagonist
A sailor who becomes a writer.
Ruth Morse, Martin's beloved
A refined young woman of a wealthy family.
Russ Brissenden, friend
A dying poet and socialist.
Gertrude Higginbotham, Martin's sister
A hard-working, kind woman.
Bernard Higginbotham, brother-in-law
A mean-spirited shopkeeper.
Maria Silva, landlady
A poor Portuguese widow who helps Martin.

Lessons

Self-education
Martin teaches himself through reading and practice. Students can learn from his discipline.
- How does Martin educate himself?
- What does he sacrifice?
- What can we learn from his method?
Related across the library
- Adam of the Road, Lesson: Strangers on the road
  Strangers on the road. A ferryman's family, a merchant, a priest and his sister all take in a boy they do not know. The players he travels with, by contrast, steal. The book teaches young readers to recognize trustworthy people and to see hospitality as a mark of a good life.
- Adam of the Road, Lesson: A calling worth keeping
  A calling worth keeping. Adam is offered safer lives more than once: a clerk's place with Master Walter and schooling at Oxford. He chooses the minstrel's trade because it is the work he loves and the work of his father. The novel shows a boy weighing comfort against vocation and learning what his chosen trade will demand of him.
- History of Animals, Full Text
  it This then is the form of the trachea which only inhales and exhales breath and nothing else either dry or moist or it suffers pain till that which has passed down is coughed up The sophagus is joined to the mouth from above near the trachea being united both to the spine and the trachea by membranaceous ligaments It passes through the diaphragm into the cavity of the stomach is fleshy in its nature and is extensible both in length and breadth The human stomach is like that of a dog not a great deal larger tha...
- The Life of Friedrich Schiller, Lesson: Reading a play through a life
  Reading a play through a life. Carlyle reads The Robbers as 'an emblem' of its author's baffled spirit and Wallenstein as the work of a matured mind. This biographical method is illuminating and risky: it can explain a play by the author's circumstances while overlooking its art. Students can test it on one play summary in the book.
- Lassie Come-Home, Lesson: Generosity that saves face
  Generosity that saves face. At the end the Duke pretends not to recognize his own dog and offers Sam a job, so that the family can keep Lassie without charity or shame. Priscilla's mercy in Scotland and the Duke's tact at home show that the rich can be good neighbors.
Success and meaning
Martin achieves everything he wanted and finds it empty.
- Why does success not satisfy Martin?
- What does he mean by 'work performed'?
- What gives life meaning?
Related across the library
- A Burnt-Out Case, Lesson: Usefulness can precede belief
  Usefulness can precede belief. Querry finds a measure of recovery not through faith or insight but through ordinary work that helps others. The novel suggests that meaning may return through action before it returns as feeling.
- Billy Budd and Other Stories, Lesson: Perception is shaped by prejudice
  Perception is shaped by prejudice. Delano cannot imagine that enslaved Africans could plan and execute a revolt, so he misreads every clue. Benito Cereno shows how ideology blinds well-meaning observers.
- The Articles of Confederation, Lesson: A league of sovereign states
  A league of sovereign states. Article II keeps each state's sovereignty and every power not expressly delegated, and Article III calls the union a league of friendship. The Articles describe something between an alliance and a nation, and that choice shaped every other provision.
- Invisible Man, Lesson: Ideas and the individual
  Ideas and the individual. The Brotherhood offers the narrator a scientific account of history and a public role, but asks him to set aside his own judgement and his neighbours' needs when the line changes. Ellison sets loyalty to a programme against loyalty to particular people.
- Lochner v. New York, Lesson: Evidence and the facts of a trade
  Evidence and the facts of a trade. The opinions disagree about what baking was actually like. Peckham reviewed mortality statistics and found the trade no worse than many; Harlan quoted writers on occupational disease describing night work in overheated rooms. The case shows how factual judgments shape constitutional conclusions.
Class and judgment
People judge Martin by his class and later by his fame.
- How do the Morses treat Martin before and after success?
- Why is Martin bitter?
- How should we judge people?
Related across the library
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris), Lesson: Appearance and worth
  Appearance and worth. The handsome Phoebus is vain and faithless; the monstrous Quasimodo is loyal unto death. Esmeralda loves the captain's looks and fears the bell-ringer's face. The novel sets outward beauty against inward faithfulness without making either simple.
- First Inaugural Address, Lesson: A promise and the policy that followed
  A promise and the policy that followed. Jackson pledges "a just and liberal policy" toward "the Indian tribes within our limits." The phrase "within our limits" already raises the question of State and federal jurisdiction over tribal lands, and the Indian Removal Act followed in 1830. Students should read the sentence on its own terms, then set it beside the later policy.
- The Red and the Black, Lesson: Class
  Class. Julien's trial speech turns his crime into an accusation against the class system.
- Second Inaugural Address, Lesson: When is a war just?
  When is a war just?. Madison's case has three parts: a just origin, a necessary and noble object, and lawful conduct. It tracks the older just-war tradition of cause, intention, and right means without naming it, so students can test a real government's claims against that standard rather than against slogans.
- The Road to Wigan Pier, Lesson: Class prejudice
  Class prejudice. Orwell confesses his own class snobbery as a step toward honesty.

Context

Jack London rose from poverty to fame by self-education and relentless writing, much as Martin does.

Composition

Serialized in the Pacific Monthly in 1908-09 and published by Macmillan in 1909.

Reception

Many readers saw it as an inspiring story of self-made success; London insisted it was a criticism of individualism.

Ambition Class / Society Art / Creation Education Isolation / Alienation

Comparisons

The Call of the Wild
London's best-known novel of struggle and survival.
The Iron Heel
London's socialist novel, published the year before.

Quotes

“And at the instant he knew, he ceased to know.”

— Jack London, Martin Eden, Chapter XLVI (Project Gutenberg #1056).Quote card

The Last Battle, Chapter 14: Night Falls on Narnia
Tirian and the children watch the death of the Narnian world and grieve for it before Peter shuts the door.
The Last Battle, Chapter 16: Farewell to Shadowlands
Aslan reveals that the children and their parents were killed in a railway accident and that they will stay in his country.
Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1
Be absolute for death. Either death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter The opening of the disguised Duke's consolation to Claudio, which reasons that life is not worth clinging to.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Chapter XLIX
I do pray for you, every hour and every minute, Arthur; but you must pray for yourself. Helen's answer to her dying husband's last request, reported in her letter to her brother.
Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, Conclusion
The universally kind feeling expressed for me at a time when it was supposed that each day would prove my last, seemed to me the beginning of the answer to "Let us have peace Grant, writing in his final illness, reads public sympathy from North and South as a sign of reconciliation, echoing his 1868 campaign slogan.

“He was responsive to beauty, and here was cause to respond.”

— Jack London, Martin Eden, Chapter I (Project Gutenberg #1056).Quote card

Selected Sermons, The Red Library
on the bosom of the Son of God SEVEN I WILLS OF CHRIST A man when he says I will may not mean much We very often say I will when we don't mean to fulfil what we say but when we come to the I will of Christ He means to fulfil it Everything He has promised to do He is able and willing to accomplish and He is going to do it I cannot find any passage in Scripture in which He says I will do this or I will do that but it will be done The I Will of Salvation The first I will to which I want to direct your attention is...
The Mayflower Compact, Signers' list
Samuel Fuller, the company's physician and a deacon of the church, appears among the signers.
The Age of Louis XIV, Lesson: The new science and the old faith
The new science and the old faith. The book presents Newton, Leibniz, Boyle and Locke as founders of a new confidence in reason, and Spinoza and Bayle as its boldest critics of revealed religion. Yet Newton, Boyle and Leibniz were themselves devout. Students should notice how the authors' sympathies shape the story and test it against the scientists' own words.
Slaughter-House Cases, Lesson: Reading new amendments by their purpose
Reading new amendments by their purpose. Miller interpreted the Reconstruction amendments through the history that produced them, concluding that their central aim was the freedom and protection of the formerly enslaved. His approach shows how a single dominant purpose can shape, and also limit, the reading of broad constitutional words.
Characters, Charles E. Bennett. William A. Hammond.
sure are portrayed in Homer and in the tragedians but they are incidental to the narrative or to the dramatic plot whereas in Theophrastus the business is with the delineation of a character as such Sidenote The Influence of Theophrastus He tells us what a man does simply as an illustration of what he is and this method of writing had a very intimate bearing on the evolution of the New Comedy under the leadership of Menander There is a tradition in fact that Theophrastus was the teacher of Menander who in turn f...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Martin's first visit to the Morse home.
Martin's study habits and schedule.
The rejections from editors.
Brissenden's influence.
Martin's changed attitude after success.

Key terms and names

Individualism: The belief in the independence and self-reliance of the individual.
Herbert Spencer: An English philosopher of evolution whom Martin admires.
Bourgeois: Middle-class, often used critically.
Self-education: Learning pursued on one's own, through reading and practice, outside school.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why does Martin decide to educate himself?
Comprehension Why does Ruth break off the engagement?
Comprehension How does Martin's life change after success?
Interpretation What does Martin mean by 'work performed'?
Interpretation Why does Martin lose the will to live?
Big Question Can success alone make a person happy?

Faith Connections

Ecclesiastes 1:14 (Scripture)
All is vanity and vexation of spirit; Martin finds success empty.
Matthew 16:26 (Scripture)
What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Achievement pursued for its own sake and for the approval of others leaves a person empty; Martin's despair shows the limits of self-reliance without community or faith.

Rhetorical device: irony. The people who rejected Martin praise the very work they once scorned.

Debate: Resolved: that Martin Eden is a warning against individualism.

Memory Work

And at the instant he knew, he ceased to know.
Chapter XLVI. The novel's haunting final sentence.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How do the Morses' attitudes reveal the class prejudices London criticizes?

Comparison with The Call of the Wild: Compare Martin Eden's ambition with the struggle for survival in The Call of the Wild.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Is Martin Eden a success story or a tragedy?
Dialogue
Write a conversation between Martin and Ruth after his first story is accepted.
Classroom
Create a daily schedule like Martin's for self-education and discuss its costs.