“He is four years younger than you,” she said. “He has no place in the world. He has neither position nor salary. He is impractical. Loving you, he should, in the name of common sense, be doing something that would give him the right to marry, instead of paltering around with those stories of his and with childish dreams. Martin Eden, I am afraid, will never grow up…. Martin Eden, I am afraid, will never be a money-earner. And this world is so ordered that money is necessary to happiness…”
This is an excerpt from the book where the mother of Martin Eden’s fiance is trying to convince her that he is not the man of her future.
Set in San Fransisco, a poor seaman chases dreams of education, literary fame, and most important of all… love. The book is an attack on the individualistic mentality and hits on the futility of ambitions and ultimately their lack of fulfillment in life.
“… their narrow little lives by narrow little formulas- herd creatures, flocking together and patterning their lives by one another’s opinions, failing of being individuals and of really living life because of the childlike formulas by which they were enslaved.”
Considered to be semi-autobiographical, Jack London pours his life, hardships, success, and beliefs into Martin Eden. Whether London intended it this way or not, the story speaks to me about the necessity of a life grounded in something more than what this world can offer. All the things we strive for, all the things we accomplish, all the things we love eventually lets us down or disappointment. When facing these life reality checks, Martin Eden, empty, withered, and broken, crawls back into the oceans womb from wince he came.
Having been familiar with Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang (as every young boy should be) I was surprised at having never heard of this book. I am extremely thankful the novel was recommended to me because the story has instantly become one of my all time favorites. In that vein I highly recommend it to you.
