Jack London wrote more than just “The Call of the Wild.” Or his second-most remembered novel, “White Fang.”

He wrote numerous short stories and other novels.

Like “Call,” London’s other stories are adventurous in theme. Many carry the same themes of wildness and civilization.

“The Sea-Wolf” is a lesser-known London novel that has adventure as well as plenty of London’s philosophy on the overcoat of civilization.

A man is saved from drowning in the waters off San Francisco. Young Humphrey is saved by Captain Wolf Larsen and hauled onto a ship called Ghost. Larsen presses Humphrey into service as they sail north for the sealing grounds of Siberia.

As time passes, the cabin boy Humphrey dares challenge Larsen. The captain exemplifies Nietzche’s ubermensch while Humphrey becomes an example of Frederich Nietzche’s quote: “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

Conversations between Humphrey and Larsen express London’s savage views of life and the world, the balance he always seem to seek between the civilized and the barbaric.

It’s not all philosophy though. London brings plenty of adventure and conflict as the two men challenge one another on the frosty boards of the Ghost’s journey into the frozen north.

London drew upon his own adventures sailing as a 17-year-old on a sealing ship. 

“The Sea-Wolf” feels plenty of creak from its era but its ideas and sense of adventure are timeless.