Background
London drew on his own experience of self-education while criticizing individualist myths and literary culture. The novel asks what success means when the values that motivated it no longer seem convincing.
Reading notes
- Track Martin’s reading and writing as forms of labor.
- Compare the person Martin is with the public image others create.
- Watch how his opinions change as his social position changes.
Version note
Prepared from the English text supplied in the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press bilingual anthology. The site owner confirmed publication permission for this source edition on 21 October 2026. Publisher and edition details remain recorded in the rights audit.