Published in 1904, and drawing on London`s own experience on board a sealing ship, The Sea-Wolf describes the struggle between the civilized and the pagan, between the values of the ruthless sea-captain, Wolf Larsen, and the moral, literary Humphrey Van Weyden.
One of his most popular novels, it also reveals London`s preoccupation with the Nietzschean idea of the superman, and his interest in the brute underlying social behaviour.