Martin Eden is a 1909 novel by American author Jack London about a young proletarian autodidact struggling to become a writer. It was first serialized in The Pacific Monthly magazine from September 1908 to September 1909 and published in book form by Macmillan in September 1909. Eden represents writers' frustration with publishers by speculating that when he mails off a manuscript, a "cunning arrangement of cogs" immediately puts it in a new envelope and returns it automatically with a rejection slip.[citation needed] The ...
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Martin Eden is a 1909 novel by American author Jack London about a young proletarian autodidact struggling to become a writer. It was first serialized in The Pacific Monthly magazine from September 1908 to September 1909 and published in book form by Macmillan in September 1909. Eden represents writers' frustration with publishers by speculating that when he mails off a manuscript, a "cunning arrangement of cogs" immediately puts it in a new envelope and returns it automatically with a rejection slip.[citation needed] The central theme of Eden's developing artistic sensibilities places the novel in the tradition of the K�nstlerroman, in which is narrated the formation and development of an artist. Eden differs from London in that Eden rejects socialism, attacking it as "slave morality" and relies on a Nietzschean individualism. Nevertheless, in the copy of the novel which he inscribed for Upton Sinclair, London wrote, "One of my motifs, in this book, was an attack on individualism (in the person of the hero). I must have bungled it, for not a single reviewer has discovered it."
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Among my friend it's very common to listen Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall" after reading Martin Eden. The book is very succesful for drawing a concrete portrait of a highly-bourgeoisly-educated person as Ruth Morse, whom Martin felt in love with. On the other hand there is Martin Eden, a sailor who educates himself especially in and soon becomes an author. The main theme is the struggle of initially uneducated sailor Martin's efforts to be with Ruth, member of a bourgeois family. By the time he self-teaches and develops a world view combining Nietzsche-oriented individualism and social darwinism. There are interesting dialogues in the book that clearly indicates the limits of Ruth's thinking, based on modern and blindly bourgeois education. Whereas, Martin can simply criticize anything. The book ends tragically. However, it is a great book to read hence see the potential of human ability.