The Game

by Jack London

Category: Fiction

Status: Available

Source: Public Domain — Project Gutenberg

About This Book

"The Game" by Jack London is a novel published in 1905 about a young boxer navigating love and ambition. Joe Fleming is a twenty-year-old sailmaker who supplements his income through prize-fighting. On the eve of his wedding to Genevieve, he agrees to one final fight before leaving the ring forever. His reluctant fiancée watches from the sidelines, witnessing a night that will change everything. Based on London's experience as a sports reporter, this story explores the brutal reality of boxing. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

About the Author

American · 1876–1916

He wrote The Call of the Wild and other tales of survival. His stories deal with the power of nature and the will to live.

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Preview

Transcribed from the 1913 William Heinemann edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

THE GAME

CHAPTER I

Many patterns of carpet lay rolled out before them on the floor--two of Brussels showed the beginning of their quest, and its ending in that direction; while a score of ingrains lured their eyes and prolonged the debate between desire pocket-book. The head of the department did them the honor of waiting upon them himself--or did Joe the honor, as she well knew, for she had noted the open-mouthed awe of the elevator boy who brought them up. Nor had she been blind to the marked respect shown Joe by the urchins and groups of young fellows on corners, when she walked with him in their own neighborhood down at the west end of the town.

But the hea

... (scroll to read more)

About This Edition

This edition of The Game by Jack London is catalogued on Libreya under Fiction and runs approximately 15,266 words — about 76 minutes of reading at an average pace. It is sourced from Project Gutenberg, the world's oldest digital library of public domain literature, founded in 1971 by Michael Hart, and every text on Libreya has been verified to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. You can view the original Project Gutenberg edition here.

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About Classic Fiction

Classic fiction represents the highest achievements of literary imagination. The novels in this genre have shaped how generations of readers understand human nature, society, and the fundamental questions of existence. Reading 19th and early 20th-century novels offers far more than historical interest: these stories explore love, ambition, morality, and identity with an insight that remains startlingly relevant today. Authors like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Austen, Hardy, and Dickens wrote for readers much like us — people trying to make sense of a complicated world — and their observations on class, relationships, power, and conscience carry across centuries with barely diminished force. Classic fiction is also where the novel as an art form reached some of its greatest heights: innovative narrative structures, deeply realized characters, and prose styles that reward slow, attentive reading. These are not museum pieces. They are living works that continue to be discussed, adapted, and argued over because they capture something essential and enduring about human experience.