The People of the Abyss

The People of the Abyss

Jack London

5.0
Comment(s)
8
View
29
Chapters

The experiences related in this volume fell to me in the summer of 1902. I went down into the under-world of London with an attitude of mind which I may best liken to that of the explorer. I was open to be convinced by the evidence of my eyes, rather than by the teachings of those who had not seen, or by the words of those who had seen and gone before. Further, I took with me certain simple criteria with which to measure the life of the under-world. That which made for more life, for physical and spiritual health, was good; that which made for less life, which hurt, and dwarfed, and distorted life, was bad.

The People of the Abyss The People of the Abyss

The chief priests and rulers cry:-

"O Lord and Master, not ours the guilt,

We build but as our fathers built;

Behold thine images how they stand

Sovereign and sole through all our land.

"Our task is hard - with sword and flame,

To hold thine earth forever the same,

And with sharp crooks of steel to keep,

Still as thou leftest them, thy sheep."

Then Christ sought out an artisan,

A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,

And a motherless girl whose fingers thin

Crushed from her faintly want and sin.

These set he in the midst of them,

And as they drew back their garment hem

For fear of defilement, "Lo, here," said he,

"The images ye have made of me."

James Russell Lowell.

Continue Reading

Other books by Jack London

More

You'll also like

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Dorine Koestler
4.2

I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
The People of the Abyss The People of the Abyss Jack London Literature
“The experiences related in this volume fell to me in the summer of 1902. I went down into the under-world of London with an attitude of mind which I may best liken to that of the explorer. I was open to be convinced by the evidence of my eyes, rather than by the teachings of those who had not seen, or by the words of those who had seen and gone before. Further, I took with me certain simple criteria with which to measure the life of the under-world. That which made for more life, for physical and spiritual health, was good; that which made for less life, which hurt, and dwarfed, and distorted life, was bad.”
1

The People of the Abyss

19/11/2017

2

Preface

19/11/2017

3

Chapter 1 The Descent

19/11/2017

4

Chapter 2 Johnny Upright

19/11/2017

5

Chapter 3 My Lodging and Some Others

19/11/2017

6

Chapter 4 A Man and the Abyss

19/11/2017

7

Chapter 5 Those on the Edge

19/11/2017

8

Chapter 6 Frying-Pan Alley and a Glimpse of Inferno

19/11/2017

9

Chapter 7 A Winner of the Victoria Cross

19/11/2017

10

Chapter 8 The Carter and the Carpenter

19/11/2017

11

Chapter 9 The Spike

19/11/2017

12

Chapter 10 Carrying the Banner

19/11/2017

13

Chapter 11 The Peg

19/11/2017

14

Chapter 12 Coronation Day

19/11/2017

15

Chapter 13 Dan Cullen, Docker

19/11/2017

16

Chapter 14 Hops and Hoppers

19/11/2017

17

Chapter 15 The Sea Wife

19/11/2017

18

Chapter 16 Property Versus Person

19/11/2017

19

Chapter 17 Inefficiency

19/11/2017

20

Chapter 18 Wages

19/11/2017

21

Chapter 19 The Ghetto

19/11/2017

22

Chapter 20 Coffee-Houses and Doss-Houses

19/11/2017

23

Chapter 21 The Precariousness of Life

19/11/2017

24

Chapter 22 Suicide

19/11/2017

25

Chapter 23 The Children

19/11/2017

26

Chapter 24 A Vision of the Night

19/11/2017

27

Chapter 25 The Hunger Wail

19/11/2017

28

Chapter 26 Drink, Temperance, and Thrift

19/11/2017

29

Chapter 27 The Management

19/11/2017