Martin Eden
by Jack London · first published 1908
54% recommend46% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Tragic story of a poor, self-taught young man from the slums who tries to become a writer; praised for its character development and recommended especially for readers in their early twenties.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Jack London's Martin Eden was first published in 1909 and is the story of a young writer's quest for celebrity and love. Much loved by writers who identify with Martin's belief that when he posted a manuscript, 'there was no human editor at the other end, but a mere cunning arrangement of cogs that changed the manuscript from one envelope to another and stuck on the stamps,' that automatically returned it slapped with a rejection slip.
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What type of books are you interested in? Since you didn't specify, I am going random: Martin Eden by Jack London, anything BESIDES All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, Neuromancer by Gibson. If you are fishing for me to run out of books that are "better" than TBP, honestly, it would…
on “As Planet Discoveries Pile Up, a Gap Appears in the Pattern” ↗Jack London, "Martin Eden".
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗"Financier" by T.Dreiser and "Martin Eden" by J.London. Some of the best books you'll ever read about character development. Definitely read the latter one if you're in your early 20-ies.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗What can I say, Jack London was my hero and "mentor" for years. Reading "Martin Eden" put me on a right track. After reading "Martin Eden" I wanted to become a writer and self-learned man, so I read books, wrote essays and short-stories. Thanks to that I managed to graduate high school…
on “Short, Frantic, Rags-To-Riches Life of Jack London (2016)” ↗Martin Eden by Jack London. Really stressed why education actually matters. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Same.
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗"White Fang" and "Call of the Wild" are Jack London's best known novels, not his best novels IMHO. I prefer "Martin Eden" and "the Iron Heel", and am a bit mystified as to how his entire literary career has been boiled down to two dog books. "Martin Eden" is about a mixed class relationship, with a wealthier woman becoming…
on “Gold Fever Cold and the True Adventures of Jack London in the Wild” ↗Martin Eden by Jack London
on “Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?” ↗- Hpmor, from Yudkowsky the guy who created the ML Research Institute, simply one of the funniest and smartest book I ever read. - Martin Eden, a great tragic adventure from the late 19th century about a poor smart guy from the slums who tries to make his riches as a writer - The Moon is Harsh Mistress, Elon’s favorite sci-fi books - Foundation…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…making sure no empathy interferes. While I have lived a sort of privileged life, I can at least believe what others are saying if I cannot truly feel it. Even Jack London's ambitious protagonist in Martin Eden notes something of the sort: "I could study day-in, day-out for 17h a day, but after 10h of hard, physical labour, all I want to is to lie down and do nothing" (not an exact quote: I am paraphrasing from…
on “Are Poor People Lazy?” ↗That’s the core of the issue: when you’re so overworked that you (a) don’t have the time to reflect upon it and thus (b) don’t realize that the situation is terrible. It’s a not a new trope, Jack London’s Martin Eden addresses the inability of physical workers to gain culture and reflect on their situation simply through the exhaustion they’re subject to.
on “Load 'em up and throw 'em under the bus” ↗I had a friend over and we talked about the subject. She owns a Penguin stock copy of Martin Eden and upon checking my print-on-demand copy her first reaction was: "Yea, this looks like crap, but above all, the type is making me dizzy". I only mention it in passing the article but I'm regretting…
on “The enshittification of Amazon paperback books” ↗I think it is pretty obvious. While Jack London's martin Eden is out of copyright and public domain now, if they order Penguin edition they still have to pay them some money for it. So Amazon calculated that it is cheaper to print their own. My guess they could…
on “The enshittification of Amazon paperback books” ↗Author here, thanks for the comments. Let me address a few points in turn: > The fact that the quality is merely "subpar" Like I say in a comment somewhere in the thread, a friend who owns a real Martin Eden from Penguin and saw mine said the typesetting was giving her a headache. I'll only know when I read it, but it certainly looks like crap. > The author's problems are coming from digital printing, not…
on “The enshittification of Amazon paperback books” ↗The paper takes three books (Romeo and Juliet, Lilly of the Valley, and Martin Eden) and has readers score four points in them for feeling. Not just any readers mind you! But readers that are "used to reading texts instead of watching movies and YouTube" The resulting values are then…
on “Love might be a second-order phase transition” ↗…these types of books and learned there's a term for them. A bildungsroman about an artist is called a künstlerroman. I went on a künstlerroman kick a while back. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Martin Eden. Roderick Hudson. I'm aware of My Name is Asher Lev and meant to get to that one too. Thanks for the reminder.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗