Set in the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, the protagonist of this short adventure novel is Buck, who is part sheepdog, part Saint Bernard. Kidnapped from a ranch in the Santa Clara Valley, Buck is sold to dog traders and sent to Yukon, Canada, to become a sled dog. Buck is taken aback by the harshness of life in the Klondike, which stands in stark contrast to his life in California. He soon begins to embrace that harshness to survive: “the law of club and fang.” When he’s confronted by a pack of wolves, he eventually answers “the call of the wild” and becomes their leader. Written at the turn of the 20th century, the novel reflects the anxieties of the end of a century of rapid industrialization and urbanization; like characters like Rip van Winkle and Huck Finn, Buck represents American pastoralism, in which a hero returns to nature.