Captain David Grief, South Pacific tycoon, owns plantations and trading stations from New Guinea to Samoa, pearling fisheries in the Paumotus, and rubber acreages in the Louisiades. His own vessels recruit contract labor, and he operates three steamers on ocean runs. He came to the South Seas at the age of twenty and, blessed with a blond skin impervious to tropical rays, browned over two decades into a true “son of the sun.” At forty years of age, he looks no more than thirty. His manifold enterprises flourish. His is the golden touch. Yet he plays the South Seas game not for the gold but for the game’s sake and for the daring life of the island rover.
Told in Jack London’s graphic and colorful style, David Grief’s adventures are related through these eight long tales of danger and daring:
“The Son of the Sun”
“The Proud Goat of Aloysius Pankburn”
“The Devils of Fuatino”
“The Jokers of New Gibbon”
“A Little Account with Swithin Hall”
“A Goboto Night”
“The Feathers of the Sun”
“The Pearls of Parlay”
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“They don’t write ’em like this anymore…[London’s] considerable storytelling skills engage listeners who might not otherwise be drawn to this subject. Brian Emerson contributes a well-paced reading and an authentic range of voices. His David Grief is just right: self-assured and always in control.”
— AudioFile
“There are many colorful characters and some clever plots.”
— Library Journal“Brian Emerson has a fine reading voice.”
— Library Journal" I was sitting by the Caribbean sea in some wicked nice Lagoons while I read this, and the book is written about a sailor sailing mostly in those waters, so I was torn away from reality into a simlliar reality "
— Frederik, 7/8/2009Jack London (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. Before making a living at his writing, he spent time as an oyster pirate, a sailor, a cannery worker, a gold miner, and a journalist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction writing. He is best known for his novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set during the Klondike gold rush, as well as the short stories “To Build a Fire,” “An Odyssey of the North,” and “Love of Life.” He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as “The Pearls of Parlay” and “The Heathen.” He was a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, including The Iron Heel, The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.
Brian Emerson is an actor and technical director with a long career in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore areas.