The Star Rover is the story of San Quentin death-row inmate Darrell Standing, who escapes the horror of prison life—and long stretches in a straitjacket—by withdrawing into vivid dreams of past lives, including incarnations as a French nobleman and an Englishman in medieval Korea. Based on the life and imprisonment of Jack London’s friend Ed Morrell, this is one of the author’s most complex and original works. As Lorenzo Carcaterra argues in his Introduction, The Star Rover is “written with energy and force, brilliantly marching between the netherworlds of brutality and beauty.”
This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the first American edition, published in 1915.
About The Star Rover
Novelist and short story writer Jack London (1876-1916) contemplated the strange theory of astral travel, penning The Star Rover in 1914. The last of London’s fifty books, which include White Fang and The Call of the Wild, The Star Rover centers on San Quentin prison inmate Darrell Standing, a former university professor who is serving a life sentence for murdering a colleague. To escape the tortures of his confinement, he withdraws into dreams of past lives in which he experiences what he calls his “eternal recurrence on earth.” Thus the fantastic becomes a vehicle for exposing the social injustices of the U.S. prison system.
One of America’s great turn-of-the-century writers, London lived as a sailor, waterfront loafer, and hobo, embarking on a successful literary career based on his travels, observations of nature, and his outspoken position in the Socialist Party. Internationally recognized literary critic and essayist Leslie Fiedler, the former Samuel Clemens Professor at SUNY Buffalo, provides an insightful introduction to this lost classic.
About The Star Rover
The Star Rover is the story of San Quentin death-row inmate Darrell Standing, who escapes the horror of prison life—and long stretches in a straitjacket—by withdrawing into vivid dreams of past lives, including incarnations as a French nobleman and an Englishman in medieval Korea. Based on the life and imprisonment of Jack London’s friend Ed Morrell, this is one of the author’s most complex and original works. As Lorenzo Carcaterra argues in his Introduction, The Star Rover is “written with energy and force, brilliantly marching between the netherworlds of brutality and beauty.”
This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the first American edition, published in 1915.
Jack London (1876–1916) was born John Chaney in Pennsylvania, USA. In 1896 he was caught up in the gold rush to the Klondike River in northwest Canada, which became the inspiration for The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906). London is… More about Jack London
About Jack London
Jack London (1876–1916) was born John Chaney in Pennsylvania, USA. In 1896 he was caught up in the gold rush to the Klondike River in northwest Canada, which became the inspiration for The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906). London is… More about Jack London
