A theme current in much of London's work is a Darwinian struggle to survive. His works epitomize a sort of literary naturalism. And never more so than in the collection of stories contained in South Sea Tales. Probably the most notable of them is the last one in the collection, "The Seed of McCoy," where a schooner in distress anchors outside Pitcairn's Island, the home of the descendants who mutinied aboard the HMS Bounty. During the course of the story, McCoy recounts the fate of the mutineers, and the captain of the endangered schooner realizes it is the blood of those men that runs through McCoy's veins and is all that stands between him and death. "The Seed of McCoy" is also one of London's best pure adventure tales, with disaster nipping at the heels of the crew and captain unceasingly until the very end.

As South Sea stories go, these are among the very best. But always look beneath the mere adventure to the motivations that power London's stories. The White Man's Burden, the natural virtues of the Wild Men of the islands, the overwhelming forces of nature--they are all there commenting on our ability to survive.