Few writers have had such an extensive output of work as Jack London. During his 15-year career, he wrote 49 books. In the language of today, Jack was a radical, an extremist, a revolutionary, a believer in violence to achieve political aims, a firm believer in the coming downfall of the capitalistic system - a man who would have been delighted with the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917 if he had lived long enough. Unfortunately, for him and for us, he died a tad too early, in November 1916 at the age of 40. The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel, first published in 1907. On the face of it, this is way-out political fiction showing an ultra-violent Marxist-type revolution in the USA starting around 1914, with ensuing bloodshed, massacres, resistance, mass executions, dictatorship and final victory of the classless society after seven centuries of struggle! The book is unusual among London's writings, and in the literature of the time in general, in being a first-person narrative of a woman protagonist written by a man. Much of the narrative is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, including events in San Francisco and Sonoma County. The novel is based on the fictional "Everhard Manuscript" written by Avis Everhard, which she hid and which was subsequently found centuries later. In addition, this novel has an introduction and series of footnotes written from the perspective of scholar Anthony Meredith. You can listen online to free English audiobook “The Iron Heel” by Jack London on our website.
