The Scarlet Plague

By: Jack London

Narrated by: Emma Topping

This post-apocalyptic fiction novel takes place in 2072, sixty years after an uncontrollable epidemic, the Red Death, has depopulated the planet. James Howard Smith is one of the few survivors of the pre-plague era left alive in the San Francisco area, and as he realizes his time grows short, he tries to impart the value of knowledge and wisdom to his grandsons.

©2010 Saland Publishing (P)2010 Saland Publishing

The wrong reader

This book is a old man’s reminiscences of times before the great plague. I would expect an old man to speak quite slowly, but the reader romped through it with no apparent understanding of the character she played.

Fortunately it was not my first audible book or there would never have been a second.

1912, 2013 and 2073

Jack London wrote this in 1912 about a plague in 2013 that destroys most of the world's population. The last survivor of the plague tries to tell the story of mankind and the plague to the youth of 2073.

The plague was caused by microbes, as Smith tries to explain to the backward people that have come to populate the new world. He must use simple words, for they are uneducated. Humans live in tribes named after the cities their ancestors lived in. After the plague, there is chaos, lawlessness, and the usual. The description of microbiology is very well told and I wonder how the public of 1912 responded to it. The story of chaos and lawlessness is an old story today, included in most apocalyptic literature. It is old hat today, and I believe was even an old worn out theme in 1912. I was ok with the story, but I have read better stories from Jack London and I believe it better to get a collection of his stories instead of just one. Call of the Wild is my favorite of what I have read.

Smith is an old man who was born and raised in California, yet Saland Publishing decided to use a young British woman to read the story. She reads well, but I would have preferred a man who speaks American English for a story written about an American. They make it seem that Americans can't write classic lit and a British accent is necessary to make it an actual classic.