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Editorial Review Product Description
excerpt from CHAPTER I:SAM STUBENER ran through his mail carelessly and rapidly. As became a manager of prize-fighters, he was accustomed to a various and bizarre correspondence. Every crank, sport, near sport, and reformer seemed to have ideas to impart to him. From dire threats, such as pushing in the front of his face, from rabbit-foot fetishes to lucky horseshoes, from dinky jerkwater bids to the quarter-of-a-million-dollar offers of irresponsible nobodies, he knew the whole run of the surprise portion of his mail.In his time having received a razor-strop made from the skin of a lynched Negro, and a finger, withered and sun-dried, cur from the body of a white man found in Death Valley, he was of the opinion that never again would the postman bring him anything that could startle him. But this morning he opened a letter that he read a second time, put away in his pocket, and took out for a third reading. It was postmarked from some unheard-of post office in Siskiyou County, and it ran:Dear Sam:- - -You don't know me, except my reputation. You come after my time, and I've been out of the game a long time. But take it from me I ain't been asleep. I've followed you, from the time Kal Aufman knocked you out to your last handling of Nat Belson, and I take it you're the niftiest thing in the line of managers that ever came down the pike.- - -I got a proposition for you. I got the greatest unknown that ever happened. This ain't con. It's the straight goods. What do you think of a husky that tips the scales at two hundred and twenty pounds fighting weight, is twenty-two years old, and can hit a kick twice as hard as my best ever? That's him, my boy, Young Pat Glendon, that's the name he'll fight under. I've planned it all out. Now the best thing you can do is hit the first train and come up here.- - -I bred him and trained him. All that I ever had in my head I've hammered into his. And maybe you won't believe it, but he's added to it. He's a born fighter. He's a wonder at time and distance. He just knows to the second and the inch, and he don't need to think about it at all. His six-inch jolt is more the real sleep medicine than the full-arm swing of most geezers.- - -Talk about the hope of the white race. This is him. Come and take a peep. When you was managing Jeffries you was crazy about hunting. Come along and I'll give you some real hunting and fishing that will make your movie picture winnings look like thirty cents. I'll send Young Pat out with you. I ain't able to get around. That's why I'm sending for you. I was going to manage him myself. But it ain't no use. I'm all in and likely to pass out any time. So get a move on. I want you to manage him. There's a fortune in it for both of you, but I want to draw up the contract.Yours truly, PAT GLENDONStubener was puzzled. It seemed, on the face of it, a joke--the men in the fighting game were notorious jokers--and he tried to discern the fine hand of Corbett or the big friendly paw of Fitzsimmons in the screed before him. But if it were genuine, he knew it was worth looking into. Pat Glendon was before his time, though, as a cub, he had once seen Old Pat spar at the benefit for Jack Dempsey. Even then he was called "Old" Pat, and had been out of the ring for years. He had antedated Sullivan, in the old London Prize Ring Rules, though his last fading battles had been put up under the incoming Marquis of Queensbury Rules. ... Read more Customer Reviews (4) 
Great story, very good publication
I read this story when I was a kid, and wanted to share it with my son.I found it quite inspiring when I read it and now i find it inspires my son as I read it with him (he is 13).Good, easy and quick read.
Also, I have stayed away from cheap Kindle publications having had problems with the quality of the pagination, formatting, etc.But this is very well done, Table of Contents works, I found no spelling mistakes or omissions which are common with most publications like this one.
All in all, highly recommend this book and this kindle edition.
Idealized Jack and Charmian, in the boxing game
The Abysmal Brute is a quick read, but it is under-appreciated in importance for Jack London fans.London critics seem to frequently concentrate on his "socialist" fiction or his "nature" stories.Sometimes lost in the discussion are novels that emphasize London's interest in individualism, and the rise of the "superman."In the Abysmal Brute, we get tastes of various sides of London.Jack the social reformer shows us the corruption of the boxing game.Jack the individualist shows us the superman, a boxer who grew up in the wilderness, can beat any fighter in the world in short order, and attends literary lectures an hour before the big fight and reads poetry in his spare time.This seems to be London's fantasy self, inflated to incredible proportions.He has an equally powerful mate in the form of a reporter who is skeptical of the boxing game, Young Pat's equal/mate who is of course Charmian London in thin disguise.Suspend disbelief and have fun with this one, and realize there are deeper issues beneath the fantasy coating.
Not your average boxing story
I'm always happy to see one of Jack London's lesser-known works get plucked from obscurity and brought back into print. Originally published in book form in 1913, this short novel tells the story of Young Pat Glendon, a proverbial "babe in the woods" who is brought out of the wilderness to embark on a big-city prizefighting career. London has written boxing tales before, most notably the excellent short story "A Piece of Steak" and the novel "The Game". His style of gritty realism is well-suited to the sport. The detailed, naturalistic descriptions of boxing matches, the people who fight them, and the combat strategy involved really makes you feel like you're there in the ring with the contenders. In this book, the vivid realism is somewhat counteracted by the fact that London makes his hero into such a superman that his perfection defies believability. On the other hand, with a little updating this book could easily be turned into a Hollywood movie (where defying believability is commonplace). It's not just another typical underdog-overcomes-adversity-to-win-the-championship type of boxing story. There are some unexpected turns in the plot which are a pleasant surprise. The introductory essay by Michael Oriard puts the book into historical context, and gives the reader a good picture of the boxing world of a hundred years ago. Oriard also addresses the issue of whether or not London was a racist, and the role of race in boxing at the turn of the century.
Wonderful to have this in print
If you're reading this, you must, like me be a Jack London fan who is ableto enjoy some of his less well known and somewhat flawed work.If so,you'll enjoy _The Abysmal Brute_. It's great to have this in print. Ifyou're interested in Jack London, you may want to ask your ISP to carry thenewsgroup alt.books.jack-london, where we discuss his life, works, andideas. Anyone who has read Malamud's _The Natural_ (or seen the moviebased on it) has to wonder whether Malamud was thinking of _The AbysmalBrute_. The theme is the same; only the sport is different. This is oneof London's boxing stories (the others are his fine short stories "TheMexican" and "A Piece of Steak," and his novel _TheGame_) I loved the first half of the book.Even though it's silly andunbelievable, Pat Glendon is a memorable character. He's one of JackLondon's superheros, a boxer who totally outclasses every other livingboxer while reads Browning in his spare time.
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