Burning Daylight

Burning Daylight is a historical adventure novel written by Jack London and originally published in 1910.

Burning Daylight is set in the late 19th century in the Yukon Territory, in present-day Canada. The protagonist is Elam Harnish, whose nickname Burning Daylight gives the novel its name. He was one of the most successful entrepreneurs during the gold rush.

The first part of the novel is centered on the protagonist's search for gold in a wild, difficult land, where nature is harsh. Therefore, as in other novels such as White Fang, there is a spirit of adventure in it and of struggle against the hostile environment.

The second part moves away a bit from the countryside and the search for gold to focus on love. In any case, the novel reflects the atmosphere of those times, where people threw themselves wildly and sometimes unconsciously into pursuing the dream of getting rich from gold. And it also highlights the damage to the environment that this could cause and the need for its protection.

"It was a quiet night in the Shovel. At the bar, which ranged along one side of the large chinked-log room, leaned half a dozen men, two of whom were discussing the relative merits of spruce-tea and lime-juice as remedies for scurvy. They argued with an air of depression and with intervals of morose silence."