The Scarlet Plague
by Jack London
Action & AdventureAdded on January 12, 2026
Description
"The world was full of people... and then, in a moment, the world was empty."The year is 2073. An old man, clad in goatskins and wandering the ruins of a wild California, tells his skeptical, savage grandsons about a world they can hardly imagine: a world of airships, teeming cities, and a miracle called "science." He is Professor James Howard Smith, one of the few survivors of the "Scarlet Death" that decimated the global population in 2013. As he recounts the terrifying speed with which the plague spread and the brutal chaos that followed, London delivers a stark warning about the fragility of our modern world and the enduring power of nature.A Blueprint for Post-Apocalyptica: Jack London was the first to master the "shattered world" aesthetic. He describes iconic landmarks like the San Francisco Bay Area reclaimed by forests and wolves. The novel explores the "Great Regression," where the descendants of scholars and billionaires have become illiterate hunters, losing the hard-won knowledge of their ancestors in just two generations.The Biological Terror: Unlike many Victorian "plague" stories, London focuses on the terrifying efficiency of the pathogen. The Scarlet Death kills within hours, turning the skin red and paralyzing the body. Through the Professor's eyes, we witness the terrifying realization that no amount of wealth or technology can stop a microscopic enemy once it reaches critical mass.Witness the end of the world. Purchase "The Scarlet Plague" today and discover the roots of modern survival fiction.
Reader Reviews
“It was what should have been a bright summer day, but the smoke from the burning world filled the sky, through which the sun shone murkily, a dull and lifeless orb, blood-red and ominous.” More familiar to readers as the author of Call of the Wild and White Fang, in The Scarlet Plague (originally published in 1912), Jack London tackles a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Very interesting! The story is set in 2073, in a world largely depopulated by the pandemic that quickly spread around the world, fro
«En el mismo sitio en que cuatro millones de personas tenían sus moradas, hoy pululan lobos salvajes… Y la primitiva progenie de nuestros tiempos, bien distinta de aquellas, se ve obligada a defenderse con armas prehistóricas… ¡Qué horrible! ¡Y todo por la maldita peste escarlata…!»Siempre me atrajeron fuertemente los cuentos o novelas apocalípticas o post apocalípticas. Las he leído a casi todas: "La Guerra de los mundos" de H.G. Wells, "Los huevos fatales" de Mijaíl Bulgákov, "El eterno Adán"
Eight billion people were alive on the earth when the Scarlet Death began in 2013. It’s crazy to think that in 1912, when this book was first published, there were only one and a half billion people on the planet. And it’s even crazier trying to guess how Jack London came up with such an accurate estimate more than a hundred years ago. Most of this story was so freakishly relatable that it gave me the creeps. Now this is the strange thing about these germs. There were always new ones coming t
