At the beginning of the 20th century, a rough and uneducated former sailor named Martin Eden falls in love with the young, bourgeois Ruth Morse. He goes through an intense period of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite. After two years, Ruth loses her patience and rejects him. Eden eventually attains literary acclaim, but instead of enjoying his success, feels that people do not value him for himself or for his work but only for his fame.

When London wrote Martin Eden at age 33, he had already achieved international acclaim with The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, and White Fang. Despite the acclaim, he quickly became disillusioned with his fame and set sail through the South Pacific on a self-designed ketch, the Snark. On the grueling two-year voyage, as he struggled with tiredness and bowel diseases, he wrote Martin Eden, filling its pages with his frustrations, adolescent gang fights, and struggles for artistic recognition.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian-inspired dust jacket.