This is Volume I of Jack London's Collective Short Stories, including To Kill a Man and Under the Deck Awnings. To Kill a Man creates a classic femme fatale—Mrs. Setliffe. High-bred and gracefully beautiful as she is, Miss Setliffe is internally vile and malicious. Overriding other people's trust and lives, Mrs. Setliffe places herself at the center of the world. Under the Deck Awnings tells a story taking place on a boat, where the heroine Miss Caruthers, a beautiful young lady, fascinates all the males on it. However, she later horrifies others as she throws a sovereign into the sea and tempts a native boy to dive into the shark-infested bay in Colombo, where the boy is cut squarely in half by the shark. The narrator of the story recollects that Miss Caruthers, though amazingly charming, is truly a female who is "worse than a pig."
杰克·伦敦的《杀人》塑造了一个魔女的形象，女主人公赛特利夫夫人虽然出身高贵，长相美丽丰满，颇具女人味道，但是美丽体面的外表下掩饰的却是内在的卑鄙和阴毒，并毫无顾忌地将这种内在缺点以实际行动表现出来。她玩弄别人的信任和性命于不顾，完全以自我为中心，读来让人震撼。《在甲板的天棚下》讲述了发生在一条船上的故事。主人公是一个美丽的女子卡拉瑟斯小姐，她出身高贵，年轻貌美，赢得了船上所有男人的向往和膜拜。故事的前半作者花大量篇幅描述卡拉瑟斯小姐的美貌、她惊人的游泳和潜水功夫、以及她如何不费吹灰之力便令满船的异性拜倒。然而接下来发生的一件事却令人不寒而栗：在科伦坡，卡拉瑟斯小姐用金子引诱一个漂亮并且跳水技艺精湛的小男孩在鲨鱼来临时跳入海中，孩子瞬间被鲨鱼咬成两半，这惊悚的一幕镇住了船上所有的人。在故事叙述者的回忆中，外表美得惊人的卡拉瑟斯小姐"比猪还糟糕"。
