You can't have a collection of Classic Westerns without some Zane Grey. The collection I'm reading has two Zane Grey books that feel like three.
The Lone Star Ranger is an early book (from 1915!) that spends a great deal of time exploring the mental state of its main character, Buck Duane. Duane inherited from his father a "fighting instinct, a driving intensity to kill" that is in constant conflict with his better nature. Duane kills a man at the beginning of Part 1, in self defense but after passing on numerous opportunities to avoid trouble, and goes on the lam in the outlaw country of West Texas. He spends a lot of time alone with his struggles ("As he walked he fell into the lately acquired habit of brooding over his misfortune"), but falls in with a gang of outlaws whose consciences do not trouble them. He determines to save a young girl held captive by the gang. In Part 2, Duane is recruited as an undercover agent for the Texas Rangers, using his outlaw reputation to infiltrate a massive cattle rustling organization.
Part 1 of The Lone Star Ranger is the first book in the collection that really feels like a Classic Western, with its gunslingers, outlaws, and Texan locale. The story is well plotted and well written; I especially liked the scene where a posse traps Duane in the thicket. Part 2 is quite different in style, reading almost like a Hammett detective novel with lots of overheard dialogue and an organized criminal syndicate. It's almost as if the two parts where written separately.
The Mysterious Rider (from 1921) is a domestic drama, a love triangle that never leaves its Colorado ranch. Columbine promises her adoptive father that she'll marry his no-good son in an attempt to tame and improve him, but she loves one of the cowboys. As Buck Duane struggled between his violent nature and his moral compass, Columbine struggles between duty and desire. The title character is an old hunter who serves as a Greek chorus and hand of fate, not to mention being Columbine's biological father.
The Mysterious Rider has narrative problems -- Columbine barely registers the announcement that she was a foundling, the rancher's blindness to his son's faults is unbelievable, the later chapters are repetitive as the heroes give the villain many chances to reform -- but its descriptions are lovely. For example, I absolutely love the quiet scene where Wade (the mysterious rider) beds down in the valley of the White River: fine scenery, fading light, contemplative attention to Wade's routine, the sound of the wind and animals (p 614 - 618).
The Lone Star Ranger is an early book (from 1915!) that spends a great deal of time exploring the mental state of its main character, Buck Duane. Duane inherited from his father a "fighting instinct, a driving intensity to kill" that is in constant conflict with his better nature. Duane kills a man at the beginning of Part 1, in self defense but after passing on numerous opportunities to avoid trouble, and goes on the lam in the outlaw country of West Texas. He spends a lot of time alone with his struggles ("As he walked he fell into the lately acquired habit of brooding over his misfortune"), but falls in with a gang of outlaws whose consciences do not trouble them. He determines to save a young girl held captive by the gang. In Part 2, Duane is recruited as an undercover agent for the Texas Rangers, using his outlaw reputation to infiltrate a massive cattle rustling organization.
Part 1 of The Lone Star Ranger is the first book in the collection that really feels like a Classic Western, with its gunslingers, outlaws, and Texan locale. The story is well plotted and well written; I especially liked the scene where a posse traps Duane in the thicket. Part 2 is quite different in style, reading almost like a Hammett detective novel with lots of overheard dialogue and an organized criminal syndicate. It's almost as if the two parts where written separately.
The Mysterious Rider (from 1921) is a domestic drama, a love triangle that never leaves its Colorado ranch. Columbine promises her adoptive father that she'll marry his no-good son in an attempt to tame and improve him, but she loves one of the cowboys. As Buck Duane struggled between his violent nature and his moral compass, Columbine struggles between duty and desire. The title character is an old hunter who serves as a Greek chorus and hand of fate, not to mention being Columbine's biological father.
The Mysterious Rider has narrative problems -- Columbine barely registers the announcement that she was a foundling, the rancher's blindness to his son's faults is unbelievable, the later chapters are repetitive as the heroes give the villain many chances to reform -- but its descriptions are lovely. For example, I absolutely love the quiet scene where Wade (the mysterious rider) beds down in the valley of the White River: fine scenery, fading light, contemplative attention to Wade's routine, the sound of the wind and animals (p 614 - 618).
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