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raejilee's review
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
lgcullens's review
3.0
The Headless Horseman - A Strange Tale of Texas by Thomas Mayne Reid (1818 - 1883)
I became aware of this novel in of all places reading the book "The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival" by John Vaillant, and curious (this story has nothing to do with Sleepy Hollow) I downloaded it.
What I downloaded was a free public domain audio version (650.8MB) from LibriVox. The .zip download contained one hundred and one .mp3 modules, one for the prologue and one for each chapter. The chapters are all relatively short, ranging from six to twenty-six minutes, mostly on the low side. An annoyance in this audio version is in the narration, which rendered by volunteers changes voices at many of the chapter breaks. At my age some of these voices were more difficult to understand than others.
According to Wikipedia, the author, Thomas Mayne Reid, fought in the American-Mexican War (1846-1848), and his many works about American life at the time involve the colonial policy in the United States, the horrors of slave labor, and the lives of American Indians. To its credit, this book contains some of the same. Also noted is that this book was the basis of the first Soviet Western movie.
This is of course a Western, and I must confess that I find many Westerns a lark owing to their cultural contrivances. In addition, this story is of the romance ilk with polite hormone induced yearnings, jealousies, and rivalries spurring foul deeds. Proclivities repeated ad infinitum over the ages to the point of stifling my interest.
The style of the writing is resonate of the mid 1800s — when words like intercourse and ejaculation were used in totally different contexts, that relative to speech — and with exaggerated colloquialisms distinguishing characters. Descriptive setting text also runs on a bit for my tastes, causing me in inattention to miss plot points and have to back up occasionally. However, in chapter seven at least there are interesting descriptions of wildlife long gone from the southwestern Texas region, so different strokes for different folks.
On a positive note, the plotting and writing of this story is accomplished and I found it more entertaining than not. Those that have a taste for old style romantic intrigue Westerns with an edge of the macabre may find this book to their liking. Beware the devious man and a woman's wrath, but if you encounter the headless horseman I leave you to conjecture the intent ;-)
I became aware of this novel in of all places reading the book "The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival" by John Vaillant, and curious (this story has nothing to do with Sleepy Hollow) I downloaded it.
What I downloaded was a free public domain audio version (650.8MB) from LibriVox. The .zip download contained one hundred and one .mp3 modules, one for the prologue and one for each chapter. The chapters are all relatively short, ranging from six to twenty-six minutes, mostly on the low side. An annoyance in this audio version is in the narration, which rendered by volunteers changes voices at many of the chapter breaks. At my age some of these voices were more difficult to understand than others.
According to Wikipedia, the author, Thomas Mayne Reid, fought in the American-Mexican War (1846-1848), and his many works about American life at the time involve the colonial policy in the United States, the horrors of slave labor, and the lives of American Indians. To its credit, this book contains some of the same. Also noted is that this book was the basis of the first Soviet Western movie.
This is of course a Western, and I must confess that I find many Westerns a lark owing to their cultural contrivances. In addition, this story is of the romance ilk with polite hormone induced yearnings, jealousies, and rivalries spurring foul deeds. Proclivities repeated ad infinitum over the ages to the point of stifling my interest.
The style of the writing is resonate of the mid 1800s — when words like intercourse and ejaculation were used in totally different contexts, that relative to speech — and with exaggerated colloquialisms distinguishing characters. Descriptive setting text also runs on a bit for my tastes, causing me in inattention to miss plot points and have to back up occasionally. However, in chapter seven at least there are interesting descriptions of wildlife long gone from the southwestern Texas region, so different strokes for different folks.
On a positive note, the plotting and writing of this story is accomplished and I found it more entertaining than not. Those that have a taste for old style romantic intrigue Westerns with an edge of the macabre may find this book to their liking. Beware the devious man and a woman's wrath, but if you encounter the headless horseman I leave you to conjecture the intent ;-)
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