Hot Texas prairies, wild horses freely racing across their expanses with wind, courageous handsome cowboys and wise hunter hunters, lovely girls and gloomy villains, cruel Indians and noble heroes who risk their lives in the name of honor and beautiful ladies, bloody secrets and the eternal struggle of good and evil for love and happiness - such is the “gentleman's set” of which the adventurous adventure novel of the second half of the 19th century consists. An example of this is the beloved “Headless Horseman”, beloved by all of us from adolescence.
A few words about the author
"The Headless Horseman" is a book by Thomas Mayne Reed, the most popular
English writer of Scottish descent, written by him in 1865, then published by a major London publishing house and bought up with great speed. In 1868, a translation of the work into Russian appeared. The reading public swallowed the contents overnight. Naturally, the youth was especially read. Enthusiastic teenagers raved about the adventures of Maurice Mustanger and dreamed of going to conquer America. With his usual humor in one of the stories, Chekhov very vividly reproduced the atmosphere of the book’s special popularity in Russia. But let us return to the author himself, after all, the novel "The Headless Horseman", the content of which so excited the public, is closely connected with its creator. The writer often signed with the pseudonym "Captain Mine Read". A hint of a
military profession added elements of reliability, veracity, realism to his subjects. A great lover of adventure, a fidget with a slight share of adventurism in character, Reed dreamed of an eventful life from his youth, therefore, instead of the priest’s path, like his father, he, having received an education, goes to the USA in search of his share and stories, of which then his books will appear. He was an active participant in the war in Mexico, the Bavarian Revolution, more than once he was seriously wounded. Most of what we read in The Quarteron, The Leader of the Seminoles, the same Horseman, is based on completely truthful situations that the author himself heard or encountered.
And having returned to the Old World, to England, Mine Reed completely devotes himself to literature. He has written more than 60 works, and the bulk of them have a long, glorious life. And although fate has not been kind to the master of words in recent years, Captain Reed has already outlived his time, and for most girls and boys, boys and girls all over the world from 11 years old to 20, he will remain one of the favorite authors whose romantic vision of the world awakens in young soul best feelings, thoughts and dreams.
The most famous novel
The "Headless Horseman", a brief summary of which we will now consider, is rightfully recognized as the best work of Reed. It has everything you need for a solid adventure novel. A knight without tribal tribe, fear and reproach, who at the end turns out to be a noble nobleman (Maurice Gerald) and his rival - captain Cassius Kolhaun - is vile, arrogant, ready for vile murder in order to satisfy his whims. Two stunning beauty of the girl - the Mexican Senorita Isidora and the Creole Louise Poindexter, who are fighting for a place in the heart of Maurice, noble, loyal friends, an exciting intrigue, a sharp plot, with turns in turns, and even a terrible monster, or a ghost, or the victim of a ruthless crime - a rider whose head is tied to a saddle.
Such is the book Headless Horseman, the summary of which is as follows: once rich, but now ruined, but a noble and noble planter Woodley Poindexter with all the households moves to a new place of residence in Texas - another half-wild state, whose inhabitants every minute expect attacks of the Indians. Hacienda actually belongs to his nephew Cassius, which the beautiful Louise and the young, pure and generous young man Henry, her brother, the children of Poindexter, do not know. On the way, they fall into a sandstorm and would surely die if it were not for the unexpected help of a pleasant courageous man, whose noble manners could not spoil dusty clothes and poor equipment. Between Louise and the Savior, the very Morim Mustanger,
love flashes
at first sight. From this moment, the main invisible confrontation of the male characters of the novel "The Headless Horseman" begins. A summary of subsequent events looks like this: with the help of old Zeb Stump, Gerald's faithful friend, lovers exchange gentle letters, and then meet in the Hacienda Garden. But the enemy does not sleep. Calhoun first tries to remove Maurice from his path, setting Henry against him, because the connection with the rootless horse hunter allegedly dishonors his sister and his whole family. However, the clash ends peacefully, which is not at all included in Cassius' plans. He decides to kill his opponent with his own hands. Further, the action develops very rapidly in the novel "The Headless Horseman". The summary is reduced to the following events. Having tracked down the enemy, the captain kills Maurice, cuts off his head and returns home. Local residents see a terrible vision in the district: a horseman who does not have a head on his shoulders. After many adventures, during which the mustanger almost died, and Zeb Stump almost knelt around the prairie in search of evidence of crime, justice triumphs. Colchown awaits imminent retribution, Louise marries her lover, and old Poindexter, in return for her dead son, takes in her family a son-in-law who turned out to be a noble Irish gentleman. In general, everyone is happy!