Johnston McCulley (1883–1958)

I wasn't sure what to expect of this short novel that introduced Zorro to the world. To my surprise, it was a rousing, enjoyable read. Still very much a book of its time period, of course (the dona fainted anytime anything happened, and while Zorro fights for the natives, they are still regarded as simpletons) but also progressive in several respects. There are sword fights galore, much wit employed, and several fine chases, too. The parallel lives on Don Diego and Zorro make for fun show more contrast. Captain Ramon is a villain most foul who at one point presses himself on Zorro's chosen love, Senorita Lolita, and then conspires revenge upon her family. Lolita is a great heroine, willing to stand up with defiance and honor, and survives a mighty horse chase mostly on her own. I can see why this book captured the public's imagination and began the franchise that continues today. show less

This was a very entertaining swashbuckler, a fun read with our San Diego Public Library read-aloud series. Fun to see the pulp fiction origins of this enduring character. Though how the author could have written such corny dialog is beyond me! He must have hurt his ribs laughing sometimes.

It's kind of interesting to see the same themes and worldview underpinning this pulp fiction adventure story as the books I've been reading for girls from the same period, despite vastly different genres and audiences.

It's a masked avenger story set in early 19th century Spanish California, sure, but it's so very early 20th century American, too. The former, highly romanticized of course, was a popular setting during the latter, for various reasons, and Zorro's fight against the greedy, show more unjust kings/king-analogs would have had additional appeal.

As a novel, Zorro is entertaining but can be repetitive. Likewise, the writing is engaging if a bit workmanlike, but gets a bit repetitive. It's amusing that for all the violence, no one ever uses a curseword harder than "mealmush and goat's milk" or the like.

Most of the characters are archetypes or mobs without even a name. Unfortunately, this does highlight some nasty stereotypes. Even if the book doesn't want kings, it does think there are natural rulers and they are the white people.

I was surprised it took until the penultimate chapter to explicitly show that Don Diego and Zorro are the same man, and that Lolita only found out when everyone else did. I suppose all the movie and tv adaptations are to blame for that. show less

Anyone who has spent any time with American pop culture has probably heard of Zorro from films and TV. But I don't know that the original books have been widely read in recent generations. This is the first Zorro book, originally serialized in 1919. It actually stands up pretty well for being a pulp adventure story more than a hundred years old, and is also (for the time) remarkably light on sexist and racist language; one might even say it displayed somewhat progressive attitudes for the show more time.

The story takes place in the period of Spanish California — that is, at latest the very early 1800s somewhat before Mexican independence and long before annexation by the US — around the area of the settlement that is now Los Angeles.

Don Diego Vega is the wimpy son of a prominent family. But nobody knows that he's also the feared highwayman Zorro. Young Lolita, daughter of another prominent landowner, has no interest in Diego, but of course through a set of circumstances, totally falls for Zorro. Now Zorro is actually the good guy, brave and upstanding, as we come to find out. Lolita is no shrinking violet herself — in fact, displaying signs of nascent badassery. Of course she refuses both Don Diego and Captain Ramón, secretly having given her heart to Zorro. The adventures in the book include sword fighting, gun wielding, horse chases, roused rabbles, revenge, and so forth.

The writing style is pretty solid and flows well... (If I had any off-the-cuff criticism it would be that the author occasionally includes long sentences with an excessive number of phrases connected together by "and", lacking quite enough commas for parsing pleasure.) By way of historical accuracy, I also suspected and then double-checked to see that eucalyptus trees, which are mentioned in a later chapter, would probably not have been growing in California during the period in question; they were first introduced several decades later.)

Anyway, I read (a previous release of) the Feedbooks electronic edition. I might not have read the book at this time, but there were various references to Zorro in another book I read recently, and I recalled that while I've always admired Zorro, I've never gone back to his sources. show less