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Hazard Lepage, the last of the studhorse men, sets out to breed his rare blue stallion, Poseidon. A trickster, a lusty peddler, and a wayward knight, the antics of this hero are only outmatched by those of the narrator, a maniacal, naked writer who works in his bathtub. Told with the ribald zeal of a Prairie beer parlour tall tale and the mythic magnitude of a Greek odyssey, The Studhorse Man is Robert Kroetsch's recharacterization of the Canadian West upon his mythological return home to show more Alberta. Winner of Governor General's Award for Fiction. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Sheer page-turning and character-building genius, the book is a ribald roam through a slightly magicly real prairie landscape of the recent past in the rough imaginary vicinity of Edmonton in the first half of the 20th century. I thought I read the echo of a Malcolm Lowry short story in the fictional biographer's intrusions, and in turn I wondered if Elizabeth Hay was inspired by the fire scene to use something similar in her novel Alone in the Classroom, which shared a rough timeframe. A tour de force that won the Governor General's Award for fiction, my only irrelevant comment is Why do Canadian publishers insist on publishing in American English? Have they no pride? But never mind--a superb novel by the U. of Iowa graduate. This show more novelist and poet died in a car crash in Alberta in 2011, and was an Officer of the Order of Canada. show less
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Governor General of Canada's English Fiction Awards
89 works; 3 members
Author Information
32+ Works 614 Members
Robert Kroetsch was born on June 26, 1927 in Heisler, Alberta, Canada. He received a B.A. from the University of Alberta and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Iowa. He taught English at the State University of New York in Binghamton and at the University of Manitoba. His first novel, But We Are Exiles, was published in 1965. show more During his lifetime, he wrote nine books of fiction, seven books of non-fiction, and fourteen collections of poetry. His works included The Words of My Roaring, Gone Indian, Badlands, Alibi, and Too Bad: Sketches Toward a Self-Portrait. He received several awards including the Governor General's Award for Fiction in 1969 for The Studhorse Man, the Lieutenant Governor's Alberta Distinguished Artist award, and the Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Writers Guild of Alberta. He was named and Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004. He was killed in car accident on June 21, 2011 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards and Honors
Awards
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1969
- People/Characters
- Hazard Lepage; Poseidon
- Important places
- Alberta, Canada
- Epigraph
- Allas! allas! that evere love was synne!
--Chaucer's Good Wife of Bath - Dedication
- For Dad, who told stories
- First words
- Hazard had to get hold of a mare. He was desperate.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 112
- Popularity
- 290,963
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.19)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 2
