The Hoosier School-Master

I can't NOT read a classic that's set in the state I live in and love so I figured I would finally wipe the dust off this one and read it. Set in a rural Indiana town during the 1850's this is a fictionalized story of a young man coming to be the schoolmaster for a backward yet well meaning (mostly) bunch. Written in the Hoosier dialect this humorous tale is peppered with classic ink drawings and funny asides. From the Church of Best Licks to the spelling competition to midnight thievery and peg legs. Nearly 200 years old I still thought it was amusing and pretty well written. Adventure, romance, action, and intrigue are woven throughout the story and it's definitely something unique!

1690 The Hoosier School-Master A Novel by Edward Eggleston (read 14 Jan 1982) This book was first published in 1871. I should have read it when I was in high school. It is a story of southeastern Indiana in 1850. The hero, Ralph Hartsook, is a 19-year-old teacher who has an adventuresome time, being accused of a robbery but being dramatically cleared. Everything is black and white. There is never any question who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. And the good things happen quite a bit. Enjoyable, but not overly profound.

Pulp fiction. Grotesquely evil caricatures & others as good as gold. Very religious -- as much a Christian tale as a Moral tale.

A great story if you're interested in such things as the hoosier 'dialect' of the 1870s (lots of etymological footnotes in here), what a 'hard-shell' Baptist was, and how they differ from the 'Disciples of Christ,' or 'Campbellites,' and some pretty good atmosphere from the post-civil war years. This pretty much covers the kind of environment Abraham Lincoln grew up in. I give it three stars. See my comments for more info. There is another Eggleston story "The Hoosier Schoolboy" at archive.org.