Post by Claire on Mar 28, 2011 16:27:00 GMT 1
A HORSE’S TALE By MARK TWAIN
MAIN CHARACTERS:
Soldier Boy – the horse of Buffalo Bill
Cathy – a small girl
Will Cody aka Buffalo Bill – the legendary American hero
General Alison – Commander of the fort and Cathy’s uncle
SUMMARY
A short novel/novella told partly from the point of view of a horse, partly from the viewpoints of other characters via letters they write. It is set mainly in an army fort in the Rocky Mountain area of American in the mid 19th century, although moves briefly to Spain near the end of the story.
Told partly from the viewpoint of Soldier Boy, who is a handsome black horse, somewhat famous amongst other horses as he is the steed of the legenday ‘Buffalo Bill’ William Cody, who is at the time of the story is working as a scout for the American army. When Cathy, the half Spanish 9 year orphaned niece of the Fort’s general is sent to stay with him, she soon becomes a favourite of all the soldiers for her happy and loving ways. She is befriended by Buffalo Bill who teachers her to ride on Soldier Boy. Soon girl and horse are in love with each other and she is given the horse for her own. But when the General must leave for Spain, taking his niece with him, Cathy has to say goodbye to her old friends. Whilst on their travels,Soldier Boy is stolen. Cathy is distraught and Soldier Boy goes through a succession of bad homes. Then in Spain, home of bull-fighitng, the pair are suddenly re-united, but at what cost?
REVIEW
I found this book to read on-line for free and, because of the eminence of its writer, the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, I decided I would give it a go. After reading it, I thought I would give this review partly as a warning to those soft hearted souls who are easily upset by unpleasant episodes in pony books, because this story does contain a couple of extremely disturbing episodes and is not suitable for sensitive readers or younger children. Also partly in case people did not know that this well-know author had actually written a story about a horse.
But first a little background as to why the story was written, which is integral to understanding the book. As well as being an author, Mark Twain was also a liberal and humanitarian, supporting various causes such as abolition and women’s rights. When he was approached by an actress friend Minnie Maddem Fiske and asked to write a story which would support her anti-bull fighting campaign and highlight the cruelty of the practice, he agreed and A Horse’s Tale was the result. It is therefore a polemic, much in the way that Black Beauty was, rather than out and out entertainment. Unfortunately it does not by any means equal Anna Sewell’s classic, having a number of flaws.
It does have its merits. It is, unsurprisingly given the author’s stature, extremely well-written. The dialogue is engaging and the humourous interludes are excellent. The way in which it contrasts the simple love and care that the young orphan Cathy has for all people and animals with the contempt certain humans feel for animals is very well done. As is the way it builds up a light cheery tone for most of the book which is suddenly interjected by a horrific conversation between two men, which shocks the reader out of his happy trance by its sudden plunge into horror and it’s complete disparity with everything that has gone so far. It also gives the reader a clue as to what is going to happen later. At the end of the book the same horror is revisited. Although it is a shocking and disturbing end to the story it does deliver the message that man’s cruelty to animals is liable to be turn itself around and hurt and degrade the human too.
Twain however gives the most damning indictment of man’s cruelty to animals in the superb piece where two horses are talking together and one tells the other of his father’s thoughts on life after death for horses, in which a Heaven where horses have to reside with humans is actually a type of Hell:
"When we die, Sage-Brush, do we go to heaven and dwell with man?"
"My father thought not. He believed we do not have to go there unless we deserve it."
Unfortunately this is one of the more subtle messages in the book. The ending which delivers the denouement of the message has all the subtletly of a sledge-hammer. It could I think have been written in a less graphic and heart-rending way, without losing the gist of what it wanted to say. It also seems extremely contrived and coincidental, as well as being somewhat rushed and ‘tacked on’ to the rest of the story, almost as if the author was hurrying to get his point over and done with now that the more interesting part of the story was completed. Also, unlike Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, it pulls away from the first person horse narrative when it tries to deliver its message, and so to my mind loses some of its emotional impact. Whereas Anna Sewell tried to make people realise that animals have feelings too by forcing them to see through the eyes of a horse, Twain in more conservative. He instead shows how animal cruelty can affect the human rather than the animal, in making Cathy suffer as much as the horse. It is a different approach and perhaps not as successful, as to non animal-lovers their focus will be completely on Cathy rather than on the horse or the issue of bull fighting per se.
Another problem is that it is very hard to write about animal cruelty without portraying scenes of it, which are distressing to the very people who are moved by the cruelty. The question is how does one try and convey such a message without becoming too distressing – is it even possible? A weighty issue which is beyond the scope of this review, but in short I think other authors such as Anna Sewell and Monica Dickens have done it better.
The book has also been criticised for its over-sentimentality and I do agree with this point. Cathy as a character is just too saccharine and far too good to be true and her final reunion with Soldier Boy as well as being distasteful and upsetting is mawkish. The fault has been attributed by some as the author identifying Cathy too closely with his dead daughter Susy or because he was still grieving for his wife who had died just a year earlier.
The epistolary style of the story in which much of the narrative is within letters written by various characters is, to most modern readers, a little strange and may seem to slow the pace of the story down. Although this is extremely rare in modern books (off-hand I can only think of one pony story where the narrative is shaped by letters to and from characters – The Marvellous Mongolian by James Aldridge) it is however quite a normal practice in older novels. The story also tends to jump from different styles and viewpoints, with part of it being from the viewpoint of the horse, part in the third person, part through letters. Again, slightly confusing to the modern reader not familiar with older novels. To me, these were not problems, as I have both read and studied many novels from the 18th and 19th centuries, and I found the story easy enough to read, but I think many modern readers and especially younger ones could be put off by the unfamiliar style.
In summary, I found it extremely hard to rate the book, because although the writing itself is excellent and there are times when the author's considerable skill shines through, the unsubtle and over-sentimental way in which the book’s message was hammered home marred it. And on the whole the story is perhaps not suitable for horse-lovers. However I do have to applaud the author for trying to make readers aware of the issues of animal cruelty in a time when it was not considered very important, and it is probably worth a read for anyone who can distance themselves somewhat from the disturbing episodes.
In the end I decided to rate it 2 horseshoes.
However if you want to judge it for yourself it can be read on-line here:
www.online-literature.com/twain/horses_tale/1/
MAIN CHARACTERS:
Soldier Boy – the horse of Buffalo Bill
Cathy – a small girl
Will Cody aka Buffalo Bill – the legendary American hero
General Alison – Commander of the fort and Cathy’s uncle
SUMMARY
A short novel/novella told partly from the point of view of a horse, partly from the viewpoints of other characters via letters they write. It is set mainly in an army fort in the Rocky Mountain area of American in the mid 19th century, although moves briefly to Spain near the end of the story.
Told partly from the viewpoint of Soldier Boy, who is a handsome black horse, somewhat famous amongst other horses as he is the steed of the legenday ‘Buffalo Bill’ William Cody, who is at the time of the story is working as a scout for the American army. When Cathy, the half Spanish 9 year orphaned niece of the Fort’s general is sent to stay with him, she soon becomes a favourite of all the soldiers for her happy and loving ways. She is befriended by Buffalo Bill who teachers her to ride on Soldier Boy. Soon girl and horse are in love with each other and she is given the horse for her own. But when the General must leave for Spain, taking his niece with him, Cathy has to say goodbye to her old friends. Whilst on their travels,Soldier Boy is stolen. Cathy is distraught and Soldier Boy goes through a succession of bad homes. Then in Spain, home of bull-fighitng, the pair are suddenly re-united, but at what cost?
REVIEW
I found this book to read on-line for free and, because of the eminence of its writer, the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, I decided I would give it a go. After reading it, I thought I would give this review partly as a warning to those soft hearted souls who are easily upset by unpleasant episodes in pony books, because this story does contain a couple of extremely disturbing episodes and is not suitable for sensitive readers or younger children. Also partly in case people did not know that this well-know author had actually written a story about a horse.
But first a little background as to why the story was written, which is integral to understanding the book. As well as being an author, Mark Twain was also a liberal and humanitarian, supporting various causes such as abolition and women’s rights. When he was approached by an actress friend Minnie Maddem Fiske and asked to write a story which would support her anti-bull fighting campaign and highlight the cruelty of the practice, he agreed and A Horse’s Tale was the result. It is therefore a polemic, much in the way that Black Beauty was, rather than out and out entertainment. Unfortunately it does not by any means equal Anna Sewell’s classic, having a number of flaws.
It does have its merits. It is, unsurprisingly given the author’s stature, extremely well-written. The dialogue is engaging and the humourous interludes are excellent. The way in which it contrasts the simple love and care that the young orphan Cathy has for all people and animals with the contempt certain humans feel for animals is very well done. As is the way it builds up a light cheery tone for most of the book which is suddenly interjected by a horrific conversation between two men, which shocks the reader out of his happy trance by its sudden plunge into horror and it’s complete disparity with everything that has gone so far. It also gives the reader a clue as to what is going to happen later. At the end of the book the same horror is revisited. Although it is a shocking and disturbing end to the story it does deliver the message that man’s cruelty to animals is liable to be turn itself around and hurt and degrade the human too.
Twain however gives the most damning indictment of man’s cruelty to animals in the superb piece where two horses are talking together and one tells the other of his father’s thoughts on life after death for horses, in which a Heaven where horses have to reside with humans is actually a type of Hell:
"When we die, Sage-Brush, do we go to heaven and dwell with man?"
"My father thought not. He believed we do not have to go there unless we deserve it."
Unfortunately this is one of the more subtle messages in the book. The ending which delivers the denouement of the message has all the subtletly of a sledge-hammer. It could I think have been written in a less graphic and heart-rending way, without losing the gist of what it wanted to say. It also seems extremely contrived and coincidental, as well as being somewhat rushed and ‘tacked on’ to the rest of the story, almost as if the author was hurrying to get his point over and done with now that the more interesting part of the story was completed. Also, unlike Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, it pulls away from the first person horse narrative when it tries to deliver its message, and so to my mind loses some of its emotional impact. Whereas Anna Sewell tried to make people realise that animals have feelings too by forcing them to see through the eyes of a horse, Twain in more conservative. He instead shows how animal cruelty can affect the human rather than the animal, in making Cathy suffer as much as the horse. It is a different approach and perhaps not as successful, as to non animal-lovers their focus will be completely on Cathy rather than on the horse or the issue of bull fighting per se.
Another problem is that it is very hard to write about animal cruelty without portraying scenes of it, which are distressing to the very people who are moved by the cruelty. The question is how does one try and convey such a message without becoming too distressing – is it even possible? A weighty issue which is beyond the scope of this review, but in short I think other authors such as Anna Sewell and Monica Dickens have done it better.
The book has also been criticised for its over-sentimentality and I do agree with this point. Cathy as a character is just too saccharine and far too good to be true and her final reunion with Soldier Boy as well as being distasteful and upsetting is mawkish. The fault has been attributed by some as the author identifying Cathy too closely with his dead daughter Susy or because he was still grieving for his wife who had died just a year earlier.
The epistolary style of the story in which much of the narrative is within letters written by various characters is, to most modern readers, a little strange and may seem to slow the pace of the story down. Although this is extremely rare in modern books (off-hand I can only think of one pony story where the narrative is shaped by letters to and from characters – The Marvellous Mongolian by James Aldridge) it is however quite a normal practice in older novels. The story also tends to jump from different styles and viewpoints, with part of it being from the viewpoint of the horse, part in the third person, part through letters. Again, slightly confusing to the modern reader not familiar with older novels. To me, these were not problems, as I have both read and studied many novels from the 18th and 19th centuries, and I found the story easy enough to read, but I think many modern readers and especially younger ones could be put off by the unfamiliar style.
In summary, I found it extremely hard to rate the book, because although the writing itself is excellent and there are times when the author's considerable skill shines through, the unsubtle and over-sentimental way in which the book’s message was hammered home marred it. And on the whole the story is perhaps not suitable for horse-lovers. However I do have to applaud the author for trying to make readers aware of the issues of animal cruelty in a time when it was not considered very important, and it is probably worth a read for anyone who can distance themselves somewhat from the disturbing episodes.
In the end I decided to rate it 2 horseshoes.
However if you want to judge it for yourself it can be read on-line here:
www.online-literature.com/twain/horses_tale/1/