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    The Mark of Zorro
    The Mark of Zorro
    The Mark of Zorro
    Ebook267 pages3 hours

    The Mark of Zorro

    By Johnston McCulley

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    To free his people, a masked rider goes to war against an empire in this swashbuckling adventure story

    In the untamed wilds of California, evil reigns at the mission of Los Angeles. A sinister governor grinds his subjects beneath his boot, bleeding them dry for the sake of the Spanish crown. Only one man dares challenge him. By day, Don Diego Vega is a debonair playboy known for his devil-may-care attitude. But by night, he dons a black mask and a black cape, and fights in the name of justice. When he bests his enemies, he carves a Z in their cheek: the mark of Zorro.
     
    The inspiration for countless films, comic books, and stories, The Mark of Zorro is one of the great action novels of all time.
     
    This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateMar 15, 2016
    ISBN9781504034623
    Author

    Johnston McCulley

    Johnston McCulley (1883-1958) was an American novelist and short story writer. Born and raised in Illinois, McCulley began his career with The Police Gazette as a police reporter. During World War I, he served as a public affairs author for the United States Army. After the war, he began writing stories for such pulp magazines as Argosy and All-Story Weekly. His novel The Curse of Capistrano, serialized in 1919, marked the first appearance in print of his beloved character Zorro, a masked vigilante fighting on behalf of California’s Chicano and indigenous populations. Spawning countless adaptations for film and television, Zorro made McCulley’s name as a leading popular fiction writer of the early twentieth century.

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    Reviews for The Mark of Zorro

    3.5/5

    103 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 4/5
      Mark of Zorro is a mask man.He mask only eyes.He is said that he is thief.He have brave and gentle.A woman,Lolita,is Don carlos's daunter.Carlos is rich.Don Diego Vega too.Carlos try to marry Lolita and Diego.But,she reject the marry.And she love Zorro.Zorro sometimes helps her.She loves him more and more.But Diego hide his real him...Please read the last.this story is very good and interesting.I saw the Mask Of Zorro in the movie.But the movie is not same this book.I think this story is real.I am glad to read this book.Especially,the end is very interesting.I think you surprised.So please read this book.
    • 4/5
      Originally written in 1919, it is a typical hero/villin story and I loved it. Very easy listening. Brought back the many nights I sat and watched Zorro on TV with my plate of Spanish Rice which was a staple of my mother's dinner menu. The narrator had a Spanish accent which added to the dramatazation.
    • 4/5
      A fun read. What I remember is the exceptional, nay, unbelievable intelligence of Zorro's horse. There is a preface with a history of the story and the California in which Zorro lived.
    • 3/5
      This is the original pulp tale, serialized in All-Story Weekly, that spawned the movie The Mark of Zorro and was later republished under that title.The story line—especially the ending—is somewhat different than what we know from Hollywood, but the essential ingredients are there: the dashing Zorro, the foppish Don Diego, the beautiful Lolita, the corrupt government officials, the swordfights...It was a lot of fun in typical pulp style.
    • 4/5
      Ah Zorro. As a kid, I remember really enjoying Disney's Zorro series with Guy Williams. More recently I've had a lot of fun with the new Antonio Banderas movies. However, I'd never read any of the original adventures so I decided it was high time I change that. Being very familiar with the character as presented in TV and film, I found a few things surprising as I read his first adventure The Mark of Zorro. Firstly, I was a little bummed that I already knew about the character because the author holds back and doesn't reveal Zorro's true identity until the very end of the novel. I obviously knew who Zorro really and had a hard time trying to force myself to forget. Based on the characters in the story and the way things played out, I suspect it still would've been fairly easy to guess at his identity, but I suspect it would have made the experience a bit different.Another difference that I found interesting was the stark similarities to another literary hero with a secret identity…The Scarlet Pimpernel. Like the Pimpernel, Zorro's true identity is kept secret by the hero's acting like a complete "fop" or "dandy." Don Diego feels faint over the slightest exertion and nearly swoons at the mention of any type of violence or bloodshed. He is Perciville Blakeney taken to an even greater extreme.Probably the biggest distinction (and somewhat a disappointment) was that the Zorro of the novel was a bit less of a swashbuckler than in the recent productions. While the recent movies had Zorro bounding around fighting dozens of soldiers at a time, the Zorro of the book is certainly an adept swordsman but he forces situations into a very equitable one-on-one fight by forcing other would-be-attackers into corners or holding them at bay with his pistol. While he is still an imposing force and certainly daring to be confronting soldiers in their own garrisons, the action sequences left a bit to be desired and were considerably less tense and exciting than I had hoped for.That general sense of "less than hoped for" sort of sums up my reception to this story. Again, this is likely due to my being tainted by the high action of recent film productions. This is a well crafted story that brings together latin american romance with the fun adventure of an unknown hero standing up for the rights of the poor and oppressed. The character development was interesting but fell into stereotypes at times…again, this could be partly due to film and tv reproductions. These characters were likely not as stereotypical in the early 1900s and in fact I suspect that this book helped form some of the stereotypes we now enjoy in our media today.Generally I'm glad I read it. I was surprised at the end of the book to see Zorro essentially hang up his cape, hat and mask and state that he would no longer be riding as Zorro. It appears this was intended to be a single book adventure with no long term plans for the hero. The popularity apparently led to additional novels by the same author as well as some additional stories by other authors. I'm curious to see if the continuing stories have more adventure or intrigue. Eventually I may find out.***3.5 out of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      I'm giving this only four stars, provisionally, as I am eagerly anticipating the Isabel Allende rendition hereof. In this, the original 1919 novel that started the series, The Mark of Zorro gets carved on the faces of his defeated dueling opponent! Dark and dramatic! He might even be the first "secret identity" hero, although I need to check that.First Line of Chapter One:"Again the sheet of rain beat against the roof of red Spanish tile, and the wind shrieked like a soul in torment, and smoke puffed from the big fireplace as the sparks were showered over the hard dirt floor."What's not to like?!
    • 5/5
      This seminal Zorro story, originally published under the name "The Curse of Capistrano", is an extremely enjoyable adventure tale. For those few souls who have never heard of Zorro, he is 18th century southern California's version of a Spanish Robin Hood or the Scarlet Pimpernel - a masked gentleman righting wrongs and protecting the oppressed from unjust persecution. I was pleasantly surprised that in this original book the soldiers, especially the sergeant, were more competent than they are typically portrayed in dramatizations. This makes them more believable and at the same time, more venial.
    • 4/5
      Not great writing. Riddled with plot holes. Obvious plot twists. Black & white characters. And yet that is exactly the source of pleasure in this book. It is great pulp that doesn't take itself too seriously. The ending is farcical, brilliant, funny and moving all at once.

      I heard this as a B. J. Harrison classic tales unabridged audio book. Highly recommend the podcast and his voice acting. He brought the book to life which may explain why I enjoyed it so much.
    • 5/5
      Such a fun story. Everything you expect for the classic pulp stories of the past. Swashbuckling adventure, romance, mysteries, and heroism. The chapters are very short, making for some quick pick-up-and-read sessions. A must read for any Zorro fan who only know the character from the excellent Disney 1957 series or the more famous Antonio Banderas The Mask of Zorro movie.
    • 4/5
      It seems that more often than not when I read a book from a century or two ago that it doesn’t translate well. Often, the dialogue is stilted, there’s an over reliance on universal viewpoint narration, the characters don’t come off as authentic, and it’s generally not a pleasant read. All of these points are why The Curse of Capistrano was a pleasant surprise. This novel doesn’t have any of these shortcomings. The novel moved at a good pace. The dialogue was solid, although there was an over reliance on certain sayings, such as “By the saints”, which they used about 8000 times. The character of Zorro was a fun one. There was lots of good action scenes and some clever turns of phrase. The identity of Zorro came as no surprise, since I figured it out very early on in the story.One of the things that I found interesting is that although I had never read this particular story before, it seemed so familiar. And it occurred to me that many other books, shows, and movies have borrowed from this novel, the most notable being The Princess Bride. This is a classic action tale with a riveting conclusion that I would recommend reading.Carl Alves – author of Two For Eternity
    • 4/5
      I am frustrated because I do not know enough (yet) to decide whether this is a great or terrible book. The author is either a genius or an imbecile and the story is either a cultural prototype or painfully derivative. I just don't know.

      Is the stilted language an insightful imitation of a badly translated story or merely bad?

      Is the plot stunningly original or numbingly repetitive?

      Are the characters the brilliant progenitors of stereotypes or only shadowy successors?

      Bob Kane admits the Zorro influence on Batman, but how much has McCulley cribbed from The Scarlet Pimpernel? How much comes from earlier sources (it feels like Robin Hood to me...)

      This is why I read, because each new book is not only enjoyable in and of itself but adds layers of context and history that allow me to reevaluate what I already have read, while simultaneously suggesting avenues of exploration I have never considered before.

    Book preview

    The Mark of Zorro - Johnston McCulley

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