The mark of zorro johnston mcculley pdf

She also wants a lover who is romantic and passionate, and Don Diego seems uninterested in either romance or passion. When Lolita encounters Zorro it is a different story. This is a man whom she could love.

And Zorro is obviously interested. While Don Diego is listlessly wooing Lolita a rival has appeared on the scene in the form of Captain Ramon. This is something that Zorro will not tolerate. And while all this happening the Pulido family is facing not just complete ruin but the accusation of treason.

He will also have to protect his old friend, the friar Felipe. Don Diego has formed an unlikely friendship with the boastful and violent Sergeant Gonzales. Gonzales is flattered to have a friend of such high rank, and the friendship is useful to Don Diego.

The true identity of Zorro is not revealed until the end of the book but anyone who has ever seen any Zorro movie, comic book or TV episode already knows who he is and it really is blindingly obvious.

By the time The Mark of Zorro appeared in book form in the secret would have been known to everyone who had seen the enormously popular movie.

Beginning of spoilers You have been warned. He is in fact the notorious outlaw hero Zorro. This cover has yet another advantage - it allows Zorro to keep tabs on the local troops. Don Diego has strengthened this advantage by befriending. End of spoilers. This is pure pulp fiction, with action aplenty. The plot races along in fine melodramatic style. This version of Zorro is as heroic and honourable as his various movie and television incarnations but rather more ruthless. The violence is also somewhat more graphic.

The unusual and exotic setting is a major plus and is utilised quite effectively. Thoroughly enjoyable story-telling, and definitely worth a read. Aug 28, Jay Schutt rated it it was amazing Shelves: owned , classics. If you are old enough, like me, to remember the late 50's Zorro series by Disney, then this is a must read for you.

It's full of the swashbuckling adventure and romance that you would expect of the Old California era. The sly fox, Zorro, has the soldiers of Los Angeles running in circles as he dashes about the countryside using two identities protecting the oppressed and persecuted. A fun read. Mar 31, Debbie Zapata rated it it was amazing Shelves: 21gutenberg. And at some point during my reading, I realized that even though I knew the Zorro story since childhood and had seen most of the movie versions, I had never read the original story that introduced our hero to the world.

So here we are, thanks to Project Gutenberg, which has the edition of the tale available free at this link. This is not the original original.

That was published in in a pulp fiction magazine of the day. This is because Fairbanks had taken the story and created a film version in And the rest, as they say, is history. This story was fun to read, fast-paced, and very exciting. Snappy dialogue, a great contrast between Don Diego Vega and his alter ego Zorro, and plenty of humor too, since of course the reader knows who is who throughout the tale.

A couple things that caught my wandering eye here. Zorro only draws his trademark Z once, and then it was on the forehead of a man he was having a duel with. He was much more subtle about signing things now than he became later, I guess. He pulls on some "sheepskin riding mittens". Maybe back in gloves were sometimes called mittens, but we all know there is a big difference between the two. I knew Diego was wearing gloves, because it would be very hard to ride a horse while wearing mittens, but for the longest time I could not get that image out of my head.

So fair warning: if you should read this story, remind yourself not to picture Diego or Zorro wearing mittens! View 1 comment. With a pistol in his left hand aimed steadily at a treacherous mob, the masked and caped avenger barely flinches as he parries the thrusts from a heavily mustachioed sergeant in a candle lit tavern. Now that's some good Zorro right there.

And all by the close of the second chapter. I'm just a sucker for swashbuckling adventure full of vigilante justice, and 's "The Curse of Capristrano," later known as "The Mark of Zorro," pushes all the right buttons. A favorite of my mother's, Zorro became With a pistol in his left hand aimed steadily at a treacherous mob, the masked and caped avenger barely flinches as he parries the thrusts from a heavily mustachioed sergeant in a candle lit tavern.

A favorite of my mother's, Zorro became one of my first heroes as a child, the prototype of the costumed American superheroes of the last century. An affable, mild-mannered gentleman with a secret alter-ego who punishes injustice, who always seems to be there when help is needed, who is the mouth of those who have no voice, who faces danger with good-natured humor, and saves the day with a flourish, Zorro is everything a little boy ever hoped being a man could be, and everything a little girl could hope to love.

I encourage any fan of classic adventure to read this, the first Zorro story, if you haven't already, and to give it a second read if you have. I also challenge enlightened contemporary readers who get their kicks from deconstructing such classics, seeking to critique this as a product of the white patriarchy full of stereotyped gender roles, to give it a try. Both characters are as tough as they are noble, and fine role models for anyone.

This isn't to say the book is not without it's flaws, and some scenes were rather irritating. For example, the concept of ardor is a main theme of the novel, and thus we have the following exchange which comes across as awkward to modern sensibilities: In asking for her hand in marriage, Don Diego toys with Lolita, pretending to be milk toast and thoughtless, purposefully testing her to see if she would easily consent to wed him for his money. Of course, she doesn't know that Don Diego is really Zorro, and this leads to a comedy of errors for a while.

In one scene, she berates Diego for his soft attitude toward a captain who insulted her. That's a bit high maintenance, don't you think? The other thing that annoyed me was when Don Diego witnesses one of his friends cruelly whipped unjustly. His friend is battered and bleeding, but what does he do? He starts complaining about his love woes to his friend, who is kindly enough to listen and even give advice though I'm sure he'd have preferred to maybe put some ice on his flayed skin.

But for the most part this is a tight adventure, short and well-paced, with very likeable characters, especially Sergeant Gonzales, one of most sympathetic secondary villains in any story. And the novel has something important to say, reminding modern readers that it takes serious bravery to risk our own comforts to stop social injustice, not just virtue signaling and racy Tweets.

It also encourages people to always act with dignity and grace even in the face of adversity. So eat a hardy helping of "meal mush and goat's milk," strap on your boots, and hop in the saddle for this wild literary ride and learn why Zorro remains a timeless classic. Feb 19, Dan Schwent rated it it was ok Shelves: pulp. This isn't a bad book. There just aren't any surprises if you know Zorro's true identity before you go in.

View all 5 comments. A pulpy knockoff of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Not particularly well written. Its fine but if you've seen or read any version of the character then you'll find little of interest. While many people have stolen from the Scarlet Pimpernel over the years, such as batman, there are different levels of theft. Most Batman stories for example are just taking the general concept, whereas 'The Dark-Knight Rises' steals very particular plot points of course the rest of that movie is a remake of 'Rocky III' A pulpy knockoff of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Most Batman stories for example are just taking the general concept, whereas 'The Dark-Knight Rises' steals very particular plot points of course the rest of that movie is a remake of 'Rocky III' anyway.

This story falls into the latter category plagiarizing at least one major element from The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel right down to a particular name, now more associated with superheroes view spoiler [the Avengers hide spoiler ].

Their is one spot of originality unless its stolen from something i havn't read, which is quite possible ; , which is the love story. This focuses on the development of the relation between the male and female lead, in the Pimpernel they're already married and all we get to explain why Marguerite would marry such a fop is that he seemed different before the wedding :lol. Another element which i don't think they meant to steal is the problematic morality of the story, which it shares with Pimpernel.

In Pimpernel it was that he was rescuing the rich from the poor, in this its the treatment of the natives. In both cases the hero only comes down on the right side as far as is acceptable for his social position. The only real surprise for me in this was the tone. Its actually very close to that of the Antonio Banderas film, i really assumed it would be more serious. Fun enough i suppose but i couldn't bring myself to give it 3 stars.

Perhaps more acceptable if you don't read a lot.. Dec 04, Sidharth Vardhan rated it it was amazing Shelves: crimanal-friends , list-guardian , 8-usa. It is only while reading this that I thought about how much Batman in particular and masked heroes in general owe to Zorro - the similarities of masks, twin identities and black costumes used to hide in darkness aside; Bruce Wayne was watching a theatrical adoption of Zorro when his parents were killed in the original version of atman.

McCulley also apparently wrote in another book about another person who was inspired by a bat to fight against crimes. As if this wasn't enough, he also seem to h It is only while reading this that I thought about how much Batman in particular and masked heroes in general owe to Zorro - the similarities of masks, twin identities and black costumes used to hide in darkness aside; Bruce Wayne was watching a theatrical adoption of Zorro when his parents were killed in the original version of atman.

As if this wasn't enough, he also seem to have laid seeds of contribution toward creation of Joker in another book where he apparently wrote about a villian who leaves a mark behind.

And all this from a writer who doesn't even have a profile picture on goodreads! As for actual reading experience, you will have to look past racism of the book. Apart from that it is even funny at times. You will probably guess from very early on who Zorro is but thats hardly the point after decades of masked hero genre inspired by the work, This would be Anthony Hopkins's Zorro as a young man before he settled down. Originally titled The Curse of Capistrano and written by a man with more pseudonyms than Aragon son of Arathorn, this story is just a grand old good time.

If you want deep philosophical thoughts, look elsewhere. This is a swashbuckling novel of the finest order, and everyone is just a little over the top or a lot, ha!

Some of the material is dated, but not cringingly so and I thought it held up remarkably well considering it'll be years old next year. The narration by Armando Duran is very well done and he's got a nice soothing voice that suits the characters well and expresses just the right amount of flavor and spice to make the story jump off the page without being too overly dramatic.

It's just overly dramatic enough. View all 6 comments. Feb 05, Chris rated it really liked it. Ah Zorro. 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 Ah 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. 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 s 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. Dec 12, Faith rated it it was amazing.

Beautiful, glorious, hilarious! I do appreciate this book for funding the exciting Zorro character that I loved to watch movies about as a kid. In , the story was made into a silent film that was hugely successful, which led the author to creating a whole series about the character. Set in early nineteenth-century California before it became a U.

Gonzales who rule the native people with cruelty and oppression. Last week, around 33, people downloaded books from my site - 9 people donated. I really need your help to keep this site running. You don't need a PayPal or Stripe account and it only takes a minute. No doubt I shall not have to wait long. That big Sergeant Gonzales is on the trail, I understand, and may have discovered track of me. She turned her back and gave it, and once more he pressed his lips to the palm.

And then she felt herself being turned slowly, and her eyes looked deep into his. A thrill seemed to run through her. She realized that he retained her hand, and she pulled it away.

And then she turned and ran quickly across the patio and into the house. With her heart pounding at her ribs, she stood behind the curtains at a window and watched. Then he put his sombrero on, looked once at the house, and stalked away. She heard the galloping hoofs of a horse die in the distance. I train Japanese jujitsu and once had a short adventure with kendo.

I like RPGs, board games, geography, history, soccer and books. Wait, come back, I love books. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content. He stepped back, removed his sombrero, and bowed low before her. A laggard at love—and in your presence? What ails the man? Is he ill? Somebody may come and see you here!