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The Way of the Strong
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1914
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About the author
Ridgwell Cullum
136 books4 followersPseudonym of Sidney Groves Burghard
Ridgwell Cullum was a British adventurer who left England at age seventeen to go gold-prospecting in the Transvaal. He then removed to the Cape of Good Hope, where he joined up with a league of freebooters fighting against the Boers. Unable to keep still, he crossed the seas and settled in the Yukon region of Canada. During his stay in that area, he narrowly escaped starving to death. He next crossed the Canadian border, and became a successful cattle-rancher in Montana. It is said that during this period he took part in Sioux uprisings on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations. In 1903, Cullum published his first novel, The Devil's Keg. After its immediate success, Cullum decided to become a full-time writer. Dozens of novels followed throughout a career of nearly forty years. His principal early works include, Hound from the North (1904), The Night Riders (1906), and The Compact (1909). In 1931, these, along with The Purchase Price (1917), were published in an omnibus edition of his works. Despite Zane Grey's success in England, Cullum continued to hold his own in sales and popularity. His characters are larger-than-life, his descriptions vivid, and his plot mechanisms fool-proof.
Ridgwell Cullum was a British adventurer who left England at age seventeen to go gold-prospecting in the Transvaal. He then removed to the Cape of Good Hope, where he joined up with a league of freebooters fighting against the Boers. Unable to keep still, he crossed the seas and settled in the Yukon region of Canada. During his stay in that area, he narrowly escaped starving to death. He next crossed the Canadian border, and became a successful cattle-rancher in Montana. It is said that during this period he took part in Sioux uprisings on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations. In 1903, Cullum published his first novel, The Devil's Keg. After its immediate success, Cullum decided to become a full-time writer. Dozens of novels followed throughout a career of nearly forty years. His principal early works include, Hound from the North (1904), The Night Riders (1906), and The Compact (1909). In 1931, these, along with The Purchase Price (1917), were published in an omnibus edition of his works. Despite Zane Grey's success in England, Cullum continued to hold his own in sales and popularity. His characters are larger-than-life, his descriptions vivid, and his plot mechanisms fool-proof.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 16, 2015
Leo ia a 'hard, unyielding man' who abandons his pregnant girlfriend in a Yukon snowstorm in order to steal another man's gold, all because his desire for wealth means more to him than either love or morality.
The girlfriend makes it south to her younger sister's, but dies in childbirth. In keeping with a deathbed promise, this sister, Monica Hanson, becomes the boy's legal mother in order to shield him from the truth of his illegitimacy.
Eighteen years pass and Monica has made a success of her life as secretary to Canada's biggest wheat magnate and the boy, Frank, has grown to manhood, thinking that Monica is his real mother and not knowing who his father is.
Yet he is closer to both of them than they know.
The Way of the Strong has a hell of a three-part plot that in different, less steely hands could easily have degenerated into a ridiculous melodrama, but Cullum, like his characters and in keeping with the moral of his title, is made of sterner stuff.
But thematically and emotionally it's something of a mess. The first part is something of an Alaskan adventure; the second part a story of love and jealousy with a twist (where the trap laid for one of the characters at the end is a little sloppy); then the third part becomes something different again, a story of Capital vs Labour. All the while the initial antagonism of the robbery and the novel's central secret await resolution.
I don't think the author leaves us in any doubt that Leo is primarily a bad man, yet he seems to favour him above his Socialist foes. In an important scene Leo says "You cannot force equality where the Divine Creator has seen fit to make things unequal", and although this is by no means a theosophical novel I can't help feeling that this was Callum's own view.
So what we have here is interesting, weighty, lengthy but flawed drama of the period. Leo's ruthlessness in itself is fair enough, but ultimately the fireproof devotion he receives from the female characters - who are otherwise strong - just couldn't wash with a contemporary reader. Nor will some regrettable racial bigotry.
The girlfriend makes it south to her younger sister's, but dies in childbirth. In keeping with a deathbed promise, this sister, Monica Hanson, becomes the boy's legal mother in order to shield him from the truth of his illegitimacy.
Eighteen years pass and Monica has made a success of her life as secretary to Canada's biggest wheat magnate and the boy, Frank, has grown to manhood, thinking that Monica is his real mother and not knowing who his father is.
Yet he is closer to both of them than they know.
The Way of the Strong has a hell of a three-part plot that in different, less steely hands could easily have degenerated into a ridiculous melodrama, but Cullum, like his characters and in keeping with the moral of his title, is made of sterner stuff.
But thematically and emotionally it's something of a mess. The first part is something of an Alaskan adventure; the second part a story of love and jealousy with a twist (where the trap laid for one of the characters at the end is a little sloppy); then the third part becomes something different again, a story of Capital vs Labour. All the while the initial antagonism of the robbery and the novel's central secret await resolution.
I don't think the author leaves us in any doubt that Leo is primarily a bad man, yet he seems to favour him above his Socialist foes. In an important scene Leo says "You cannot force equality where the Divine Creator has seen fit to make things unequal", and although this is by no means a theosophical novel I can't help feeling that this was Callum's own view.
So what we have here is interesting, weighty, lengthy but flawed drama of the period. Leo's ruthlessness in itself is fair enough, but ultimately the fireproof devotion he receives from the female characters - who are otherwise strong - just couldn't wash with a contemporary reader. Nor will some regrettable racial bigotry.
Displaying 1 of 1 review