A Tale of the Western Plains

by G.A. Henty

In this story, Henty crafts a rousing adventure drawing on real life cowboy stories. "In treating cowboy life", he tells us, "indeed, it may well be said that truth is stranger than fiction". Henty accurately describes the life of the true American frontiersmen -- mining, hunting, lumberjacking, cattle ranching, trapping, fighting hostile Indian tribes, transporting the reader back to the early days of the Wild West with enough mystery thrown in to capture the reader's imagination.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Westerns, School, Juvenile, Childrens, Classics

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1892

About the author

George Alfred Henty, better known as G.A. Henty, began his storytelling career with his own children. After dinner, he would spend and hour or two in telling them a story that would continue the next day. Some stories took weeks! A friend was present one day and watched the spell-bound reaction of his children suggesting Henty write down his stories so others could enjoy them. He did. Henty wrote approximately 144 books in addition to stories for magazines and was known as "The Prince of Story-Tellers" and "The Boy's Own Historian." One of Mr. Henty's secretaries reported that he would quickly pace back and forth in his study dictating stories as fast as the secretary could record them.

Henty's stories revolve around fictional boy heroes during fascinating periods of history. His heroes are diligent, intelligent, and dedicated to their country and cause in the face, at times, of great peril... Henty's heroes fight wars, sail the seas, discover land, conquer evil empires, prospect for gold, and a host of other exciting adventures. Along the way, they meet famous personages... In short, Henty's heroes live through tumultuous historic eras meeting leaders of that time. Understanding the culture of the time period becomes second nature as well as comparing/contrasting the society of various cultures.

Reviews

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other Henty historical fiction novels this is superb reading, in so far as it accurately exposes the reader to period history. That Henty aptly combines a compelling and riveting plot with true history is undeniable. Absent the history lesson the story itself is good fun, but paired with the history lesson it is a treasure.

Unfortunately this particular Henty novel was originally published in 1892. Henty's history in this case is consequently shaped by many of the inherent prejudices and American hubris typical of the time. Henty's portrail of the American Indians, and mindless redskins attacking innocent settlers for no reason is of course inexcusable under a 21st century lens. As a read-aloud for young children the book then fails. My boys thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the characters, but I found that I had to pause reading frequently for a discussion of why these "redskins" may be feeling a little hostile toward said "innocents."

Overall the story was great, the characters wonderful, and the accompanying discussion was valuable. However, were I to do it over again, I would introduce this book to them at a later age, maybe 12, so that we may better appreciate the inherent flaws in Henty's attitude and treatment of Native Americans.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars & 5/10 hearts. This is one of my favourite Henty books. I love the setting—the cowboys are fascinating and often hilarious, and so are the miners. I love Hugh too. ;) There are mentions of gambling, drinking, and murdering; also a very humorous but erroneous defence of swearing. Also some racism against Indians and Mexicans. This story is not historical fiction but simply a novel, fast-paced and always interesting. I deeply enjoyed this book each time I read it.

A Favourite Quote: “The request has all the force of an order, but it is not so conveyed. It is put in the form, ‘I want you to do so and so;’ or, ‘Will you saddle up and do so and so?’ It is just as easy to put it in that form as in any other[.]”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘...still, I wouldn't say that when it comes to your turn to be on guard, Lightning, it would be altogether safe for you to put your rifle down and take an hour's sleep.’
“‘Well, I am not likely to try that experiment anyhow, Broncho.’”

*review to be updated*

[A Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting, suspenseful, and surprisingly interestingly educational about cattle ranching

[Lisa Reit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wordy, not at all PC for current times, yet an interesting story and perspective on the wild wild west. The main character is memorable and top quality.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Story:
William Tunstall, a miner in California receives word that his brother has died back in England and has left him to be a guardian of his son Hugh. Bill leaves for England to claim the estate and is murdered by Symonds, a gambler, who steals the papers proving Bill's identity and goes back to England posing as Bill. After a quarrel with his "uncle", Hugh leaves for the west and leads the hard and exciting life of the cowboy. The reader is taken through his adventures with Indians, Mexicans, miners, and kidnappings. After several years in the west, Hugh meets the two good friends of his real uncle and learns the fate that became him. The story ends with the three men going back to England and executing justice to the false uncle. Hugh gets his Estate back and in and in the end lives happily ever after.

What I didn't like:
As another reviewer also stated, it seems there was a great prejudice against the Indians during Henty's time and this greatly affects the writing of the book. In this book the Indians are portrayed as extremely cruel and heartless. They kill and plunder people for simply no reason at all which is really ridiculous. Of course you can have bad Indians just as you can have bad white men but if the Indians were killing and murdering it was probably because the white men were stealing their territory. I would like to do some research and find what the Indian's situation was at this time.

I also will say that I didn't really read this book for it's literature quality. But I never read Henty for that reason. I read Henty to learn some History and read an exciting story. You have to understand that most of his stories were simply ones he made up in his head dictated to his secretaries who in turn wrote them down.


What I did like:

Well, my number on thing that I liked about this was the time period. I just find western times so interesting. I also feel confident that the history was correct because of what he said in the preface.

"The picture I have given of their (the cowboys) life can be relied upon, and it's adventures and dangers are in no degree colored, as I have taken them from the lips of a near relative of my own who was for some years working as a cowboy in New Mexico. He was an actor in many of the scenes described, and so far from my having heightened or embellished them in full it would, I am sure, have seemed to you that the story was too improbable to be true. In treating the cowboy life, indeed, it may well be said that truth is stranger than fiction."

I felt like I was learning all about the cowboy life while reading an exciting story.

I would recommend this to:
Ages: 13+
Just because of reading difficulty and a little western ... can I say violence? Maybe that's too strong of a word.

Overall:
Good book with lots of good history. You will learn a lot from it as long as you keep in your mind the prejudice against the Indians as being incorrect.

[Will Harrub · Rating 4 out of 5]

G.A. Henry’s forte is creating an action-packed book revolving around usually one young man that is placed in a unique historical setting. This book obviously has the historical setting of the Cowboys and Indians type Wild West set in the early 1800s.

Overall, a pretty good book. The book starts off with an excellent storyline and leaves you wondering how the entire story will end up playing out. This cliffhanger type of suspense is the book’s best quality along with several action-packed and page turning scenes that make the book memorable.

Two flaws with the book that must be pointed out are as follows: 1) Despite starting out with an excellent storyline, Henty in this book doesn’t exactly carry out the storyline throughout the majority of the book. By that I mean, it seems to play out in a random way simply detailing the adventures and excursions of the young protagonist with no clear direction as to the storyline. Now, Henty saves himself in that the closing chapters do a phenomenal job of bringing the book full circle and answering the suspenseful question we are left with at the beginning of the book and the close to the overall storyline is excellent, thus justifying a 4 star rating.

2) The other flaw is that with Henry’s sometimes over-descriptive writing style, these books usually need a slight romantic side-plot in order to keep the pages turning. This book certainly lacked that, more so than any other Henty book I’ve read, as the romantic connection the protagonist eventually captured didn’t present itself until the last chapter.

Despite these two flaws, this is a book worthy of a 4-star rating as the setting and characters are exciting and interesting and the closing chapters do an above adequate job of making up for the seemingly random and insignificant turns in the plot throughout the midsection of the book.

[Julie Havener · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Henty for the way he weaves a story of history. This book is a good one maybe one of my favorites now but I still like many others well. I’m a sucker for a action packed, historical story. Thanks G. A.

[John Senne · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was ok. not one his better books though.