![]() Basic story line: An older city gentleman moves to the Ozark mountains to get away from society, purge his demons and try to make amends for something in his past. ![]() I won't go into detail on the plot because there's a lot of reviews on this already. Still, I'm a firm believer in "the right book at the right time" and this was the right time so it all worked out. Have you ever been so intimidated by the plethora of 5 star reviews of a particular book that you dare not pick it up for fear of disappointment? This happens to me occasionally and is probably the main reason this lovely 1907 dustjacketed book stood in my bookcase for well over a year before I read it. Harold Bell Wright also is the author of That Printer of Udell's (pb) and The Calling of Dan Matthews (pb), both published by Pelican. ![]() This tale of life in the Ozarks continues to draw thousands of devotees to outdoor performances in Branson, Missouri, where visitors can also see the cabin where the real Old Matt and Aunt Mollie lived. Through the shepherd and those around him, Wright assembles here a gentle and utterly masterful commentary on strength and weakness, failure and success, tranquility and turmoil, and punishment and absolution. There he encounters Jim Lane, Grant Matthews, Sammy, Young Matt, and other residents of the village, and gradually learns to find a peace about the losses he has borne and has yet to bear. The shepherd, an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow in the Ozark hills. Refusing to yield to the oft-indulged temptation of painting for the reader the simple life of country innocents, Wright forthrightly shows the passions and the life-and-death struggles that go on even in the fairest of environments that man invades. While Wright rejoices in the triumphs, grace, and dignity of his characters, he has not naively created a pastoral fantasyland where the pure at heart are spared life's struggles and pains. His Eden in the Ozarks has a bountiful share of life's enchantments, but is not without its serpents. In The Shepherd of the Hills, Wright spins a tale of universal truths across the years to the modern-day reader. Pelican Publishing Company is honored to bring this classic novel back to print as part of the Pelican Pouch series. Originally published in 1907, The Shepherd of the Hills is Harold Bell Wright's most famous work. He who sees too much is cursed for a dreamer, a fanatic, or a fool, by the mad mob, who, having eyes, see not, ears and hear not, and refuse to understand." "Here and there among men, there are those who pause in the hurried rush to listen to the call of a life that is more real.
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