Barnabas Sackett falls afoul of a pampered nobleman by, well, laughing at him. And then failing to be easy to beat up. The nobleman vows revenge and keeps trying to find Barnabas and wreak his vengeance, but Barnabas just keeps getting wind of his attempts, or slipping through his fingers, or beating him in various ways.
Barnabas, meanwhile, never makes any secret of the fact that, basically, he's on his way to America. It's the early 1600s, he's living in England and wanting to start life fresh somewhere bigger and wilder, and America sounds like the perfect spot.
But, while he's just about to embark for the New World, he gets shanghaied by friends of that same nobleman. But he manages to stay alive all the way across the ocean while surrounded by ruffians aboard ship, then escapes them and sets about trading with the American Indians for furs. And then he gets kidnapped again, and escapes again, etc.
Barnabas has a great knack for making friends with awesome guys like him who are brave, honorable, and doughty. Unfortunately, his nemesis has a great knack for killing off Barnabas's new friends while trying to kill Barnabas. But some of them do survive. Barnabas eventually makes his way back to England with his fortune pretty well made. The woman of his dreams agrees to marry him, and they get ready to go back to America and build a new home together there.
It's just a roaring good yarn, I tell you. And when was the last time you read a Louis L'Amour book that involved going to see a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Globe Theater in London... with William Shakespeare as one of the actors? I mean, how cool is that?
Particularly Good Bits:
"Each man owes a debt to his family, his country and his species to leave sons and daughters who will lead, inspire and create" (p. 18).
"A man needs heroes. He needs to believe in strength, nobility and courage. Otherwise we become sheep to be herded to the slaughterhouse of death" (p. 58).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for lots of violent fights, deaths, escapes... but all told in non-gruesome or terrifying ways. It does have a handful of old-fashioned cuss words. There's also just the smallest insinuation that something really bad could happen to the female love interest when she falls into the hands of some bad guys, but she comes through just fine.
This is my first book read for My Years with the Sacketts and my third book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.
Clearly, I need this book.
ReplyDeleteKatie, um, yes.
DeleteI particularly like the quotes you included. This sounds like a very fun book.
ReplyDeleteDKoren, yeah, I really love how L'Amour phrased both of those ideas. It's a very fun book, but with some serious ideas too!
DeleteThat's awesome that you are already making a dent in your books off your shelf. I need to do that as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cindy! I'm really, really working on actually reading all those wonderful books I've accumulated :-)
DeleteThis sounds FABULOUS, and I shall have to get it from the library sometime! (I actually asked my aunt to lend me her copy after reading this post...only to realize she owns To the Far Blue Mountains instead, which I think is also about Barnabas? but a sequel.) I'm glad your Year with the Sacketts is off to such a good start! I haven't read all the Sacketts books, but many of the ones I have read have been my favorites, so they're a fictional family I'm very fond of. :P
ReplyDeleteSarah, it is! Yes, To the Far Blue Mountains is the next book, a sequel to this one. I expect it'll be all about Barnabas and his quest to see what is behind the mountains. I've never read any Sacketts books, though a couple of them have meandered through other L'Amour books I've read.
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