Synopses & Reviews
Here and there among men, there are those who pause in thehurried rush to listen to the call of a life that is more real. He who sees toomuch is cursed for a dreamer, a fanatic, or a fool, by the mad mob, who, havingeyes, see not, ears and hear not, and refuse to understand.--From The Shepherd of the HillsOriginally published in 1907, The Shepherd of the Hills isHarold Bell Wright's most famous work. Pelican Publishing Company is honored tobring this classic novel back to print as part of the Pelican Pouch series.In The Shepherd of the Hills, Wright spins a tale ofuniversal truths across the years to the modern-day reader. His Eden in theOzarks has a bountiful share of life's enchantments, but is not without itsserpents. While Wright rejoices in the triumphs, grace, and dignity of hischaracters, he has not naively created a pastoral fantasyland where the pure atheart are spared life's struggles and pains. Refusing to yield to theoft-indulged temptation of painting for the reader the simple life of countryinnocents, Wright forthrightly shows the passions and the life-and-deathstruggles that go on even in the fairest of environments that man invades.The shepherd, an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzingrestlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollowin the Ozark hills. There he encounters Jim Lane, Grant Matthews, Sammy, YoungMatt, and other residents of the village, and gradually learns to find a peaceabout the losses he has borne and has yet to bear. Through the shepherd andthose around him, Wright assembles here a gentle and utterly masterfulcommentary on strength and weakness, failure and success, tranquility andturmoil, and punishment and absolution. This tale of life in the Ozarks continues to draw thousands of devotees tooutdoor performances in Branson, Missouri, where visitors can also see the cabinwhere the real Old Matt and Aunt Mollie lived.Harold Bell Wright also is the author of That Printer of Udell's(pb) and The Calling of Dan Matthews (pb), bothpublished by Pelican.
Synopsis
Wright assembles here a masterful commentary on failure and success, tranquility and turmoil, and punishment and absolution.