This is the first volume of a planned three part study of Robert B. Parker’s western novels. The first part begins with a brief introduction, establishing the strong thematic connection between Parker’s first western, Gunman’s Rhapsody (a relatively accurate historical novel on the legend of Wyatt Earp), and the four western novels which comprise the Cole and Hitch series that followed. The relation between Gunman’s Rhapsody and the Cole and Hitch series consists rather obviously in Parker’s decision to characterize the classic American hero as a “man with a gun,” conspicuously stoic in demeanor. The connection between the historical western and the later series is solidified even further in Parker’s distinctive mythological view of the American west of the literary imagination. After making and delineating these connections, the remainder of the first volume is dedicated to an interpretation of the first two novels in the Cole and Hitch series, Appaloosa and Resolution. The second part will address the last two novels of the series, Brimstone and Blue-Eyed Devil. The third and final part of the study will return to Gunman’s Rhapsody. Because of the historical origin and grounding of Parker’s mythological view of the western, I interpret Parker’s first western novel as the most important. Considering Gunman’s Rhapsody the essential key to understanding Parker’s westerns as a whole, then, comparatively more time will be given to it. In the course of going into more detail in the interpretation of Gunman’s Rhapsody, the philosophical and mythological meaning of Wyatt Earp will be examined, and it will be argued that the famed gunman of history and legend was deliberately chosen by Parker as the best example of the stoic western hero.Chris Dacus has previously published essays of philosophical and literary criticism in The Cormac McCarthy Journal ("The West as Symbol of the Eschaton in Cormac McCarthy") and Southwestern American Literature ("Borderline Insanity: Modernity as a Political Problem in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian").
Solve a murder, save her mother, and stop the apocalypse? No problem. She has a foul-mouthed troll on her side. For Austin homicide detective Leira Berens, happy is running down bad guys and solving crimes. And she’s damn good at it. Which is why when the Light Elf prince is murdered, the king breaks a centuries old treaty and crosses between worlds to seek her help. Wait a min...
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