The Mucker

Okay Burroughs adventure story, but you've really got to suspend your disbelief -- perhaps even more so than for his Tarzan books. In this case, it seems a little diction training can turn a brawling, lifelong street criminal into a high-minded aesthetic. Hmmm. Tough to swallow, but still interesting from an action/adventure standpoint.

Ha! certainly another one of M. Burroughs masterpiece. A unique concept wrapped in the most garrulous yet eloquent words that are seasoned with the humor and trials of tramp life and fatherly love-or so I thought. This story is of one of the books that can fill in the gap that so hungers for mystery, adventure and love, the kind of gap that the termination of the Sherlock Series had bore into the hearts of its readers.
The story begins with a boy starting for the wider road of destruction by a well calculated burglary. And after setting out by himself into the world of tramp-hood filled with its own serenity and trials, he realized that it wasn't easy as it seemed when he met up with tramps who lusted for easy wealth, namely, his boon.
As the story starts with him running from the house he stole from, his story goes on in a wild chase. As to how his actions will bring him, or how Providence will act, whether he meets an allie(s} or be caught by the police because of two murders that have been accounted to the name he assumed-I shall spare you the thrill of unraveling the mystery of The Oakdale Affair.

The only drawback is that its formatted as a short story, because it is. The best advice I can ever give to its prospect readers is to give it ample time for it has no chapters to stop at and the story needs about 4 to 6 hours to finish without sacrificing the time for sinking-in even for the most experienced reader.
-G.


P.S. I was head over heels near the end... Ha!

I enjoyed reading this book. It's been a years since I've read an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel.
This eBook contains both "The Mucker" and The "Return of the Mucker". The Return of The Mucker begins at Part II of this book. The The Return of the Mucker eBook on this site is the same as Part II of this book. I'm now reading The Oakdale Affair, which is the 3rd in the Mucker Trilogy.

A lot of fun, with everything from street slums to pirate ships, to tropical islands filled with head-hunting natives, and back to New York City high life. A wonderful, now campy, read that had me considering reading ahead - it was that good!

A 'mucker' is made into a gallant gentleman. This is one of ERB's most sought after story and he had high hope the Billy Byrne would be one of his most popular characters - alas - it did not turn out so. Interesting to compare the first Tarzan story and see the contrasts and parallels between Billy Byrne and Tarzan and their character developements into gentlemen. Burroughs gives apes ('Kala') more humane traits than men of the inner cities and slums. Despite being an adventure story, ERB's book seems to make some indictment of the men of 'world' of the inner city and slums of the era. I wonder if he was influenced by 'muckracker' writers that started in the 1880's and continued into the 1920's.