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摘要
摘要
The most familiar scene in Western American lore is the gunfight: two men slowly walk toward each other, ready to test speed, accuracy, and nerve in a duel to the death. Writers of the American West have long written this scene--sometimes to the point of tired formula. From hundreds of such stories, James C. Work has collected thirteen that feature unique and surprising treatments.
Spanning a century, the stories in Gunfight! prove the popularity, vigor, and variety of the form. These stories demonstrate ingenuity and creativity. The writers use the gunfight to explore numerous motives and complex personalities and situations. Three of the stories were made into films, one the basis for High Noon . Two stories are based on historical episodes, and two are as modern as modems. Each story is preceded by a biographical sketch of the author and followed by a brief commentary on the work and its relation to the genre.
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In this collection of 13 stories composed between 1904 and 1990, themes such as courage, honor, revenge and the feelings stirred by impatient, dangerous youth are explored in considerable depth by a group of writers who display literary skill in a genre sometimes ridiculed or ignored. In her classic tale "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," the brilliant Dorothy Johnson explores, in pared-down prose, how a lie affects the lives and futures of three people. Luke Short, whose evocative writing sizzles with tension, presents a story of youthful courage ("Top Hand") that demonstrates that age doesn't matter if a man is in the right. John M. Cunningham's "The Tin Star," filmed memorably as High Noon, has no wife waiting or leaving and no Hollywood happy ending either, offering just a study of how a quiet man of courage goes about his business in the few minutes of life left to him. In the best story of the collection, "The Last Shot," the underappreciated Frank O'Rourke sets up a classic confrontation and then suspensefully flip-flops the story line, jostling the reader with violent surprise. Effectively annotated by Work, who provides a critical afterword to each tale, this is an assembly full of grit and substance and sudden danger. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved