Tonto Basin (novel)
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| Author | Zane Grey |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Western novel |
| Publisher |
Five Star (US hardback) & Leisure Books (US paperback) |
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Publication date
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1921 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 330 p (hardback) & 321 p (paperback edition) |
| ISBN |
(paperback edition) (hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 63177922 |
(paperback edition)
For the geographical place see Tonto Basin
Tonto Basin is a western novel written by Zane Grey.
Tonto Basin is the original version of the shorter novel To The Last Man (1921). Grey submitted the manuscript of Tonto Basin to the magazine The Country Gentleman, which published it in serialization as To the Last Man from May 28, 1921 through July 30, 1921. This was a much shorter version of the original leaving out much of the backstory and character development. This shorter version was published as a book by Harper Brothers in 1921.
A story of a feud between two families, the evil it causes, and the power of love to transcend all.
The story begins with 24-year-old Jean Isbel in the last stages of a multi-week trip from Oregon to the frontier in Arizona where his family had moved four years earlier to start a cattle ranch. As he nears his destination he meets a woman in the woods, and falls in love at first sight. As they part they learn that they are mortal enemies. She is Ellen Jorth, and her family is locked in a deadly feud with his.
Jean dreads the part his father, Gaston, wants him to play in the feud. He can’t get Ellen out of his mind. They meet again and his words awake in her doubt and fear that her father, Lee Jorth, is not an honorable man but in fact a horse thief and cattle rustler. As events unfold her fears are proved true. Through thick and thin Jean Isbel defends Ellen’s honor and believes the best of her.
The feud erupts into fatal gun battles, first at the Isbel ranch house, and then at the general store in the nearby town. Most of the Isbel and Jorth clans are killed, with several of their allies. The remnant of the Jorths flee with Ellen in tow to a hide-out hidden in a deep box cañon.
Jean and his allies track them and there is a deadly gun battle in the woods nearby. Ellen is forced by one of the three remaining Jorth allies to flee once again. During their flight their horse is shot out from under them. Ellen now on foot meets one of the dying Isbels and finally learns the certain truth that her father, family, and their allies were horse thieves and cattle rustlers as she feared.
When she finally makes her way back to the hide-out, she arrives just after Jean has been forced to take refuge in the loft, unknown to her. One of the two remaining rustlers attacks her with rape in mind but is interrupted by the arrival of the other rustler. Ellen discovers Jean during this interruption. When the rustler returns a few minutes later, Ellen is forced to kill him to protect herself and Jean. A minute later Jean kills the last rustler.
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