Descriptive Passage at its Best!

In a recent Facebook post I suggested three novels of western author, Zane Grey, and so what do I now do?! Use a fourth. :) Here, from his 1910 classic, The Heritage of the Desert, is an excerpt that demonstrates his wonderful skill at setting a scene/establishing mood/creating imagery in the mind of the reader:

Hare (the protagonist) held to the pommel and bent dizzily forward in the saddle. Silvermane (his horse) was going down, step by step, with metallic clicks upon flinty rock. Whether he went down or up was all the same to Hare; he held on with closed eyes and whispered to himself. Down and down, step by step, cracking the stones with iron-shod hoofs, the gray stallion worked his perilous way, sure-footed as a mountain-sheep. Then he stopped with a great slow heave and bent his head.

The black bulge of a canon rim blurred in Hare's hot eyes. A trickling sound penetrated his tired brain. His ears had grown like his eyes--false. Only another delusion! As he had been tortured with the sight of lake and stream now he was to be tortured with the sound of running water. Yet he listened, for it was sweet even in its mockery. What a clear musical tinkle, like silver bells tossing in the wind! He listened. Soft murmuring flow, babble and gurgle, little hollow fall and splash!

What style! And here's the thing: When reading a story with this kind of creativity, the reader has no choice but to fall totally into the moment--up very close in the head and experience of the character. Since Grey is already there (in the head of his protagonist), his great challenge as a writer is to make sure you are too. And doesn't he succeed magnificently?

This two-passage example is very fine writing by an author known far more as a popular fictionist than a literary craftsman of remarkable prose. And yet, he delivers fabulously here in the tradition of masters of the pen, i.e. Stevenson, Hugo, Cooper, and Baroness Orczy. Is Grey's writing archaic? Yes, definitely. And is that a huge issue for today's readers? It could be for a younger audience, and perhaps a small distraction for the adult reading public. But I'm so impressed with his ability, his commitment to the craft of writing, the cleverness and beauty of his word selection, that I feel much less inclined to be a detractor--just the opposite, a strong supporter!

Why not take a similar journey yourself, into the pages (and fascinating imagery) of a Zane Grey novel? If you are a lover of the classic adventure story, you will find great escape. If you are a writer, you will (re?)discover a real stylist here!

My best to you in reading and writing!