Shane: The Critical Edition [Hardcover]

Jack Schaefer (Author), James C. Work (Editor), Marc Simmons (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1984

Shane was made into an award-winning film that—like the novel—became a standard by which later westerns were judged. Readers who have already felt the novel's power or are approaching it for the first time, will find this edition indispensable for coming to terms with its fascinating simplicity, its richness, and its puzzles. 

This edition reprints the original text of the novel (in 1954 it was edited to remove words that might offend). In addition, the best critical essays about Schaefer and about Shane are included to provide historical and comparative background. An interview with Jack Schaefer and an afterword written by him complete this volume.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The stranger, Shane, dresses in brown, black, and leather and is so tough he carries no gun. He drinks from the trough after his horse finishes. A biblical silence follows him, and people lose their senses when he looks their way. He a man no bullet can kill. He''s part attack Doberman, part heroic champion. Shane is a work of literature first and a western second."—St. George Daily Spectrum

(St. George Daily Spectrum )

"By any standard of measurement, Jack Schaefer''s Shane rates as a classic in the literature of the American West. Since its publication in 1949 it has gained a worldwide readership, appearing in more than seventy editions and thirty foreign languages."—Marc Simmons, in the foreword

(Marc Simmons )

"A real superiority here."—Kirkus Reviews

(Kirkus Reviews )

"Its pace is steady. Its tension is of the uncoiling spring variety. It''s as clean as a hound''s tooth."--Saturday Review of Literature

(Saturday Review of Literature )

"The author has created a tale which captivates the reader''s attention from beginning to end. His skill in depicting a character, a situation, or a mood, with a minimum of words, gives the story a tightly-woven quality often lacking in present-day novels. The book almost demands completion in one sitting."—Library Journal

(Library Journal )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (June 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803241453
• ISBN-13: 978-0803241459
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,279,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hometown: Estes Park, Colorado
Present home: Fort Collins, Colorado
Education: BA, MA English literature; PhD, Victorian Poetry.
Career: Professor Emeritus CSU (Western literature, nature writing, creative non-fiction)
Offices: President, Western Literature Association; Exec. Director, Colorado Seminars in Literature; Director, Rocky Mountain MLA.
Awards: CSL Book of the Year (PROSE AND POETRY OF THE AMERICAN WEST); Frank Waters Society Literary Achievement Award ("The Lion at the Well"). Western Literature Association Wylder Award for Distinguished Service.
Activities: canoeing, hiking, camping, fly fishing
Interests: Western American history; archetypal mythology; etymology and rhetoric.

Most satisfactory accomplishments to date:
(1)Discovering how to apply archetypal Arthurian legends to new fiction set in the American West, i.e. bringing Gawain and Lancelot to Wyoming;
(2)Selling a collection of amusing memoirs to an academic press--the Utah memoir "Don't Shoot the Gentile" is scheduled for September 2011 publication.
(3)Being modern-minded enough to have published on Kindle as well as writing articles for an on-line magazine, NewWest.Org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential edition, June 7, 2003

By 

Ryan Yeung (West Covina, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shane: The Critical Edition (Paperback)

Three reasons this Critical Edition is superior to the usual trade paperback edition. First, there are dozen of good essays written by book and film critics included within the pages. Second, this edition is true to the original, in the sense that it wasn't edited, and was printed in the original layout format. And finally, the artwork on the front book cover is supreme, it's a very good portrait of Shane; a rugged and mysterious man, not one of those cheesy cowboys as presented on the other editions.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killer in our midst . . ., August 24, 2009

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shane: The Critical Edition (Paperback)

Jack Schaefer has set his story at the time of Wyoming's Johnson County "wars" between cattlemen and anyone, like rustlers and homesteaders, who cut into their profits. First published in 1949, the novel also reflects something of the war that had just ended for Americans who fought in Europe and the Pacific. We have a young family struggling to put down roots on the frontier, wanting little more than an ordered life and the opportunity to make a living among a gathering of neighbors who want the same for their own families.

But they are prevented by men who want the open range for themselves and their own economic interests, and they'll stop at nothing to get their way. While the father of the family attempts bravely to hold his own, his neighbors are intimidated, feeling threatened and outnumbered. Shane, a man with a shadowy past, arrives in the middle of this conflict, and while he assumes for a time the life of a hired hand, his gunslinger services are eventually needed to defend the lives and property of the family that has given him a home. We see what we have suspected, that he is a killer, and there's no place for him in their sunny, settled world. He must go back on the trail and disappear.

Given the time in which it was written, "Shane" is a commentary on the role of violence in a world where law and order, on an international level, had been in short supply. Americans - and especially returning soldiers - had seen this for themselves. The novel carries this disturbing awareness right into the daily life of home and hometown. The mystery of Shane's identity suggests that what he represents in the story is a darker side of ourselves that does not integrate well with the more honorable aspects of self we prefer to acknowledge.

The simplicity of Schaefer's tale, and his choice of a boy as narrator, allow readers to fill in a lot of details and emotions that tap into their own deeper fears and desires. The two men joining forces to uproot the tree stump is like a scene from a dream that wants to be understood - it's not just about a tree stump. But what? While the film for all its widescreen glory is not without merit, it's dated in a way the book may never be. In its 250+ pages, it speaks of elemental forces and how we go about living in a world where we are threatened by circumstances beyond our control.

Thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for assembling this critical edition which includes several fine essays providing historical background, analysis of the text, commentary and reviews on the film adaptation.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Thriller, June 26, 2008

By 

S. Malley "noir thrillers" (Christchurch, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shane: The Critical Edition (Paperback)

Today's thriller writers could take a lesson from Jack Schaeffer. Just like the title character, this novel is lean and quick and frightening.

I mostly bought the critical edition for its cover. Having read the extra material, Shane's historical, literary and cinematic context and a nifty talk with the author, I'm glad I did!