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The Ox-Bow Incident (Modern Library Classics)
 
 
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The Ox-Bow Incident (Modern Library Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Walter Van Tilburg Clark (Author), Wallace Stegner (Introduction) "Gil and I crossed the eastern divide about two by the sun..." (more)
Key Phrases: Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Mistah Croft, Walter Van Tilburg Clank (more...)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human nature. As Wallace Stegner writes, [Clark's] theme was civilization, and he recorded, indelibly, its first steps in a new country.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human nature. As Wallace Stegner writes, [Clark's] theme was civilization, and he recorded, indelibly, its first steps in a new country.


From the Trade Paperback edition.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Modern Library; 7th THUS edition (April 27, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0812972589
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812972580
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,574 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Walter Van Tilburg Clark
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Gil and I crossed the eastern divide about two by the sun. Read the first page
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Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Mistah Croft, Walter Van Tilburg Clank, Blue Boy, Bridger's Wells, Rose Mapen, Gabe Hart, Pike's Hole, Waker Van Tilburg Clark, Mistah Smith, Major Tetley, Phil Baker, The Ox-Bam Incident
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Customer Reviews

49 Reviews
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 (20)
4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
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 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (49 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful western about results of mob justice., February 12, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Ox-Bow Incident (Signet Classic) (Paperback)
I am an English teacher. I came across reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident while doing a search for a student. I have always regarded this as a book which should be required reading, both for its literary and social value; and when teaching 11th grade, I have used it as a class assignment. The first part of the book which some readers found slow is really quite necessary; it provides the background that shows the reader that these are quite ordinary people - people that one would meet everyday. It contrasts with the violence in which they later become involved. The lynching of three innocent men is really not the crux of the story but rather the pivotal incident which allows the author to lead the reader to see what happens when one abandons law and order and then, when there are tragic results, must come to terms with his own conscience. I would also recommend the film with Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn which is well acted and true to the novel. I have generally found that once students get into the novel, the book generates a good deal of thoughtful writing and discussion.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Lynch Mob Justice Then and Now, January 4, 2000
By Neil Flowers (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Ox-Bow Incident (Signet Classic) (Paperback)
I teach a literature class that focuses on crime and punishment in America, especially capital punishment. Among the books and films on this course are Sister Helen Prejean's "Dead Man Walking," Walter Mosely's, "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned," and "The Ox-Bow Incident."

Since "Ox-Bow" is the oldest of the works in terms of both writing and time period, I begin with it. This story of a mob hysteria that begins in righteousness and boredom and ends with the lynching of three innocent men never fails to stun and intrigue my students, most of whom could at first care less about "Westerns," whether they be novels or films. What gets them primarily is the relentless of the action. Everyone who reads the novel at some point wants to throw it down and shout, "For god's sake, these men are obviously innocent, let them go!" The laconic, collective insanity of the "posse" is so severe that the hangings push the novel's premise very hard, hard enough that the deaths of the men are almost unbelievable. Yet that is Clark's point. Mobs don't reason; one or two men can sway them. And from this dangerous combination, utterly unreasonable events can happen.

The faceless mob that goes along with its leaders is possibly instructive in the debate over capital punishment in America. Other than Japan, which still hangs a few criminals ritualistically each year, the United States is the last industrially-advanced country in the world to execute prisoners. The pro-capital punishment forces in the U.S. tend to be led by politicians and district attorneys with political agendas and egos not entirely unlike Tetley, the leader of the mob in "Ox-Bow." Of course, the faceless populace of America goes along with these leaders - although recent polls show that support for executions is declining here.

"Ox-Bow" was written sixty years ago and takes place 115 years ago (in 1885). Yet it is still an important American novel, driving as it does to the hearts of men and how mindless retributive justice can lead them to horrific acts of violence.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A study in mob psychology., June 14, 1999
This review is from: The Ox-Bow Incident (Signet Classic) (Paperback)
This classic novel by Clark is a superb study of mob rule; of how normal men can allow their inner anger and authoritarianism to control their judgment and honesty. The story is told in the first person by Art Croft, a trailhand who rides into the small Nevada town of Bridger's Wells in 1885 with his friend Gil Carter. The first chapter (there are only five chapters) has all of the structure of a typical western novel (bar, poker game, fight), yet when a young rider arrives to say that some cattle have been stolen and a man killed, the story about how men let anger goad their actions sets the novel apart from other westerns. It is a true classic. In 1977 the Western Writers of America named it one of the top twenty-five western novels of all time (it was ranked second after Wister's "The Virginian"). The book was also made into a classic film starring Henry Fonda. I recommend this book highly. I really don't understand the comments of the reviewer from Massachusetts (of Jan. 10, 1999). The tale is very realistic.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars I didn't appreciate it years ago
Nearly twenty-five years ago, this book was on my "required summer reading list" when I was a student transitioning from ninth grade into tenth. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Dan E. Buoy

5.0 out of 5 stars An American classic and a classic Western
THE OX-BOW INCIDENT is a classic tale. It also is a classic Western, and because the Western is so central to American culture, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT surely is more important --... Read more
Published on March 4, 2008 by R. M. Peterson

1.0 out of 5 stars plain bad
I'm sorry, I just found this book just a bit short of silly. And I am a western fan. The character development was shallow and the story line predictible while at the same time... Read more
Published on February 24, 2008 by Carl Ecklund

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic novel about mob justice
The inhabitants of a ranching community get up a posse to go after a band of rustlers who are thought to have stolen cattle and committed a murder. Read more
Published on October 23, 2007 by David Bonesteel

4.0 out of 5 stars Tink-tink-a-link went the meadow lark
Off hand I can only think of a few Western novels that have transcended their genre to become classics, and share with the world what all great art does; that being a universality... Read more
Published on September 11, 2007 by Aco

4.0 out of 5 stars Shows the Dangers of Mob Justice
This classic western takes a raw and realistic look at frontier justice and mob mentality. Author Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909-1971) shows how easy it is to be caught up in the... Read more
Published on February 20, 2007 by K.A.Goldberg

4.0 out of 5 stars Analyzing the mob mentality
This story provides a great picture of what it was like living in the old west. In spite of attempts by some level headed men to control the town's outrage over a despicable... Read more
Published on September 17, 2006 by Chris Greenwood

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow Read, Good Ending
I first read this book as required reading in high school. I didn't understand why I was being made to read it until the end. Read more
Published on June 26, 2006 by Malinda Upton

5.0 out of 5 stars Tink A Link Link. Teenk A Leenk Leenk.
Forget all the rest of the politics and big ideas. What stuck with me most about this book was it's structure and lauguage. Read more
Published on September 28, 2005 by Odysseus Pearl

5.0 out of 5 stars Necktie Party on the Road to Baghdad
Sometimes books and authors slip right off the charts. I don't know why. Plenty of unworthy works are discussed years after the demise of the writers or after their comet-like... Read more
Published on May 18, 2005 by Robert S. Newman

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