‘It was past midnight when he was awakened by the familiar clatter of boulders down the grade, the usual simulation of a wild rush from without that encompassed the whole mill, even to that heavy impact against the door, which he had heard once before. In this he recognized merely the ordinary phenomena of his experience, and only turned over to sleep again. But this time the door rudely fell in upon him, and a figure strode over his prostrate body, with a gun leveled at his head.’
In a Hollow of the Hills by Bret Harte is a classic adventure story. The very first scene, which takes place in a valley, prepares the readers for the ensuing events. The riders seem to be unable to move ahead as the visibility is very low. The opening dialogue makes it clearer that the dialect is purely American, mostly used by the farmers, cowboys, and riders in the Western America. The setting and the ambiance created by the author is highly emphatic, for the supporting narration and the accompanying dialogue add to the realism. If you rejoice in reading pure American classics, this is the book for you, in fact, most of the novels and stories written by Bret Harte are there to delight you.
He was born in Albany, New York, as Francis Brett Hart. He was named after his great-grandfather Francis Brett, and his family name was Hart. When he was young his father changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Later, Francis preferred to be known by his middle name, but he spelled it with only one ‘t’, becoming Bret Harte.
He moved to California in 1853, later working there in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. He spent part of his life in the northern California coastal town of Union (now known as Arcata), a settlement on Humboldt Bay that was established as a provisioning center for mining camps in the interior.
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