Hoosier Schoolmaster

In this captivating little melodrama set in Flat Creek, Indiana, Edward Eggleston conveys a picture of backwoods life that no historian or sociologist could equal. He presents such once-familiar but now dimly remembered institutions as the poorhouse, the town spelling contest, the Whiskey Baptist preacher, lynch law, Congress land, and the one-room schoolhouse. All these element and countless other bits of incidental detail combine to form a marvelously textured backdrop which becomes, for the modern reader, the principal charm of this old-fashioned tale--old-fashioned even when it was written in 1871.

However, there are other aspects of the Hoosier Schoolmaster that make it well-worth reading. Eggleston gives us a stirring, action-packed story with the melodramatic conventions our grandparents loved--star-crossed lovers, the orphan, the bully, the rumor-monger, heroes and villains, and, of course, a happy ending.