The Last of the Duanes (Zane Grey Western)

The premise for this novel,the fact the desire to live by the gun and the blood lust to kill comes from the blood line of his father who was the same kind of man, says much about the period of time Zane Grey was born and lived in. Charles Darwin had a great effect on Zane Grey and much of the educational field during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th with his theories of natural selection and evolution. Today, we know Darwin was correct in some ideas and grossly wrong in others, but Zane Grey used these ideas and theories to his advantage in creating some of the best and worst characters in publishing history. Buck Duane is one of them. And as in what I call the companion novel with this one, Rangers of the Lone Star, this one is not one of Zane Grey's best, but it does make for an interesting read of how a man develops and either grows or regresses in his interaction with nature and society. Buck Duane undergoes tremendous such changes in this book, and for that alone this book is worth reading.