14 h 3 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the hardest fight of your life is becoming someone worth trusting?
Billy Byrne lives by his fists in Chicago’s crowded streets, saloons and gangs. Proud, coarse and quick to fight, he has little in common with Barbara Harding, a young woman from a wealthy family. When their worlds meet, she sees a brute. He faces a harder question: can he become more?
In The Mucker, Edgar Rice Burroughs takes Billy from city alleys to the open sea, where danger tests more than strength. Barbara’s comfortable world stands far from his own, while the dangerous Theriere tests his judgment. Through hardship and the wish to matter to others, Billy must begin to earn the name of hero.
What you’ll discover
- A fighter under pressure Follow Billy as hard circumstances challenge the rough habits that shape his life.
- Two worlds meet Meet Barbara Harding, whose first judgment of Billy must face who he really is.
- Beyond the Chicago streets Travel from crowded alleys to a ship’s deck, with danger far from home.
- Character beyond strength Explore a story where worth comes through choices and hardship, not wealth or manners.
- Adventure with a heart Find fast action and romance alongside the slower struggle to become a better man.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy fast adventure with fistfights and sea storms, heroes who change, and old-fashioned romance set among pirates, samurai, hoboes and bandits.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A West Side thug runs from the law
- A drugged drink puts Billy aboard the Halfmoon
- A count and a trick help capture the Lotus
- A typhoon shows Billy what he can do
- Samurai exiles rule the island of Yoka
- On a river island a mucker learns to try
- Sacrifice, and a gulf that seems too wide
- The road, a poet, and bandits in Mexico
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Billy ByrneA burly West Side thug and boxer who wants to stay free and out of jail, and slowly learns to want respect.
- Barbara HardingThe brave daughter of a millionaire, captured by pirates, who sees the man behind the bully and teaches him to speak and hope.
- Henri TheriereThe Halfmoon's smooth second mate and a French count who plots for Barbara's fortune and has more honor than he admits.
- BridgeA well-read hobo who quotes cowboy poetry, shares his fire and becomes Billy's closest friend on the road.
- Anthony HardingBarbara's wealthy father, a kind man who trusts strangers too easily and follows his daughter into danger.
- Billy MalloryA gentleman athlete who loves Barbara and fights fair even when it costs him.
- Detective Sergeant FlannaganA stubborn Chicago detective who keeps turning up on Billy's trail, determined to catch an escaped man.
- PesitaA Mexican bandit chief in a gaudy general's coat who hates gringos and wants Billy's fists and nerve.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 14 h 3 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Il Malandrino in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Il Malandrino
by Edgar Rice Burroughs · 1914
A Chicago street thug wakes at sea, shanghaied, and starts a long road toward becoming a better man.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What happens to a brutal street fighter when a gentle girl tells him exactly what he is? In The Mucker, Edgar Rice Burroughs follows Billy Byrne from the alleys of Chicago's West Side to a pirate ship, an island of samurai, a prison train and the bandit camps of Mexico.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A West Side thug runs from the law
Billy Byrne comes from Chicago's West Side, between Halsted and Robey, and he learns life in the alley behind Kelly's feed store. At six he carries the beer pail for a gang of pickpockets and burglars. By ten he steals brass faucets, and by twelve he robs freight cars and wins his first real fight with a brick.
As a young man he hangs around Larry Hilmore's boxing gym and learns to fight with skill. He still holds up saloons whenever his pockets run empty. One night he saves Patrolman Stanley Lasky from three men from Twelfth Street, because beating a cop in his own district is Billy's business and nobody else's.
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What is The Mucker about?
It follows Billy Byrne, a Chicago street thug, from shanghaied sailor to castaway on an island of samurai. A brave young woman's words and the example of two friends slowly turn him into a better man.
What does mucker mean in the book?
In the story a mucker is a rough, bullying city tough who insults women, picks fights and prizes strength but also stays loyal to his pals. Barbara Harding uses the word on Billy, and he spends the book answering it.
Who is Bridge?
Bridge is a hobo who quotes poems by Henry Herbert Knibbs, Robert Service and Kipling. He is a gentleman by upbringing and becomes Billy's loyal friend in the second part of the book.
The author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
1875–1950 · American adventure novelist
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer born in Chicago in 1875. He wrote novels about Tarzan and novels set on Mars. His first Mars story appeared in 1912 and became the book A Princess of Mars in 1917. He later lived in California and died in Encino in 1950.
More by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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