Story summary
Streszczenie książki Jeździec bez głowy
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
A rider with no head crosses the moonlit Texas plains while a young Irish horse hunter wins a Creole heiress.
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Jeździec bez głowy — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 13 h 30 min10 h 40 min fast, 16 h slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 192 300
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Wymagająca lektura long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1866by Mayne Reid
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Jeździec bez głowy in short
The Headless Horseman follows one family's move to Texas and the trouble that follows it. A planter's daughter loves a wild-horse hunter whom her father and cousin look down on. Her cousin loves her too, holds her father's debts, and burns with jealousy.
What Jeździec bez głowy is about
What would you do if a rider with no head crossed the plain in front of you? In Mayne Reid's Texas, that sight frightens a stag, a search party and a whole frontier settlement.
Mayne Reid was an Irish-born writer who knew the American frontier. This novel is set around 1850, on the Leona River near Fort Inge. A Louisiana planter, Woodley Poindexter, moves west with his son Henry, his daughter Louise and his nephew Cassius Calhoun. A young Irish wild-horse hunter, Maurice Gerald, saves them on the prairie, and Louise cannot forget him. You get a love story across class lines, a jealous rival, a vanished son and a ghostly rider no one can explain.
Dla kogo. You will love this book if you enjoy frontier adventure, mystery with a ghostly edge, and romance that dares to cross a social line.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A Headless Rider Crosses the Moonlit Plain
The book opens at night with a stag startled by an approaching rider. A Texas stag lies hidden in the tall grass near the Leona River. He hears a hoof ring against stone, and he rises to look.
He sees a splendid horse, saddled and bridled, and a rider wrapped in a serape. Nothing seems wrong until the stag looks closer. The rider has no head. The animal flees across the river in terror, while the rider initially advances at a slow pace. Then the figure fades into the moonlight.
Reid shows this apparition before any character has met it, and that sets a question that never leaves the book. Is this a ghost, a trick, or a man? The prologue also teaches you how to look at the land, where animals notice first and every sound carries meaning.
The book begins with its mystery, and the mystery waits for every character who follows.
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Ten Wagons Lose Their Way on Ash
The story proper begins at noon about a hundred miles south of San Antonio.
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A Stranger's Lasso Trail Saves the Day
The horseman wears Mexican dress, but he is Irish, and he says so with a smile.
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A Mustanger's Hut and a Spotted Mare
The scene moves to the Alamo, a clear stream that feeds the Nueces River.
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A Wild Gift at Casa del Corvo
The Poindexters settle at Casa del Corvo, a flat-roofed hacienda that looks like a fortress.
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Jealousy Draws a Duel and Two Rivals
Jealousy takes over the middle of the book.
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Arrows, a Skiff, and a Midnight Garden
Louise is forbidden to ride out, so she turns to her bow.
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A Son Vanishes and Blood Marks the Saddle
Three solitary riders leave the village that night for the open plain.
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Love and Class Divide the Frontier
The novel is about more than a ghost.
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Tracks, Rumors, and a Ghost Tell the Tale
Reid tells the story in a lively, direct voice, often in the present tense, and he does not hurry to explain.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Maurice Gerald An Irish wild-horse hunter in Mexican dress, called Maurice the Mustanger, who is skilled with a lasso and loves Louise Poindexter.
- Louise Poindexter A spirited Creole heiress from Louisiana who rides, shoots arrows and speaks her mind, and who will not give up the man she loves.
- Cassius Calhoun Louise's cousin, a former volunteer captain and bully who holds her father's debts and wants to marry her.
- Woodley Poindexter A proud Louisiana sugar planter who moves his household to Texas and values rank and reputation above almost everything.
- Henry Poindexter Louise's frank and generous younger brother, who is the one Poindexter free of pride and likes Maurice from the start.
- Zeb Stump A tall Kentucky hunter and tracker who reads the prairie like a book and becomes the loyal friend of Maurice.
- Phelim O'Neal Maurice's talkative Irish servant from Galway, who loves whiskey, fears snakes and ghosts, and serves his master faithfully.
- Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos A bold Mexican horsewoman who throws a lasso, owes Maurice a debt of gratitude and hopes to win his love.
How it ends (spoiler)
Calhoun is caught after a chase and stands condemned. He confesses that he shot Henry Poindexter by mistake, aiming at Maurice, who had traded cloaks with Henry, and that he cut off the head in the same error. He then fires at Maurice, but the shot only wounds him, and Calhoun takes his own life. Maurice lives, and Louise feels joy at last.
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Pytania o Jeździec bez głowy
What is The Headless Horseman about?
It follows a Louisiana planter's family as it settles in Texas. A rider with no head haunts the plains, the planter's son goes missing, and a wild-horse hunter is suspected while he loves the planter's daughter.
Who is the Headless Horseman in the book?
For most of the story no one knows. Hunters, soldiers and settlers all see the figure and offer theories, from an Indian trick to the devil, and the answer comes only at the end of the novel.
What is a mustanger?
A mustanger is a man who catches wild horses, called mustangs, on the prairie and sells them. Maurice Gerald does this with a lasso and a fast bay horse, and some settlers look down on the trade.
When is The Headless Horseman set and is it a true story?
It is fiction by Mayne Reid, set in southwest Texas around 1850 near the military post of Fort Inge. The places, customs and dangers are drawn from real frontier life, though the characters and plot are invented.
Is The Headless Horseman easy to follow?
The story is told in a lively voice with short scenes, plenty of dialogue and a clear mystery to follow. Humorous characters like Phelim and Zeb Stump keep the adventure bright from chapter to chapter.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Reid, Mayne. The Headless Horseman. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-headless-horseman.
Reid, M. (2026). The headless horseman. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-headless-horseman (Original work published 1866)
Reid, Mayne. The Headless Horseman. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-headless-horseman.
@book{reid2026headless,
author = {Reid, Mayne},
title = {The Headless Horseman},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-headless-horseman},
note = {First published 1866}
}
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