Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

BookBrowse Reviews Zorro by Isabel Allende

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Zorro by Isabel Allende

Zorro

A Novel

by Isabel Allende
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • May 1, 2005, 390 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2006, 416 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


A swashbuckling adventure story. Novel

From the book jacket: A swashbuckling adventure story that reveals for the first time how Diego de la Vega became the masked man we all know so well. Between California and Barcelona, the New World and the Old, the persona of Zorro is formed, a great hero is born, and the legend begins. After many adventures -- duels at dawn, fierce battles with pirates at sea, and impossible rescues -- Diego de la Vega, a.k.a. Zorro, returns to America to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for all who cannot fight for it themselves.

Comment: Once they got over the shock of Allende writing about a fictional cartoon character in the first place, most critics came out in favor of Allende's version of the Zorro story, but a few found the character a little one-dimensional.  However, overall, most agreed that if one is in the market for swashbuckling entertainment, then you can't go too far wrong with Zorro!

Publishers Weekly and Booklist both give it their highest rating - a starred review; while the Houston Chronicle sums things up nicely describing it as, 'One of those rare and perfect matches of subject and author... Sinfully entertaining ... Serious fiction."

If you enjoy Zorro, you might also want to check out Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

About the character of Zorro
The first Zorro story, The Curse of Capistrano, appeared as a 5-part serial in All-Story Weekly (an American pulp fiction magazine) starting in the August 9, 1919 issue. It was written by Johnston McCulley (a 36-year-old former police reporter) who set his story in early 19th century California. Don Diego de la Vega is the son of a rich land owning family and would rather read poetry than participate in anything violent. However, just like all the other masked heroes we love so much, this is all a ruse - when night falls he becomes Zorro (zorro is Spanish for fox) - defender of the weak and oppressed!  Douglas Fairbanks took on the lead role in The Mark of Zorro (1920) which broke box office records.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in June 2005, and has been updated for the May 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Zorro, try these:

  • Gentlemen of the Road jacket

    Gentlemen of the Road

    by Michael Chabon

    Published 2008

    About This book

    More by this author

    Zelikman and Amran are escorting a young prince to reclaim his usurped throne. Getting there – along a path paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of – will be much more than half the fun.

  • The Hummingbird's Daughter jacket

    The Hummingbird's Daughter

    by Luis Alberto Urrea

    Published 2006

    About This book

    More by this author

    A spectacular novel as grand as a western sunset, the story of a girl coming to terms with her destiny, with the miraculous, and with the power of faith. It is the tale of a father discovering what true love is and a daughter recognizing that sometimes true love requires true sacrifice.

We have 4 read-alikes for Zorro, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Isabel Allende
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

It is a fact of life that any discourse...will always please if it is five minutes shorter than people expect

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.