History Literature / Zorro

* [[https://archive.org/details/west-v-65-n-01-1947-05/page/71/mode/1up "Zorro's Strange Duel"]] -- May 1947

* [[https://archive.org/details/west-v-66-n-03-1947-10/page/79/mode/1up "Zorro Meets a Rogue"]] -- October 1947

* "Zorro's Strange Duel" -- May 1947

* "Zorro Meets a Rogue" -- October 1947

* ''The Curse of Capistrano'' -- first serialized in five parts, August 9, 1919 – September 6, 1919; published in book form in 1919, reissued as ''The Mark of Zorro'' in 1924
* ''The Further Adventures of Zorro'' -- serialized in six parts, May 6, 1922 – June 10, 1922; published in book form as ''The Sword of Zorro'' in 1928

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In contrast to the Zorro of PopCulturalOsmosis. ''The Curse of Capistrano'' has Zorro wear a full-face mask, a sombrero, and a poncho under his cloak. It's not an all-black or mostly black costume since his cloak is purple and only his mask is clearly said to be black. He uses a pistol as well as a sword, and tends to pull it out first but mainly to keep opponents at bay as he limits his sword fights to one foe at a time, and while he whips out a whip it's implied to be not a regular part of his kit but to pay back a whipping in kind. Then while later stories have him switch to the all-black suit and carry a whip, he never stops packing a pistol.
** Also it's ambiguous what kind of sword Zorro uses. Don Diego wears a rapier, but an ornate one as part of his foppish twit act (so Zorro would presumably use a different one), and Zorro's and everyone else's are not specified further beyond "swords" and "blades" so they could be military-issue sabers or something else. The second novel ''The Further Adventures of Zorro'' further distinguished swords and rapiers, with the local garrison's soldiers said to use sabers.

* PulpFiction: All the stories were first published in pulp magazines and only later in book form. Most of the stories were not even republished in book form until 2016 to 2017, under the ''Zorro: The Complete Pulp Adventures'' book series.

* ''A Task for Zorro'' -- June 1947

* CollectiveIdentity: In some of the stories, Bernardo also wears the Zorro costume in order to distract and mislead pursuers. Bernardo has also been known to play the part of Zorro to divert suspicion from Diego while he has an alibi (such as being imprisoned or questioned on suspicion of being Zorro). Zorro's friend and sometimes love interest/accomplice Lolita Pulido has also donned the mask.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In contrast to the Zorro of PopCulturalOsmosis. ''The Curse of Capistrano'' has Zorro wear a full-face mask, a sombrero, and a poncho under his cloak. It's not an all-black or mostly black costume since his cloak is purple and only his mask is clearly said to be black. He uses a pistol as well as a sword, mainly to keep opponents at bay as he limits his sword fights to one foe at a time, and while he whips out a whip it's implied to be not a regular part of his kit but to pay back a whipping in kind.

* ATasteOfTheLash: Fray Felipe is publicly whipped on trumped-up charges because the authorities (correctly) believe him to be an ally of the masked highwayman Zorro. When Don Diego is unable to stop this, he goes as Zorro to whip the people involved.

* ''The Further Adventures of Zorro'' -- serialized in six parts, May 6, 1922 – June 10, 1922

* "The Mask of Zorro" -- April 1959 (posthumously published)

* "The Mask of Zorro" -- April 1959 - posthumously published

* "Zorro's Hostile Friends" -- May 1949

The ''Zorro'' literature canon was originated by Creator/{{Johnston McCulley}} with the novella[[note]]fancier/more concise term for "short novel, but longer than short story"[[/note]] ''The Curse of Capistrano'', initially serialized in All-Story Weekly Magazine in 1919. The [[{{Swashbuckler}} Swashbuckling]] story was complete in itself, without much room for sequels. Creator/DouglasFairbanks Senior read the novella, loved it, and convinced his studio to buy the rights so he could star in a movie adaptation, ''The Mark of Zorro'' (1920). It was a huge success, inspiring [=McCulley=] to write a sequel, ''The Further Adventures of Zorro'', and a total of over sixty Zorro stories altogether (five serial novels and 57 short stories), ending with ''The Mask of Zorro'', printed posthumously in 1959. Zorro has now become a PublicDomainCharacter and retroactively identified as a ProtoSuperhero, as his story contains many of what would later be considered genre hallmarks like a SecretIdentity.

* SerialNovel: Out of the over 60 original Zorro stories, the five multi-part ones are this, the rest being single-part short stories.

Basically, think ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' if moved to California, and following in the footsteps of ''Myth/RobinHood'' as opposed to rescuing aristocrats from the guillotine. Or alternatively ComicBook/{{Batman}} (hell, it's become canon that the Wayne family were leaving a movie theatre after watching ''The Mark Of Zorro'' [[note]]Opinion is divided on whether it was [[Film/TheMarkOfZorro1920 the silent 1920 version]] which was basically the TropeMaker for the whole franchise, or [[Film/TheMarkOfZorro1940 the 1940 remake]][[/note]] on the fateful night that Thomas and Martha were murdered).

Basically, think ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' if moved to California, and following in the footsteps of ''Myth/RobinHood'' as opposed to rescuing aristocrats from the guillotine. Or alternatively ComicBook/{{Batman}} (hell, it's become canon that the Wayne family were leaving the movie theatre after watching ''Film/TheMarkOfZorro1940'' on the fateful night that Thomas and Martha were murdered).

Basically, think ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' if moved to California, and following in the footsteps of ''Myth/RobinHood'' as opposed to rescuing aristocrats from the guillotine. Or alternatively ComicBook/{{Batman}} (hell, it's become canon that the Wayne family were coming out of seeing ''Film/TheMarkOfZorro1940'' on the night that Thomas and Martha were murdered).

Basically, think ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' if moved to California, and following in the footsteps of ''Myth/RobinHood'' as opposed to rescuing aristocrats from the guillotine. Or alternatively Comic Book/{{Batman}} (hell, it's become canon that the Wayne family were coming out of seeing ''Film/TheMarkOfZorro1940'' on the night that Thomas and Martha were murdered).

Alternatively, think ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' if moved to California, and following in the footsteps of ''Myth/RobinHood'' as opposed to rescuing aristocrats from the guillotine.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In contrast to the Zorro of PopCulturalOsmosis. ''The Curse of Capistrano'' has Zorro wear a full-face mask, a sombrero, and a poncho under his cloak. It's not an all-black or mostly black costume since his cloak is purple and only his mask is clearly said to be black. He uses a pistol as well as a sword, mainly to keep opponents at bay as he limits his sword fights to one foe at a time, and while he whips out a whip it's implied to be not a regular part of his kit but to pay back a whipping in kind. Also it's ambiguous what kind of sword Zorro uses. Don Diego wears a rapier, but an ornate one as part of his foppish twit act (so Zorro would presumably use a different one), and Zorro's and everyone else's are not specified further, so they could be military-issue sabers or something else.

* RetCanon: Later stories, which began to be written after the first Zorro movie was a hit, use his more familiar look from the movies.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''The Curse of Capistrano'' has Zorro wear a full-face mask, a sombrero, and a poncho under his cloak. It's not an all-black or mostly black costume since his cloak is purple and only his mask is clearly said to be black. He uses a pistol as well as a sword, mainly to keep opponents at bay as he limits his sword fights to one foe at a time, and while he whips out a whip it's implied to be not a regular part of his kit but to pay back a whipping in kind.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''The Curse of Capistrano'' has Zorro wear a full-face mask and a wide-brimmed sombrero and he used a cavalry saber and pistol.

* CanonDiscontinuity: At the end of "The Curse of Capistrano", [[spoiler:the main villain is dead, and Zorro publicly unmasked, revealing his identity to everyone.]] By the third book, neither of those events had ever happened.

The original novels to feature the character of DerivativeWorks/{{Zorro}}, a mask and cape-clad vigilante bandit who fights injustice in Spanish California.

The ''Zorro'' literature canon was originated by Creator/{{Johnston McCulley}} with the novella ''The Curse of Capistrano'', initially serialized in All-Story Weekly Magazine in 1919. The [[{{Swashbuckler}} Swashbuckling]] story was complete in itself, without much room for sequels. Creator/DouglasFairbanks Senior read the novella, loved it, and convinced his studio to buy the rights so he could star in a movie adaptation, ''The Mark of Zorro'' (1920). It was a huge success, inspiring [=McCulley=] to write a sequel, ''The Further Adventures of Zorro'', and a total of sixty Zorro stories altogether, ending with ''The Mask of Zorro'', printed posthumously in 1959. Zorro has now become a PublicDomainCharacter and retroactively identified as a proto-superhero, as his story contains many of what would later be considered genre hallmarks like a SecretIdentity.

!!Tropes specific to the original novels:

* CollectiveIdentity: In some of the novels, Bernardo also wears the Zorro costume in order to distract and mislead pursuers. Bernardo has also been known to play the part of Zorro to divert suspicion from Diego while he has an alibi (such as being imprisoned or questioned on suspicion of being Zorro). Zorro's friend and sometimes love interest/accomplice Lolita Pulido has also donned the mask.

The original novels to feature the character of Franchise/{{Zorro}}, a mask and cape-clad vigilante bandit who fights injustice in Spanish California.

The original novels to feature the character of Zorro, a mask and cape-clad vigilante bandit who fights injustice in Spanish California.

A more recent [[Literature/Zorro2005 literary portrayal]] was written by Creator/IsabelAllende in 2005, with a significant amount of ContinuityNod to previous works. For other derivative works, see [[DerivativeWorks/{{Zorro}} this page]].

The ''Literature/{{Zorro}}'' literature canon was originated by Creator/{{Johnston McCulley}} with the novella ''The Curse of Capistrano'', initially serialized in All-Story Weekly Magazine in 1919. The [[{{Swashbuckler}} Swashbuckling]] story was complete in itself, without much room for sequels. Creator/DouglasFairbanks Senior read the novella, loved it, and convinced his studio to buy the rights so he could star in a movie adaptation, ''The Mark of Zorro'' (1920). It was a huge success, inspiring [=McCulley=] to write a sequel, ''The Further Adventures of Zorro'', and a total of sixty Zorro stories altogether, ending with ''The Mask of Zorro'', printed posthumously in 1959. Zorro has now become a PublicDomainCharacter and retroactively identified as a proto-superhero, as his story contains many of what would later be considered genre hallmarks like a SecretIdentity.

[[redirect:DerivativeWorks.{{Zorro}}]]

[[redirect:Literature.{{Zorro2005}}]]