The novel is steeped in Gnostic imagery, suggesting a world created by a "lesser" or malevolent deity where man is trapped in a cycle of violence.
The Texas-Mexico borderlands in the mid-19th century (c. 1849–1850). Historical Basis: Loosely based on the real-life Glanton Gang Blood Meridian- Or The Evening Redness In The West
"A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream... their shields of dried bullhide and tore from the bodies of their enemies and hung about their necks." The novel is steeped in Gnostic imagery, suggesting
Blood Meridian is arguably the greatest American novel of the late 20th century, but it is also one of the most brutal, nihilistic, and stylistically challenging books ever written. It is not a book you enjoy ; it is a book you survive and are forever changed by. Historical Basis: Loosely based on the real-life Glanton
The Judge is a walking contradiction: a civilized man in the wilderness, a man of science in a world of chaos, and a philosopher of death. He acts as a physical manifestation of the concept of "War." In one of the novel's most famous monologues, the Judge declares:
The gang's greed leads them to seize a ferry on the Colorado River, where they are eventually massacred by Yuma Indians. Glanton is killed, but the kid and the Judge survive. The Conclusion:
Every page has a sentence you’ll want to frame—right after a paragraph that will make you nauseous.