Edgar Huntly and the Worlds Worst Road

At length, Edgar Huntly finds himself in the wilds, lost and exhausted, struggling to survive long enough to find civilization. After awaking in wild, unsure of how he arrived there, and after an encounter with a band of "savages", Huntly is abandoned by the civilized men he meets, and left to find his own way home. Thus, Huntly finds himself upon a long road, more a path, with little to aid him on his search for home.

This road (described on pages 195-6) is described briefly. The path slowly fades as the wilderness subsumes it, and his long walk is broken up by only the most occasional of water sources, a few scattered streams. As the early morning turns to day, Huntly pushes forward, but never feels as if he is making any progress. His exhaustion, dedication, and hopelessness is conveyed through his continued wanderings on a path ever more vague. This increasing vagueness betrays Huntly's dedication, with him pursuing the only trail he has, not knowing where it will take him, but with this dedication come his exhaustion. Forever forward, night turns to day with Huntly's passage broken up only by the occasional stream. When hiking, it seems there is no greater distance than that between water, and so every stream along Huntly's way makes it seem as though a great distance has been traversed to reach it. And given the rather lacklustre quality of these water sources, his trek seems ever more hopeless, and desperate.

In the picturesque tradition, this road would see far greater detail. The sun would perhaps become more oppressive, the distance perhaps more explicitly emphasized, the path's perilous nature more clearly disclosed. It is true, that such detail would emphasize the emotion, the feeling of hopelessness and exhaustion. Any detail given to the sun would itself be enough to intensify the feeling of being trapped and tired in an oppressive wilderness. And of course describing just how inhospitable the environment is would go far in making Huntly's exhaustion apparent. Despite this, I feel that further describing these details would help no more than does the original. The original text is able to convey all of this so succinctly, and with the exact details of the sun and the terrain undisclosed, the mind will always make the sun the hottest sun that has ever shone, and the road the longest road to ever be walked.