The Mad Hunter

THE MAD HUNTER "The Mad Hunter; or, The Downfall of the Le-Forests," by Mrs. Mary A. Denison, is a domestic drama serialized in this 1863 Beadle and Adams pocket novel. The narrative centers on May Rogerly, a seventeen-year-old orphaned girl living in a prosperous western New York village with her wealthy father and aunt. The story introduces contrasting households: the modest Rogerly residence and the ostentatious Le Forest home. An mysterious elderly hunter, weathered from twenty-five years in wilderness, arrives seeking food and mysteriously prophesies trouble coming to the Rogerly household. Upon encountering Rafe Le Forest, the hunter experiences violent recognition, declaring Le Forest comes "of an accursed race." The narrative establishes tensions surrounding a village ball and hints at a larger conflict involving the widow Mrs. Barclay, whose mortgaged cottage threatens foreclosure by the hard creditor Le Forest.