Overall, it's a solid book. Modern readers are going to see some of the twists and turns coming a mile away. It's been ripped off, fifty-eleven times. I'm excited to go read the Scarlett Pimpernel and see how much of it was ripped off by this book.

The first fight in the book is Zorro whooping a dude for cruelly abusing a "native." I was not expecting racial justice appearing in a book this old. But the indigenous Mexicans are not really regarded that highly for the rest of the book, which is a bummer. There's a lot of talk of noble blood and whatnot too, which is distressing.

And there's some old timey ideas about women, but it's mostly about like formal courtship and stuff. There are two women in the book, the lady who wants to get married, and her mom who wants her to get married. Not a lot there.