Riders of the Purple Sage

A book for the ages.Enjoyed it.Read it when i was in high school and now 50 plus years later. Still good.

If you do any online searches to find out what are the best classic Western novels, three books show up on pretty much every list: Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Ox-Bow Incident, Owen Wister's The Virginian, and Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage. Perhaps because Zane Grey's books were all over the paperback racks when I was a kid, I expected Riders of the Purple Sage to consist mostly of pulp-style action. I was surprised to discover that it's really pure melodrama. Western-style action does figure in the novel -- in the form of shootouts and horseback chases -- but the story leans far more heavily on romance, suppressed emotions, dark secrets, and long declarations of love complete with "palpitating" bosoms. The writing is old-fashioned and often repetitious. The long-delayed revelations (of which there are many) are, more often than not, painfully obvious. The intricate web of relationships borders on the absurd. And yet... and yet... I LOVED this book!Early on, the main narrative bifurcates into two almost separate stories. In one, the Mormon woman who has inherited her father's ranch must, with the help of a mysterious lone gunman, defend it from ruthless men who will take it from her by any means necessary. In the other, a young man comes of age as he rescues a beautiful girl and builds a life with her in a hidden valley he discovers that's literally a lost world. How many genre staples did you count in that description? The villains of this work have the blackest hearts you've ever encountered, and the twist is that they are all high-ranking Elders of the Mormon church. Indeed, I had decided that Zane Grey must have hated Mormons, but a little research afterwards told me that his feelings were mixed. (In some of his novels, Mormons are heroes.)If you get past the archaisms and give yourself over to the story, you'll find yourself turning pages late into the night to find out what happens next, and what happens after that, and then what... Zane Grey doesn't stint on incidents right up to the VERY end. On top of that, his descriptive writing (especially in the hidden valley) can be first rate, and his insights into human nature are at times quite profound. There's a reason this particular title makes it onto all the classics lists.

Excellent fiction.

I was looking for a fast paced 200 page turner and oh boy!, did I get a doozie. Love, gunfights, horsemanship, good and evil. A compelling story as only Zane Grey can tell it

Great story, but too much flowery descriptive verbiage for me.

This book is a classic and a movie was made based on the tale. Many consider it to be the best western ever written. Even most of those who disagree that it is the best, still enjoy it. Zane Grey published it in 1912. It has well-defined characters, several plots, suspense, shoot outs, and much more. It is only marred - a huge marring - by its negative treatment of the Mormon religion and Mormon people in Utah. The book is filled with love, hatred, revenge, the insistence that all people should believe as the majority believes, and the inability of people to live together in peace.There is a rich woman who inherited a large ranch with much cattle. She is kind, but she does not want to marry the Mormon leader who wants to control her wealth. She is friends with a gentile (non-Mormon) who works for her, and the leader of the Mormons insists that she send him away. The Mormons are about to hang him when a gunman, Lassiter, saves him. Lassiter is thirty-eight years old. Since he was twenty, for eighteen years, he has been searching for the Mormons who stole his pregnant sister from her husband. The rich woman tries to stop Lassiter from killing Mormons in revenge. She refuses to tell him who kidnapped his now dead sister.

Jane Withersteen is rich. But her wealth can't protect her from enemies both open and secret. Her horses and two men make all the difference. And she gives up everything in the end..

It's dated. Women are pure and good Men are strong and loyal But it brings back memories to an oldie like me.

A bit long winded