The Ferguson Rifle: A Novel [Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1985

It began with gold that had once belonged to Montezuma. Stolen and cached in a church in Mexico, it was recovered by two army officers who fled north for the French settlements. Along the way one stabbed the other to death. The remaining officer was eventually killed by Plains Indians, but he buried the treasure just before he died.

Now Ronan Chantry, a handful of trappers, and an Irish girl whose father was killed after telling her a few vague landmarks are searching for the lost treasure. But they are not alone. The girl’s uncle, Rafen Falvey, wants it, too. Like Chantry, he is well educated, bold, and determined. Under different circumstances the two men might have been friends. But in all likelihood it wouldn’t have made any difference. When it comes to gold, even friendship doesn’t keep men from killing each other.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Stripped of all he values in life, Ronan Chantry takes up his prized Ferguson rifle and heads west -- into an unknown land and an uncertain future. For an educated man, Chantry is surprisingly tough. For a civilized man, he is unexpectedly dangerous. But even he can't know the true extent of his courage until he draws the fire of a man who will do anything -- kill anyone -- for the glitter of gold.

From the Inside Flap

Stripped of all he values in life, Ronan Chantry takes up his prized Ferguson rifle and heads west -- into an unknown land and an uncertain future. For an educated man, Chantry is surprisingly tough. For a civilized man, he is unexpectedly dangerous. But even he can't know the true extent of his courage until he draws the fire of a man who will do anything -- kill anyone -- for the glitter of gold.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553253034
• ISBN-13: 978-0553253030
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I think of myself in the oral tradition--as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of a campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered--as a storyteller. A good storyteller."

It is doubtful that any author could be as at home in the world re-created in his novels as Louis Dearborn L'Amour. Not only could he physically fill the boots of the rugged characters he wrote about, but he literally "walked the land my characters walk." His personal experiences as well as his lifelong devotion to historical research combined to give Mr. L'Amour the unique knowledge and understanding of people, events, and the challenge of the American frontier that became the hallmarks of his popularity.

Of French-Irish descent, Mr. L'Amour could trace his own in North America back to the early 1600s and follow their steady progression westward, "always on the frontier." As a boy growing up in Jamestown, North Dakota, he absorbed all he could about his family's frontier heritage, including the story of his great-grandfather who was scalped by Sioux warriors.

Spurred by an eager curiosity and desire to broaden his horizons, Mr. L'Amour left home at the age of fifteen and enjoyed a wide variety of jobs, including seaman, lumberjack, elephant handler, skinner of dead cattle, and miner, and was an officer in the transportation corps during World War II. During his "yondering" days he also circled the world on a freighter, sailed a dhow on the Red Sea, was shipwrecked in the West Indies and stranded in the Mojave Desert. He won fifty-one of fifty-nine fights as a professional boxer and worked as a journalist and lecturer. He was a voracious reader and collector of rare books. His personal library contained 17,000 volumes.

Mr. L'Amour "wanted to write almost from the time I could talk." After developing a widespread following for his many frontiers and adventure stories written for fiction magazines, Mr. L'Amour published his first full length novel, Hondo, in the United States in 1953. Every one of his more than 120 books is in print; there are more than 300 million copies of his books in print worldwide, making him one of the bestselling authors in modern literary history. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and more than forty-five of his novels and stories have been made into feature films and television movies.

The recipient of many great honor and awards, in 1983 Mr. L'Amour became the first novelist to ever to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress in honor of his life's work. In 1984 he was also awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan.

Louis L'Amour died on June 10, 1988. His wife, Kathy, and their two children, Beau and Angelique, carry the L'Amour publishing tradition forward with new books written by the author during his lifetime to be published by Bantam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Amazing Review of The Ferguson Rifle by Chris Bullock, October 24, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Ferguson Rifle: A Novel (Paperback)

The Ferguson Rifle is a really good book..It tells of the life and hardships the frontiersmen faced out on the lawless great plains.The main character,whose family was killed in a fire and is now leaving home, and a few trappers head west for the beaver rich mountains.They wind up on a wild goose chase when a woman they are protecting is being followed by a crazed man.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All You Need is Chivalry and a Good Gun!, September 18, 2004

By 

J. Pace "Darrell Pace" (Tuscumbia, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ferguson Rifle: A Novel (Paperback)

The Ferguson Rifle is about a young man who found himself in the wild west with nothing else to depend on but his gun. He had been given the rifle by it's maker and the interesting thing is that the rifle was ahead of it's time. Because of this, it got him out of many close calls. Since the main character was called "scholar" by his friends, it is easy to see that he was out of place in the wild west. But, with the help of his weapon, he managed to survive the onslaught of many outlaws, save the girl, and find the gold. The gold was not his, but he ended the story happy because of chivalry.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too fast, too short; little character development, January 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ferguson Rifle: A Novel (Paperback)

The Ferguson Rifle is a decent book, as most of L'Amour's were. He kept them clean, with no sex, little swearing, and no graphic violence. He was also a pretty good writer. His only problem was that he had a deadline for three books a year, and this is another example of what happens when you write so fast. There is no emotional involvement with the character. Like the first reviewer said, there's no time to get to know anyone. But with L'AMour I guess that didn't matter, since most of his major characters were pretty much the same person with a different name. I've heard arguments to the contrary, but those readers obviously didn't pay much attention to what they read. 6 foot 4, black hair, broad shoulders, lean hips, fast on the draw, toughest fistfighter in the territory: sound familiar? It should. That was 85 percent of L'Amour's books. Now, if you want the good parts of L'AMour with a lot more emotion and character development, there's an author by the name of Kirby Jonas that critics are calling the New Louis L'Amour. When you read his books, you will quickly see why. Try him out. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. Keep Louis, too. He's good, just not great.