A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.
Lonesome Dove
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Larry McMurtry, in books like The Last Picture Show, has depicted the modern degeneration of the myth of the American West. The subject of Lonesome Dove, cowboys herding cattle on a great trail-drive, seems like the very stuff of that cliched myth, but McMurtry bravely tackles the task of creating meaningful literature out of it. At first the novel seems the kind of anti-mythic, anti-heroic story one might expect: the main protagonists are a drunken and inarticulate pair of former Texas Rangers turned horse rustlers. Yet when the trail begins, the story picks up an energy and a drive that makes heroes of these men. Their mission may be historically insignificant, or pointless--McMurtry is smart enough to address both possibilities--but there is an undoubted valor in their lives. The result is a historically aware, intelligent, romantic novel of the mythic west that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Review
“If you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove.”—USA Today
“Everything about Lonesome Dove feels true . . . These are real people, and they are still larger than life.”—Nicholas Lemann, The New York Times Book Review
“Lonesome Dove is Larry McMurtry’s loftiest novel."—Los Angeles Times
"A marvelous novel . . . moves with joyous energy . . . amply imagined and crisply, lovingly written. I haven't enjoyed a book more this year . . . a joyous epic."--Newsweek
"The finest novel that McMurtry has yet accomplished . . . Lonesome Dove has all the action anyone could possibly imagine . . . [and] both in general and in details, the authority of exact authenticity . . . superb."--Chicago Tribune
“Everything about Lonesome Dove feels true . . . These are real people, and they are still larger than life.”—Nicholas Lemann, The New York Times Book Review
“Lonesome Dove is Larry McMurtry’s loftiest novel."—Los Angeles Times
"A marvelous novel . . . moves with joyous energy . . . amply imagined and crisply, lovingly written. I haven't enjoyed a book more this year . . . a joyous epic."--Newsweek
"The finest novel that McMurtry has yet accomplished . . . Lonesome Dove has all the action anyone could possibly imagine . . . [and] both in general and in details, the authority of exact authenticity . . . superb."--Chicago Tribune
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Larry McMurtry is the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. His other works include two collections of essays, three memoirs, and more than thirty screenplays, including the coauthorship of Brokeback Mountain, for which he received an Academy Award. His most recent novel, When the Light Goes, is available from Simon & Schuster. He lives in Archer City, Texas.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
127 of 141 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I have never been a fan of the literary western genre and confess that I read this book solely because I watched the movie based upon this book. Incredibly, the book supercedes the movie and McMurtry's characterization of Woodrow and Gus are truly stunning. It's the characters that turn this book into a compelling classic, rarely does the reader encounter such deftly-drawn and intriguing men as McCall and McCrae. You feel as if you are in Lonesome Dove with these men, and with them every step of the way from Texas to Montana. It's a magnificent journey and McMurtry is a superlative writer.
Even if you've never read a western book in your life, this is a literary masterpiece, the Shakespeare of the range, so to speak.
99 of 117 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Stay with me here. I'm serious. I think Lonesome Dove can standcomparison to Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Of course, I've only read Tolstoy in translation, so chances are I've missed alot, but there is no question that McMurtry creates something here very close to that impossible dream: The Great American Novel. I dont know that any other American writer has ever suceeded on this scale, which is why I go to Tolstoy.
McMurtry uses the Western as a starting point, but there is a little of everything here. Surely there has never been another American Western with so many varied characters, both men and and women. McMurtry juggles many different points of view, but manages to give each of his characters a unique voice. Most remarkable of all, I think, are the women in the book, who manage to escape the usual stereotypes of madonna or whore, even though many of them are, quite literally, prostitutes.
Lonesome Dove is written in a deceptively simple, unpretentious style. I've just finished reading it for the second time. Despite its length it is really a fast read, since it is one of those books that demands to be taken with you where ever you go until you are done.
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Lonesome Dove is a modern classic. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the popularity of this book, the acclaim it has received and the cult status it has achieved with readers has tended to overshadow some of Larry McMurtry's other work and the attention to this one book has even become tiresome to the curmudgeonly Texas author. However, as a frequent reader of the prolific writer's fiction, I can attest to the fact that it is McMurtry's finest book and the one that gave readers his most memorable characters - the talkative, colorful Gus McCrae and the taciturn, deliberate Woodrow Call - aging former Texas Rangers who run a down-at-the-heels ranch near the Mexican border that they subsidize with cattle stolen on nocturnal raids across the border. The novel is about an epic cattle drive all the way from southern Texas to Montana. This famous "long drive" was actually a rare occurrence in the historic west as the expansion of the railroad system made long cattle drives unnecessary. While most cowboys who lived in the era of the cattle drives - which were driven by economic necessity in the years following the Civil War when there was a large market for beef in the north than could only be filled by the millions of head of cattle that had been left to breed on Texas pastures during the long years of conflict - went on a drive or two from Texas to Kansas as a rite of passage, a drive from the southern border of the country to its northern extreme would have been truly epic. In Lonesome Dove the drovers experience and overcome rainstorms and stampedes, treacherous crossings of swollen rivers, disloyal comrades, raiding Indians and a deviant, sadistic half-breed killer who stalks the cowboys and their retinue. While the leading characters, cantankerous old comrades, are the center of the story, the secondary figures in the drama are also beautifully written - Newt, Call's young son who is struggling to become a man, Lorena, the tenderhearted and beautiful young "soiled dove" and Jake, the charming former Ranger undone by his appetites. In contrast to some of McMurtry's other works, while death is always an uninvited guest, the drama is also leavened by a good dose of humor, much of it coming from a pair of snake eating Blue Pigs who become the novel's comic relief. And, there are plenty of violent ends as the author does not mind sacrificing his men and women to the needs of the fast-advancing plot and giving his readers an emotional tug. While cowboy work was hot, dirty and low paying work, revisionists forget that there was a romantic beauty to life on horseback, long nights of comradeship and a pride that cowhands took in doing a difficult job well. Larry McMurtry understands the incredible history of the American West and with its desolate beauty, unabashed romanticism and moments of stark terror, Lonesome Dove is an elegy to the waning days of the open range when bold men and strong women tried to settle the Great Plains.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
the best book I've ever read
I've loved this book from the first page, if you must read only one book this year, read this one!
Published 7 days ago by lerineka
All time great
Probably the best book I've ever read. Actually, now that I think about it, it's THE best book that I've ever read.
Published 12 days ago by ksp
A year later, I'm still frustrated
I originally wrote this review on my blog last year. Reading it again reminds me of how mad I was when I got to the end of the novel. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Steven E. Wedel
It's the best
I love this book. I am a fan of McMurtry, and I believe these characters and this book are his best work. I am grateful that he wrote it.
Published 20 days ago by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Kings of the Cruel Frontier
Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae, ex Texas Rangers, have a secure but monotonous life at The Hat Creek liverery in Lonesome Dove, where the only pleasures are The Dry Bean saloon,... Read more
Published 22 days ago by An admirer of Saul
An amazing work!!
Probably the best novel I've ever read. Beautifully written, beautifully plotted and beautifully executed. Read more
Published 23 days ago by SIMON-BELLOWS
We don't rent pigs.
I've read a great many books, few of them westerns, and none Pulitzer Prize winners. If Lonesome Dove is the kind of quality I've been avoiding, I will never forgive myself. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jamil Bhatti
Very, very good book!
I wish I could give this book a 4.5 because I feel it deserves better than a 4, but it's not quite a 5. I really enjoyed reading this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by KevsterS
How can one categorize and explain perfection?
Once in a while a work of art comes along that defies explanation. It's like the Winchester '73 "ONE OF ONE THOUSAND" rifle- everything works so well that that particular rifle is... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sgt. Quincannon
Brings chills to my spine.
Most people are put off by the categorization of Lonesome Dove as a western. Lonesome Dove is much more than a mere western. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Keith Y
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
WHEN AUGUSTUS CAME OUT on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake-not a very big one. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Pea Eye, Blue Duck, Lonesome Dove, Dish Boggett, Jake Spoon, Fort Smith, Dan Suggs, Hat Creek, Captain Call, Dog Face, Monkey John, Hell Bitch, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Jasper Fant, San Francisco, July Johnson, Dry Bean, Needle Nelson, Dee Boot, Allen O'Brien, Big Zwey, Aus Frank, Roy Suggs, Ben Rainey New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
WHEN AUGUSTUS CAME OUT on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake-not a very big one. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Pea Eye, Blue Duck, Lonesome Dove, Dish Boggett, Jake Spoon, Fort Smith, Dan Suggs, Hat Creek, Captain Call, Dog Face, Monkey John, Hell Bitch, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Jasper Fant, San Francisco, July Johnson, Dry Bean, Needle Nelson, Dee Boot, Allen O'Brien, Big Zwey, Aus Frank, Roy Suggs, Ben Rainey New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 24
books:
See all 24 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Red River by Stephen Blue on page 383, page 468, and page 510
- Terms of Endearment: A Novel by Larry McMurtry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Desert Rose : A Novel by Larry McMurtry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Late Child by Larry McMurtry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Evening Star by Larry McMurtry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 24 books this book cites
- Larry McMurtry: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers) by John Reilly on 32 pages
- Larry McMurtry and the Victorian Novel (Tarleton State University Southwestern Studies in the Humanities) by Roger Walton Jones on 21 pages
- Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other) by Mark C. Carnes on 10 pages
- Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other) by Mark C. Carnes on 10 pages
- Dead Man's Walk (Lonesome Dove) by Larry McMurtry on 5 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
