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The Riders of the Purple Sage
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The Riders of the Purple Sage Paperback - 1990

by Zane Grey; Introduction by Jane Tompkins

The great American Western novelist presents his all-time classic story. Even the wild purple wasteland falls into jeopardy when a gunman named Lassiter and a rich homesteader named Jane Witherspoon join forces--and fates--to take on an entire violent town.


Summary

A master of narrative momentum and suspense, Zane Grey sweeps readers into his stories and makes them feel that things are out of control, that boundaries are being burst. In Riders of the Purple Sage, the most famous novel of the American West, Grey creates a hero of epic proportions, a villain of legendary evil and a world in which the landscape is rendered with such force that it seems to express thoughts and feelings, to become a character in its own right. Indeed, Riders of the Purple Sage derives much of its depth and power from passions whose forbidden and overwhelming nature cannot be expressed by human beings and are therefore embodied in the natural world. In his depiction of the relationship between Lassiter, the hero, and Jane Withersteen, Grey breaks other literary barriers: Jane, modelled on the heroines of the nineteenth-century novel, must come to terms with the values expressed by Lassiter - the harsh, "masculine" values of the twentieth century. Their struggles together represent the tumultuous changes society itself was confronting.

From the publisher

A master of narrative momentum and suspense, Zane Grey sweeps readers into his stories and makes them feel that things are out of control, that boundaries are being burst. In Riders of the Purple Sage, the most famous novel of the American West, Grey creates a hero of epic proportions, a villain of legendary evil and a world in which the landscape is rendered with such force that it seems to express thoughts and feelings, to become a character in its own right. Indeed, Riders of the Purple Sage derives much of its depth and power from passions whose forbidden and overwhelming nature cannot be expressed by human beings and are therefore embodied in the natural world. In his depiction of the relationship between Lassiter, the hero, and Jane Withersteen, Grey breaks other literary barriers: Jane, modelled on the heroines of the nineteenth-century novel, must come to terms with the values expressed by Lassiter - the harsh, "masculine" values of the twentieth century. Their struggles together represent the tumultuous changes society itself was confronting.

Details

  • Title The Riders of the Purple Sage
  • Author Zane Grey; Introduction by Jane Tompkins
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Third Impression
  • Pages 304
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Group, New York, NY, U.S.A.
  • Date 1990-05-01
  • ISBN 9780140184402 / 0140184406
  • Weight 0.55 lbs (0.25 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.74 x 5.18 x 0.67 in (19.66 x 13.16 x 1.70 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Reading level 1000
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Western U.S.
    • Topical: Country/Cowboy
  • Library of Congress subjects Western stories, Utah
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 89029702
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

William R. Handley is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California and the author of Marriage, Violence, and the Nation in the American Literary West.
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Riders of the Purple Sage (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

Riders of the Purple Sage (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

by Grey, Zane

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Riders of the Purple Sage
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Riders of the Purple Sage

by Zane; Tompkins, Jane Grey

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Riders of the Purple Sage
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Riders of the Purple Sage

by Grey, Zane

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Riders of the Purple Sage

Riders of the Purple Sage

by Zane Grey

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Riders of the Purple Sage

Riders of the Purple Sage

by Zane Grey

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780140184402 / 0140184406
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Riders of the Purple Sage

Riders of the Purple Sage

by Zane Grey

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Riders of the Purple Sage
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Riders of the Purple Sage

by Grey, Zane

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780140184402 / 0140184406
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Riders of the Purple Sage (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
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Riders of the Purple Sage (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

by Zane Grey

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Riders of the Purple Sage
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Riders of the Purple Sage

by Grey, Zane

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Riders of the Purple Sage (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
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Riders of the Purple Sage (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

by Grey, Zane; Tompkins, Jane [Introduction]

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