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Riders of the Purple Sage Kindle Edition

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 5,920 ratings

The first great Western, a story of courage and adventure in Utah canyon country

When Jane Withersteen’s father dies, he leaves her in sole possession of the family’s cattle ranch, situated on one of the most valuable pieces of land in Utah. The river that runs through the property gives Jane control of the local water supply—and the great power that comes with it. Coveting the property, a local Mormon leader named Tull tries to force Jane into a polygamous marriage—a fate that she resists. As Jane’s defiance grows stronger, so does the ire of the townsfolk, and the marriage seems all but inevitable until the infamous gunslinger Lassiter rides into town, bringing a quick trigger and frontier-hardened bravery that just may be Jane’s last great hope.

Renowned for its rich depiction of the West, 
Riders of the Purple Sage is an unforgettable adventure story of love, honor, and courage, and perhaps the most popular Western of all time.

This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00JDY7TL2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (April 22, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 22, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1804 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 275 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 5,920 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
5,920 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the story engaging and well-written. They appreciate the vivid descriptions of the landscapes and the classic western genre. The characters are well-developed with personalities, and the heroine is described as fabulous. Readers enjoy the vibrant depiction of the old west in the book. Overall, it's a worthwhile read that keeps customers hooked until the end.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

588 customers mention "Readability"544 positive44 negative

Customers enjoy the book's engaging story and plot. They find the opening chapter exciting and riveting, and describe it as a riveting tale of intrigue that resonates with the American experience today. The book is described as amazing and a must-read.

"...But the book succeeds mainly because it is an interesting story with riveting action sequences, beautifully -described locals, and some surprising..." Read more

"...I enjoyed the book, the first Zane Grey I have read or listened to...." Read more

"This was the first Zane Grey book I have read and really loved it. Great story, great prose and it made me feel part of the story myself." Read more

"...The novel is at base a fairy tale. Its animate characters are two and four footed...." Read more

266 customers mention "Writing quality"192 positive74 negative

Customers enjoy the book's vivid descriptions of the Utah countryside. They describe the prose as descriptive and inspiring, bringing them back to a simpler time. Readers praise the masterful writing style and the fine narration. Overall, they find the book captivating and richer than expected.

"...What emerged is a much richer world than I expected...." Read more

"...Ms. Richardson did a very fine job of narrating the book...." Read more

"...Why is that so? First, today, because it is green. Nature is all important, and though not tender to the people in it, the land offers a thrill of..." Read more

"...Still... the dialogue is a bit over-dramatic at times, the descriptions can be overlong at times, and we don't get fully-fleshed characters...." Read more

120 customers mention "Western genre"120 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the western genre. They find the book a classic and a favorite of theirs. It's considered the first true Western novel and a good place to start reading the genre. Readers appreciate the interesting view of the Old West and the realistic depiction of cowboy life.

"Having heard much about how this book established the western novel genre and having never read one before, I was expecting lonesome cowboys, horses..." Read more

"...Riders of the Purple Sage is a classic western from author Zane Grey. It was published in 1912 and has remained in print and popular to this day...." Read more

"...The natural environment is primary and formative...." Read more

"Riders of the Purple Sage is a classic of the western genre...." Read more

93 customers mention "Character development"72 positive21 negative

Customers enjoy the well-developed characters. They find the villains have personalities, and the descriptions are fabulous. The characters are described as two- and four-legged, with Jane being a perfect example of a tough female character.

"...Even the villainous males have more personality than the passionate female Jane...." Read more

"...She was naive. Other than that, all the characters were well rounded. I had previously listened to the version narrated by Mark Bramhall...." Read more

"...The novel is at base a fairy tale. Its animate characters are two and four footed...." Read more

"...times, the descriptions can be overlong at times, and we don't get fully-fleshed characters...." Read more

88 customers mention "Beauty"81 positive7 negative

Customers enjoy the book's beautiful landscape descriptions. They find the descriptions fresh and unusual, painting a vivid image in their minds of the countryside. The book provides an insightful and well-crafted vision of the West, featuring wide-open desert scrubland, mountains, and large fields of purple sage.

"...important, and though not tender to the people in it, the land offers a thrill of beauty to anyone with a heart to feel it and eyes to see...." Read more

"...author takes the time to describe flora & fauna and paint visual pictures of the western vista. It is not fast paced...." Read more

"...and the love stories that were included in this book paint a beautiful picture." Read more

"...I watched as a kid, the desolate loneliness and wide-open landscapes of desert scrub...." Read more

86 customers mention "Enjoyment"72 positive14 negative

Customers enjoy the book. They find it well-written and suspenseful. The characters are lively and the story keeps them hooked until the end. Many consider it an easy, enjoyable read with an upbeat opening theme music.

"...Both were suspenseful and worth the read!..." Read more

"...I love that awesome opening theme music; it was very upbeat and exciting!..." Read more

"...Well worth the read if only for that. On the other hand, whereas Elmore Leonard's tales are terse and tight, Zane Grey is prolix to a fault...." Read more

"...While predictable (as most westerns are) it is enjoyable and recommended." Read more

42 customers mention "Description"34 positive8 negative

Customers enjoy the book's descriptions of the place and time. They find the evocative descriptions real, with well-described locals and scenery. The book has a perfect sense of place and tone, evokes memories of Utah canyonland and mountain travels.

"...it is an interesting story with riveting action sequences, beautifully -described locals, and some surprising plot twists." Read more

"...It is such a wonderful and strange story and has such a perfect sense of place and tone. Weird but it actually works...." Read more

"...She has love for her horses and cattle and hates shedding of blood by a gun slinger that comes to her aid and to settle scores...." Read more

"...And the descriptions of the landscape, the details about herding cattle and their fright of strange lights, the “feminist” (in today’s term) point..." Read more

39 customers mention "Pacing"21 positive18 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's pacing. Some find it fast-paced and engaging, while others find it slow-moving and detailed. The first chapter is mentioned as slow-going, but things liven up later.

"Told in a slow, deliberate style the author takes the time to describe flora & fauna and paint visual pictures of the western vista...." Read more

"...but the stilted romance and endless description of place did slow the story a bit." Read more

"...At the center of it all is a strong, good woman and a dangerous, infamous man who falls in love with her...." Read more

"...The writing is good, but the story moves slowly at times. The descriptions of the territory are very good and very detailed...." Read more

PRINT TOO SMALL
2 out of 5 stars
PRINT TOO SMALL
I cannot read this book because the print is entirely too small!! Come on! Can't you print just a bit larger font??!See picture for comparison with a normal printed book.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2024
    Having heard much about how this book established the western novel genre and having never read one before, I was expecting lonesome cowboys, horses, and gun fights. What emerged is a much richer world than I expected. The riders are The most fleshed out of the characters while the women serve as both motivation and sometimes plot movers, though they don't seem quite as well-developed as the men. Even the villainous males have more personality than the passionate female Jane.

    And speaking of Jane, the 2485534 mentions her faith and loyalty to her Mormon people throughout the narrative, making them central to her character and her choices, but assumes that the reader understands the tenants of Mormonism with absolutely no exposition of the group's beliefs, history, or why they are feared and sometimes reviled by " gentiles. " It seems to me that centering the book in the Mormon world without a better revelation of their beliefs and habits left the reader without some of the depth of character and understanding of plots that the writer assumes the reader will understand.
    But the book succeeds mainly because it is an interesting story with riveting action sequences, beautifully -described locals, and some surprising plot twists.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2016
    Review first posted on Audiobook Reviewer.

    Riders of the Purple Sage
    Written by: Zane Grey
    Narrated by: Ann M. Richardson
    Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
    Series: Riders of the Purple Sage, Book 1
    Unabridged Audiobook
    Release Date:04-18-16
    Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

    Riders of the Purple Sage is a classic western from author Zane Grey. It was published in 1912 and has remained in print and popular to this day. The story is set in 1871 in the Utah territory. There is no separation of church and state. The Mormon church and it’s patriarchal society hold all power.

    The main character Jane is very non-traditional for the time period and for Mormon women. She is unmarried in her late twenties. She is also wealthy because of inheriting her father’s estate. She further defies convention by refusing to marry one of the Mormon elders in the area who demand she get in line with church teachings. Worst of all, in the eyes of her Mormon neighbors, is her belief in treating all men, whether Mormon or Gentile (non-Mormon) with equal dignity.

    Her property is very valuable since it has a reliable water source. Her horses are also well known and sought after. Elder Tull wants to marry her, her wealth equal in his eyes to her beauty. The local Bishop, Dyer, supports Tull in his attempt to make Jane into a respectable Mormon wife. When Jane does not jump at the chance to become another of Tull’s wives, Tull and Dyer set about forcing her by attacking her Gentile ranch hands. Without her trusted hands, Jane cannot keep the ranch functioning.

    As Jane continues to fight for what she feels is right and not what the Mormon men tell her is right, help comes from an unexpected and very dangerous source. Lassiter, a gunman known for his antipathy towards Mormons and accused of killing several Mormon men, arrives at Jane’s ranch. His reputation proceeds him and causes the to resort to even more violence in an attempt to force Jane into marriage.

    Lassiter is an anti-hero. He is a man who has willingly killed other men. He has a very open hatred of all things Mormon. Yet he demonstrates more honor than the religious men trying to rob Jane of her independence and wealth. The pairing of a gunslinger and a Mormon woman drive the plot to an unexpected and thrilling conclusion.

    I enjoyed the book, the first Zane Grey I have read or listened to. My only disappointment was it took Jane so long to realize that the Elder and Bishop were not motivated by religion but by greed. She was naive. Other than that, all the characters were well rounded.

    I had previously listened to the version narrated by Mark Bramhall. I was interested to hear the book narrated by a woman, Ann M. Richardson. Different narrators can bring different tones or emphasis to the same book. I was very interested whether the gender of the narrator would affect the story itself. I found the gender of the narrator in this particular instance did not make a difference. Ms. Richardson did a very fine job of narrating the book. After listening to the same passages read by the two different narrators, I found I enjoyed them both. If this is an edge at all, it goes to Ms. Richardson. Her voice is very pleasant and she handles the range of voices, male/female, very well.

    Rating: Story (Plot) 4

    Rating: Performance 5

    Rating: Production Quality 5

    Rating: Attention Holding 4

    Rating 4.5

    ​ABR received this audiobook for free from the Publisher, Submitted in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the audiobook or the content of our review.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2024
    This was the first Zane Grey book I have read and really loved it. Great story, great prose and it made me feel part of the story myself.
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2013
    BOOK REVIEW

    RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE by Zane Grey

    Riders of the Purple Sage was published a hundred years ago and shows its age in its strengths and in its flaws. The descriptive passages, which are everywhere, are concrete, credible, poetic, and repetitive. They underscore the narrative and are too often used to replace the plot. They are the dominating part of the work, the most memorable. The natural environment is primary and formative. Water or its absence, the light of sun and moon, the struggle of plants, the rocks, passes and stretching sands, these are the birthright, the skeleton of the West in Riders of the Purple Sage. People are products of that heredity and are determined by birth, each, to exploit their niche. They develop and succeed to the degree that they conform. In this unforgiving imagined West, mutations are not appreciated and are soon eliminated. Here, cactuses have more character than heroines. Plants communicate with a skill not always present in people The animals are as central as the humans in the story, often more so. The names and personalities of the horses and dogs are more memorable than the characters and, of course, the animals are consistent without being less one-dimensional than the humans.

    The Mormon religion is the green fuse that forces the flower in this work. That is the fact, but it remains a secret. It is not exposed. The lust of Mormon men to "collect in the ewes", which is the drive - that and greed - underlying the plot, is never mentioned, much less clarified. The motivations of the players in the drama are invisible one stroke engines. They are givens without vocabulary, without perspective. The persons wear masks a la commedia della arte, with labels, and that is all they are. Rich unmarried Mormon woman, choleric hypocrite preacher with itching loins, lying homicidal Bishop, harrassed handsome cowboy, inveterately honest ranch hand, weary Hausfrau...all flat as planks.

    The dialogue is limited and never memorable, though it is sufficient to continue the story or at least not impede it. The magic of the book is that it is readable despite the defects of composition. A writer, and particularly a best selling author, has an audience, and depending on that public his works travel well or ill down time. Zane Grey almost invented the western genre and probably that was his strength and it is now his weakness, for once invented the creator tends to repeat not refine his children. In short, biography is fatality. I will now try to discover why Riders of the Purple Sage, parenthetically his best known work, still accumulates readers despite limitations that should have consigned it to the Limbo of permanent Remainder stacks.

    Why is that so? First, today, because it is green. Nature is all important, and though not tender to the people in it, the land offers a thrill of beauty to anyone with a heart to feel it and eyes to see. The prose has a contemporary idealism. It all happens in a world that is not known to the reader, but it can be believed. Zane Grey, of course, knew the west very well but the version used in his books was a planet apart. At the moment of composition, he seems to reflect the romanticism of Rousseau, a century before. And so it is today. Whether such a place ever existed is uncertain and the practical human details of the wild country are debatable, but that makes no difference to our reading. A suspension of disbelief is the foundation for the story and as it progresses, it becomes unquestioned. The moment anything is examined in this sort of prose, the whole thing dissolves into superannuated myth. It is early science fiction but without the science. The dialogue is held to as little as possible and that, artificial, sounding particularly so with the heroine whose every speech is an operatic recitative done in a language unknown to the singer. The men are assumed to have impediments and are therefore sparing in speech. Every time they address Jane, their stammers are the most effective parts of the communication. The secondary characters are seen as dusty robots who are most alive when on a horse and brain dead dismounted. Given the opportunity to kill one another, they display remarkable energy, but without that motive, breath is a visible waste of a vanishing resource.
    What did Zane Grey want to do with this story? I think he hoped to present a romantic picture of a disappearing primitive world in which the humans were in the process of destroying the wild creatures who lived there, of taming and exploiting the natural resources, and of battling one another to the death for primacy. The moral view is obvious and his partisanship for the losing party is evident. Did he succeed in his intent? The answer must be a modified yes, and that explains much of its charm and longevity. The last question is always the killer, however, for it is to place the work in time, in its genre, and in imaginative letters. The novel is at base a fairy tale. Its animate characters are two and four footed. The desert is the origin of all and displays the indomitable force of a uiversal myth. The book aspires beyond its strength and today reaches a modest level of acceptance. It was not a boy's book written for teen-agers, but today the level it reaches is that, beneath Harry Potter but above Tarzan. It is on shifting sands and will probably find readers as long as cowboys enchant, mustangs lope and, fortunately, readers thirst for both.
    6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Guy who cooks
    5.0 out of 5 stars FUN SUMMER READING
    Reviewed in Canada on June 30, 2023
    A tale of the old west and unrequited love!
  • Boschini Matteo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Bellissimo
    Reviewed in Italy on December 29, 2023
    Bellissimo
  • Jonathan Bate
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, what a great book!
    Reviewed in Germany on April 28, 2019
    This is certainly one of the best Western books I have ever read, and in fact I'll put it into my top 100 books period.

    A wonderful story of life in the Mormon old West, full of adventure, down-to-earth characters, romance, intrigue and colorful descriptions of the landscape. I can feel myself living the story. Great!
  • Dr Gautam Dhar
    5.0 out of 5 stars READ IT
    Reviewed in India on October 19, 2015
    ZANE GREY AND HIS BEST
  • Hardi, Les Huchon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2014
    Five stars = top 20 books the Huchon ever read
    4 = the Huchon happy if he wrote it
    3 = the Huchon happy to read it
    2 = the Huchon read it but not happy
    1 = the Huchon tried to read it but gave up

    This book has the lot. Scale, passion, drama, romance. Maybe not comedy but re-reading may reveal more layers. Massively influential book. Extremely easy to read. Possibly the most effortlessly evocative book the Huchon ever read.

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