The U.P. Trail

by Zane Grey and A Farrington Elwell

Book Overview

In the early sixties a trail led from the broad Missouri, swirling yellow and turgid between its green-groved borders, for miles and miles out upon the grassy Nebraska plains, turning westward over... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671498444
• ISBN13: 9780671498443
• Release Date: December 1983
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Building a Railroad Across the Nation

What can one say about the greatest undertaking ever devised by man--the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's--and its exposition in story form by the greatest writer of the American West, Zane Grey. Historically accurate from beginning to end, descriptively unmatched by any other writer, and filled with characters enough to fill a mini-series. Of course, there is love found and love lost and then found again; it wouldn't be Zane Grey without that! But beyond the romance, the reader will find the heroism, the strength, the men and women with the kind of fortitude and vision that it took to make this country what it is today. And yes, there is a tragic side to the book. The passing of a life-style; the passing of a people--the Indian; for the progress of the railroad with its technology and its ability to bring huge numbers of people into the country meant the destruction of the Indian. I would recommend this book whole-heartedly for anyone--historian, or pleasure reader.

The single greatest western epic ever written.

Without doubt, this is the single greatest western novel that I have ever read. It was a gift given to me as a boy, and I have reread it periodically ever since. This is a magnificant epic of a novel in a single volume. The collossal enterprise of building the first transcontinental railroad from start to finish connects everything, but is really about Neale's love for Allie Lee- and everything he and their friends go through to rescue her. I know that sounds more like a romance novel than it does a western, but, trust me, this is THE western. You actually care about the many skillfully drawn characters- and it hits you hard when they die in heroic sacrifice. I know that some readers will see the characters as western charactatures and stereotypes, but that is only because Hollywood later overused them- the book came first. By the way, Larry Red King's rescue of Allie Lee from Belle's "Dance Hall" is still the greatest single scene in any western novel, or film, as far as I am concerned. Oh yeah, not all the language is "politically correct" these days. That's because the men who built this nation weren't politically correct- empire builders never are. One more thing, the hero of this novel is an engineer, a civil engineer, and a great role model. At least to me, he was.

Drama, power, passion: a great novel of the American West

I started reading Zane Grey's novels about 15 years ago, when a great-uncle told me of the times, as a youth in the 1920s, he had read Grey's novels on cold nights in front of a fire. It must be close to a decade ago when I first read this title, and I can't help but re-read it every few years. It infuses me with wonder and awe every time. I knew enough about Grey's novels, by the time I read this one, to know that Riders of the Purple Sage was considered his best. But when I got to the end of The U P Trail, I said to myself, "This is the greatest book I have ever read." This novel, which is focused upon the construction of the Union-Pacific Railroad, has something incredibly passionate and elemental about it that not only elevates it above Grey's other numerous titles, including Riders, but makes it a giant in its genre. Grey himself says in his dedication that "it is the book for which I have written all the others." The book's scope is akin to a giant mirror being held up to reflect, in one grand and allegorical image, the breadth of the human experience in the building of the American West, and the destruction of its frontier culture. It's a tale of heroism, virtue, sacrifice, greed, personal ruin, redemption, betrayal, saintliness, violence, bigotry, lust, depravity, nobility, and so many other aspects of human nature it's hard to list them all here. It is filled with unforgettable characters who represent every social group involved with both the building of the railroad itself, and the white man's ambition to expand the nation to the Pacific coast. Some of the incidents and moments created by Grey will remain with readers long after they have finished the book, if not forever. And central to it all is the tortured story of the lovers Neale and Allie. As to drawbacks: modern readers may struggle, in places, with the novel's tone and language. The dialogue of its characters sometimes contains the vernacular and political perspective of the era in which the book was written, and held up to modern standards it could occasionally be labeled politically incorrect. Readers may also have trouble accepting the extra-innocent, almost saintly Allie, and the numerous occasions in which her virtue is preserved against all odds. Generally, though, I believe that the power and beauty of the book will be the primary impression left with those who read it. It should not be missed by anyone who is a Zane Grey fan OR a fan of historical fiction pertaining to the American West. It's a great view of the legacy in which all Americans live today.