Three Complete Western Novels - Riders of the Purple Sage, The Last Trail, Yaqui

by Zane Grey

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0681216824
• ISBN13: 9780681216822
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Longmeadow Press
• Length: 586 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Three By Grey

Without a doubt "Riders of the Purple Sage" is the best western ever written. And Zane Grey is the best author to have ever penned the story of the American West. Along with "Heritage of the Desert" these two rank one and two. Some would say Zane Grey is old fashioned and out of date, but this is not true, if one wants to read good romance, good action, good social inter-action and psychological stories, with excellent and brilliant descriptive backgrounds as to the time and the place and the area where these stories take place. "Riders of the Purple Sage" has everything a person has come to know and understand that belongs in a story of the west--the taciturn gunfighter; the woman in distress fighting a losing battle; great scenery; fast horses; and evil men. Yet "Riders" is more than that. It has sub-plots upon sub-plots that keep the reader wondering what is going to happen next. The Last Trail is the final installment of the trilogy Zane Grey wrote about his ancestors and the part they played in the American Revolution, and the establishment of the frontier. This book focuses on Jonathan Zane and Lew Wetzel both "border men" who either lived with the Indians, or as in Wetzel's case fervently hated the red man. But without the likes of either there was no way the frontier could be made safe for the influx of settlers. This is the country where Zane Grey grew up, fished, and tramped through the woods learning the woodcraft and skill to know of which things he wrote with unsurpassed accuracy, and it shows in his books. Romanticized, to be sure, yet accurate to a T in history, this book makes for a great read for anyone who wants to learn more about this country in its earliest of days. Zane Grey considered himself 1/16th Indian as the Zane side of the family had married Indians in the 18th century. So he had a fondness for the red man and it shows in such works as The Vanishing American and others. Yaqui is the tale of that tribe of Indians and how they were mistreated by the Mexican government and removed from their tribal lands--the mountains of Mexico--and forced into the jungles causing many of them to die from the climate. It was Zane Grey's belief the Yaqui were descendants of the Aztecs. This tribe were made slaves and forced to work in the fields. There is one lieutenant, Perez, who is particularly harsh and sadistic and Yaqui plans his revenge on him, and that makes for one of the most dramatic and memorable endings there ever was to a story. You have to read it to believe it. Great story by Zane Grey.