What do you think?
Rate this book
Lonesome Dove, Part 1 of 3
Audio Cassette
22 people are currently reading
969 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
150 books4,099 followersLarry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
November 13, 2023
I loved this book and will read again and again.
October 9, 2025
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
10 out of 10
This is an outstanding, glorious novel and having read it a second time, the pleasure, the thrill, entertainment of the read is equal to the first encounter with this winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986, a novel with an interesting story about its development, not just inside the covers.
Larry McMurtry is a Texan genius whose scripts have attracted for his films no less than twenty-six Oscar nominations, with ten wins, for celebrated features like The Last Picture Show – one of the best films ever – and Terms of Endearment.
He was working for a project for a Western, with the great director of The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich, that alas James Stewart, Henry Fonda and John Wayne did not like – which goes to prove again that fabulous actors can make the silliest mistakes outside the set – and therefore the writer bought the rights back for $ 35,000 and created a chef d’oeuvre.
If the under signed loved it when he had the first chance, he admired it again for the past few days, on the second engagement – a fantastic story of adventure, love, courage, thrilling fights, humorous dialogue and characters, especially Augustus “Gus” McCrae, the protagonist who towers over the narrative.
Gus, Woodrow Call – his longtime friend, companion and business partner- Joshua Deets, Jake Spoon and Pea Eye have been Texas Rangers and after retiring they have had a farm in Lonesome Dove, Texas, where life has been rather good, up to the point where Spoon returns, wanted for an accidental homicide and followed by the sheriff July Johnson.
Jake tells his friends about the beauty of Montana, an unconquered, pristine territory at that moment in the nineteenth century and he convinces Captain Call that they have to take the cattle, horses from Mexico and travel three thousand miles north to settle near the mountains.
Reluctant at first, Gus becomes thrilled by the journey, although he has to try and save Lorena Wood, a former “sporting woman” that has decided to travel along with the man she is fascinated by, Jake Spoon, and who was kidnapped by a vicious Native American called Blue Duck, one that had killed, raped women and stolen children.
If one can find some issue with this extraordinary novel, it is the image of the Native Americans, who are often depicted as loathsome, killers and horse thieves, some of them indeed killing one of the main characters of the novel, together with a number of others.
Granted, Gus among others have a somewhat different opinion on the Native Americans, even if he has fought and battles them in the present, for he appreciates their freedom, spirit, although he has to cope with the disgusting results of the actions of bad enemies.
After liberating Lorena, the woman he likes so much, killing six Indians – as they are called in the book – he travels with July Johnson to where the camp was, only to discover that the deputy, the nice and amusing Roscoe Brown, July’s step son, Joe, and a girl that had just been freed from the tyranny and abuse of an old pervert are all dead, killed by the monster Blue Duck.
Many die in the difficult road to Montana, one killed by snakes as they cross one of the first rivers, another as they catch some horse thieves that turn out to be just dirt poor, destitute American Indians that took the animals to have food over the winter and they even have to hang one of their own, together with a gang of treacherous, awful outlaws led by Dan Suggs.
Gus is the light, the god that Lorena loves after she had been rescued from a terrible ordeal, having been raped and abused by American Indians – this alas seems to be their profile in this tale – but he wants to reach Nebraska, to see if he can marry Clara Allen, the woman he loved years ago, before she married another man and left Texas for the North.
Clara has two daughters, while all the sons she has had have died, her spouse has been hit by a horse and he is dying, when she meets Elmira Johnson, the fleeing wife of the young sheriff, who gives birth at the farm, abandons the baby, only to be killed by…”Indians” they do bad things again.
First July Johnson arrives, only to find that his wife is the next town, with a buffalo hunter and will do anything she can to run from him, the sheriff is offered a job, and then discovers he has fallen in love with Clara, sometime after learning the news of his wife’s death.
When Gus arrives at the Allen Farm, he has Lorena with him, such a nice girl that Clara takes to her, invites her to stay over, at a place where more and more characters find love and a home, with the arrival later in the story of Dish Boggett a top hand who is enchanted by Lorena Woods, in spite of the fact that the latter is mesmerized still by Augustus, who asks Clara about their old relationship, only to be told that she would not marry him, no matter what the fate of her terminally ill spouse is.
Newt Dobbs is one of the other many interesting characters, the son of Captain Call, who has not yet had the bravery to tell the boy he is his father, give him his name, although Gus gives the news to the young man, who is thinking this is a joke when he first hears about it.
Other colorful, amusing personages include the cooks, Bolivar in Lonesome Dove and Po Campo on the trail to Montana, Lippy Jones, the piano player in the saloon in Texas, Joshua Deets, the brave, intelligent, dedicated, modest man that dies rather early and is a victim of fate, in what looks like such a stupid accident.
Lonesome Dove is an extraordinary, divine read which combines dramatic events – so many deaths, chases, gun fights – with the humor of the hilarious Augustus McCrae, the love between various characters, fascination of the tremendous journey, admiration for the immense courage of the heroes, some of them reluctant to cross water, face the enemy or even…ghosts.
10 out of 10
This is an outstanding, glorious novel and having read it a second time, the pleasure, the thrill, entertainment of the read is equal to the first encounter with this winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986, a novel with an interesting story about its development, not just inside the covers.
Larry McMurtry is a Texan genius whose scripts have attracted for his films no less than twenty-six Oscar nominations, with ten wins, for celebrated features like The Last Picture Show – one of the best films ever – and Terms of Endearment.
He was working for a project for a Western, with the great director of The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich, that alas James Stewart, Henry Fonda and John Wayne did not like – which goes to prove again that fabulous actors can make the silliest mistakes outside the set – and therefore the writer bought the rights back for $ 35,000 and created a chef d’oeuvre.
If the under signed loved it when he had the first chance, he admired it again for the past few days, on the second engagement – a fantastic story of adventure, love, courage, thrilling fights, humorous dialogue and characters, especially Augustus “Gus” McCrae, the protagonist who towers over the narrative.
Gus, Woodrow Call – his longtime friend, companion and business partner- Joshua Deets, Jake Spoon and Pea Eye have been Texas Rangers and after retiring they have had a farm in Lonesome Dove, Texas, where life has been rather good, up to the point where Spoon returns, wanted for an accidental homicide and followed by the sheriff July Johnson.
Jake tells his friends about the beauty of Montana, an unconquered, pristine territory at that moment in the nineteenth century and he convinces Captain Call that they have to take the cattle, horses from Mexico and travel three thousand miles north to settle near the mountains.
Reluctant at first, Gus becomes thrilled by the journey, although he has to try and save Lorena Wood, a former “sporting woman” that has decided to travel along with the man she is fascinated by, Jake Spoon, and who was kidnapped by a vicious Native American called Blue Duck, one that had killed, raped women and stolen children.
If one can find some issue with this extraordinary novel, it is the image of the Native Americans, who are often depicted as loathsome, killers and horse thieves, some of them indeed killing one of the main characters of the novel, together with a number of others.
Granted, Gus among others have a somewhat different opinion on the Native Americans, even if he has fought and battles them in the present, for he appreciates their freedom, spirit, although he has to cope with the disgusting results of the actions of bad enemies.
After liberating Lorena, the woman he likes so much, killing six Indians – as they are called in the book – he travels with July Johnson to where the camp was, only to discover that the deputy, the nice and amusing Roscoe Brown, July’s step son, Joe, and a girl that had just been freed from the tyranny and abuse of an old pervert are all dead, killed by the monster Blue Duck.
Many die in the difficult road to Montana, one killed by snakes as they cross one of the first rivers, another as they catch some horse thieves that turn out to be just dirt poor, destitute American Indians that took the animals to have food over the winter and they even have to hang one of their own, together with a gang of treacherous, awful outlaws led by Dan Suggs.
Gus is the light, the god that Lorena loves after she had been rescued from a terrible ordeal, having been raped and abused by American Indians – this alas seems to be their profile in this tale – but he wants to reach Nebraska, to see if he can marry Clara Allen, the woman he loved years ago, before she married another man and left Texas for the North.
Clara has two daughters, while all the sons she has had have died, her spouse has been hit by a horse and he is dying, when she meets Elmira Johnson, the fleeing wife of the young sheriff, who gives birth at the farm, abandons the baby, only to be killed by…”Indians” they do bad things again.
First July Johnson arrives, only to find that his wife is the next town, with a buffalo hunter and will do anything she can to run from him, the sheriff is offered a job, and then discovers he has fallen in love with Clara, sometime after learning the news of his wife’s death.
When Gus arrives at the Allen Farm, he has Lorena with him, such a nice girl that Clara takes to her, invites her to stay over, at a place where more and more characters find love and a home, with the arrival later in the story of Dish Boggett a top hand who is enchanted by Lorena Woods, in spite of the fact that the latter is mesmerized still by Augustus, who asks Clara about their old relationship, only to be told that she would not marry him, no matter what the fate of her terminally ill spouse is.
Newt Dobbs is one of the other many interesting characters, the son of Captain Call, who has not yet had the bravery to tell the boy he is his father, give him his name, although Gus gives the news to the young man, who is thinking this is a joke when he first hears about it.
Other colorful, amusing personages include the cooks, Bolivar in Lonesome Dove and Po Campo on the trail to Montana, Lippy Jones, the piano player in the saloon in Texas, Joshua Deets, the brave, intelligent, dedicated, modest man that dies rather early and is a victim of fate, in what looks like such a stupid accident.
Lonesome Dove is an extraordinary, divine read which combines dramatic events – so many deaths, chases, gun fights – with the humor of the hilarious Augustus McCrae, the love between various characters, fascination of the tremendous journey, admiration for the immense courage of the heroes, some of them reluctant to cross water, face the enemy or even…ghosts.
November 16, 2018
I was going to give this 5 stars and move on, but then I read a bunch of reviews and decided I had to do at least a short one of my own.
Characters – great; landscape, history, atmosphere – great; plot – great in the same way as, say, War and Peace – a lot going on, but not just a one-darn-thing-after-another read, either. Not a whodunit and not a mere western
Is it literature? I'm a literature snob, I guess, and I made a false start on this a few years ago. I came back to it because my son said I should, and he was right. Yes, it's literature. I say that because it's about something, not just about a bunch of guys moving cows in the 19th century.
It's about loneliness. And the driver of loneliness: death. Every action by every person in this book is about the desire to connect with something greater than themselves. Someone, some thing, some epic battle with evil, some meaning to life other than escape from our personal limitations. I ached for Call and Newt, their distance is the hallmark theme of this book, but it is replicated with Clara and Gus; Clara and July; Lorena and Gus; Deets and white society; Pea and Ms. Collins; July and Elmira, Dish and Lorena; it goes on and on, but the most important pairing is this: Call and Gus.
Lonesome Dove is the name of a little town, but "dove" evokes the soul, and "lonesome" describes its state separated in some way from all the souls around it. Lonesome Dove is the most perfectly-named book I've ever read. Never saw the movie, but it's now on the list.
Characters – great; landscape, history, atmosphere – great; plot – great in the same way as, say, War and Peace – a lot going on, but not just a one-darn-thing-after-another read, either. Not a whodunit and not a mere western
Is it literature? I'm a literature snob, I guess, and I made a false start on this a few years ago. I came back to it because my son said I should, and he was right. Yes, it's literature. I say that because it's about something, not just about a bunch of guys moving cows in the 19th century.
It's about loneliness. And the driver of loneliness: death. Every action by every person in this book is about the desire to connect with something greater than themselves. Someone, some thing, some epic battle with evil, some meaning to life other than escape from our personal limitations. I ached for Call and Newt, their distance is the hallmark theme of this book, but it is replicated with Clara and Gus; Clara and July; Lorena and Gus; Deets and white society; Pea and Ms. Collins; July and Elmira, Dish and Lorena; it goes on and on, but the most important pairing is this: Call and Gus.
Lonesome Dove is the name of a little town, but "dove" evokes the soul, and "lonesome" describes its state separated in some way from all the souls around it. Lonesome Dove is the most perfectly-named book I've ever read. Never saw the movie, but it's now on the list.
March 2, 2021
I'm on a quest to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels since I was born. This 1986 winner blew me away.
I'd never intentionally pick up a book filled with cowboys and Texas rangers, but I'm so glad I read this "Tolstoy of the west."
[Note: I attempted to watch the old series based on this book, starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and Danny Glover. Though it is a relatively faithful adaptation, it seemed more "Hee Haw" than modern viewers are used to seeing and undermined the gravity of the literary themes.]
LOVED this book.
I'd never intentionally pick up a book filled with cowboys and Texas rangers, but I'm so glad I read this "Tolstoy of the west."
[Note: I attempted to watch the old series based on this book, starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and Danny Glover. Though it is a relatively faithful adaptation, it seemed more "Hee Haw" than modern viewers are used to seeing and undermined the gravity of the literary themes.]
LOVED this book.
November 17, 2021
I named my son after Augustus McCrae, one of my favorite characters in any book.
October 26, 2025
Well I did it!! 37 hours on audiobook and help pass time at the hospital. I did become invested in all of the characters- I tend to love long epic tales but this was too much and after this book hit the top books of all time I had expected more from it. The
December 23, 2013
This was a fascinating, gripping, epic voyage of a novel that left me wanting more. And thank goodness there are two other books featuring the more-than-real life characters, Gus McCrae and Woodrow Coll. Author Larry McMurty always claimed this isn't a Western novel in the true sense of the word, but it is crammed with cowboys, bad guys, hookers with hearts of gold and all the other archetypical characters. The excellent TV miniseries with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall can also be appreciated on a different level, but the book itself burns with its own true fire.
June 8, 2013
Well. That was a commitment.
December 23, 2020
So human, perceptive, sad, and beautiful. I feel like I rode from South Texas to Montana with these characters; an investment of a book but undeniably worth it.
September 30, 2013
Even better than before, completely believable, and once you get into it you can't put it down. This is McMurty's masterpiece, and it a masterpiece of the west, but even bigger than that. If you haven't read it in a while, pick it up, you'll be surprised. (The audio version is just tops, you forget that you are being read to and believe you are hearing these folks in real life.) If you have never read it, read it. I am fearful that books like these won't ever be written again for two reasons, which really boils down to one reason in the end: pure economics. First, we -- the readers, are afraid of long books. We just won't pick them up anymore. I know it is certainly a struggle for me, but then I am never sorry when I do so I still do it. Second, due to the first, publishers won't pick them up either. What a loss! But at least we have this book.
Lonesome Dove is about men and women that are so believable, wonderful and flawed and normal, good and bad and in between. Captains Augustus McCray and Woodrow Call own a "ranch" down in South Texas. Because of their former partner, Jake Spoon, they go on a cattle drive, in order to be the first cowboys to take cattle into Montana. So many things happen that hinge on Jake Spoon's actions, so many lives changed, but this was life back then, and it is life as I have experienced it. Lonesome Dove gives you all that you would expect from a cattle drive, but so much more. You care about the women and the men, and even the animals that are a part of the story. You laugh and you cry. And you finish it and wonder at the fact that these are the people that you have known and loved in Texas, they are still here and living.
Lonesome Dove is about men and women that are so believable, wonderful and flawed and normal, good and bad and in between. Captains Augustus McCray and Woodrow Call own a "ranch" down in South Texas. Because of their former partner, Jake Spoon, they go on a cattle drive, in order to be the first cowboys to take cattle into Montana. So many things happen that hinge on Jake Spoon's actions, so many lives changed, but this was life back then, and it is life as I have experienced it. Lonesome Dove gives you all that you would expect from a cattle drive, but so much more. You care about the women and the men, and even the animals that are a part of the story. You laugh and you cry. And you finish it and wonder at the fact that these are the people that you have known and loved in Texas, they are still here and living.
December 27, 2013
Excellent writing, story, character development... altogether a very well-written book. McMurtry is very talented at fleshing out the story with many unique little details, such as including the blue shoats on the journey. I really enjoyed McMurtry's fabulous writing.
What I didn't enjoy was the fact that this story was ultimately quite miserable. I got nothing worthwhile out of this book, other than the enjoyment of good prose. Every single character in this book has major flaws, and by the end of the book, they are all equally miserable. A masterpiece of writing, but you will feel nothing but gloom and unhappiness by the time you have finished all 800-something pages. This book is like a gigantic Gothic home full of dust and darkness.
What I didn't enjoy was the fact that this story was ultimately quite miserable. I got nothing worthwhile out of this book, other than the enjoyment of good prose. Every single character in this book has major flaws, and by the end of the book, they are all equally miserable. A masterpiece of writing, but you will feel nothing but gloom and unhappiness by the time you have finished all 800-something pages. This book is like a gigantic Gothic home full of dust and darkness.
Read
December 22, 2011If you like westerns and a little bit of humor mixed in then you would like the Lonesome dove series by Larry McMurty. This western is about a group of cowboys who are retired Texas rangers who want to take a heard of cattle up to Montana. This is a very long novel so I just read part one of three witch is about seven hundred pages long. My favorite character is probably Captain Call who is the leader of the group and is a no nonsense kind of guy. He and Gus are lifelong friends even if they don't always agree on every thing. I have watched the movie and the book is very different from the movie but it still probably my favorite movie.
March 28, 2013
I never thought I could enjoy a western. I was wrong. I originally read the book 20 years ago and re-read it in 2013 when I told my 16 year-old daughter to read it. I thought I should check for appropriate content and found myself reading the whole thing again. I realize it's more of a guys story but I have yet to meet a woman who's read it to see if they agree. I doubt my daughter will finish it because it takes a few hundred pages to get moving, and it contains adult themes she might find off-putting. We'll see.
May 3, 2015
A real good book. I really loved the characters Gus and Call. They both are the heart of the whole story. They both are well described by the author. GUS Is a funny Guy who lightens up the scene with his funny quotes, whereas as Call is completely opposite of Gus. The only sad part for me was one of the two dies, but I wont mention who dies. Read the whole book and find that out. A great western epic saga. :-)
July 29, 2016
This was a book club selection, which I didn't really want to read at all...I am so not into westerns. But boy was I wrong!!!! It turned out to be such a Great Read...I was so sad when I got to the final page that it was going to be over. The western part won me over and it was in fact a beautiful love story with a sad ending...I truly enjoyed it and learned never to judge a book by it's cover again.
September 17, 2010
For the first western I ever read this was a good one. A just loved the jargon they used to tell the story of way back then and how many people were involved on getting a drive across lands. Boy the struggled they faced. I learned a lot about the old west. I would defently read the book again.
July 16, 2014
This book changed the way I looked at early American history. I didn't want it to end. My then-boyfriend and I fought over who was going to get to finish it first. It was a big, heavy hardcover that we both dragged around with us on the subway or bus because we couldn't put it down. I finally had a real understanding and feel for what it must've been like to live in America at that time.
May 31, 2019
After hearing about Montana, retired Texas rangers decide to round up thousands of cattle and with a handful of interesting characters start a dangerous cattle drive from Lonesome Dove Texas to Montana. It's a great adventure with many obstacles, some overcome and some not. Excellent read. I was thoroughly entertained but the ending disappointed me hence the 4 vs 5 star rating.
March 9, 2007
If you have not read Lonesome Dove get to the bookstore pronto and get your cowboy hat on. This is an amazing story of cowboys and indians and the wild wild west. I have absolutely no interest in any of the above and could not put this book down.
December 20, 2013
One of the top 5 best, most engaging, can't-put-it-down stories I've ever read. Really well developed characters, brilliant plot twists, and transports you to the era. Stop wasting time and read this book if you haven't already.
September 1, 2013
i thought this was a wonderful novel - incredibly evocative and the characters were so compelling, I really cared about what happened to them. I felt quite bereft when I came to the end of Lonesome Dove : am wondering whether the sequels are as good? This novel will stay with me a long time.
February 27, 2016
If you can get through the first 100 pages of tedium, it's a pretty good story with interesting characters (Gus, Call, Deets, Newt, Blue Duck...). The ending was pretty disappointing but still worth the read.
July 26, 2020
Read all three parts. Amazing historical insight from one of the most gifted novelists of the 20th century. McMurtry shows his insights from growing up in rural north Texas with amazing ability to write.
September 8, 2012
I am having a problem with this book...so it is back in my audible library for a try again later.
September 24, 2011
Never thought I'd read a western, but this was a wonderful read. Up to the very last line, amazing.
September 17, 2011
I enjoyed the book immensely and was moved in parts. I felt that the creation of Gus McCrae is a classic – though inevitably we learn most about him from his voice, not his intimate thoughts.
July 10, 2012
Delicious western soap opera!
July 19, 2012
Quite possibly the best fiction book I have ever read. It has a slower pace, but once you get used to it you will be totally drawn into one of the most beautiful epic story ever written!
June 26, 2013
<3 Loved it, favorite book!
September 24, 2013
Pretty droning, gave up after about 225 pages when the sex got gross, nasty, not appealing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews