Riders of the Purple Sage
Released in 1912 (as a serialization in Field & Stream!), Zane Grey’s RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE enjoys a reputation today as being one of the finest Western novels ever written, often mentioned in the same breath as Jack Schaefer’s SHANE or Alan Le May’s THE SEARCHERS. Thanks to Leisure’s new “uncut, uncensored edition,” edited by Western expert Jon Tuska, it’s easy to see why.
The hero of Grey’s sweeping tale is Lassiter. You know the archetype: a mysterious loner who rides in unannounced, dressed all in black, carrying only his guns, which he uses for “snuffing Mormons.” In a village that finds the Mormons and Gentiles constantly at war – thanks to the villainous Oldring’s cattle thieving – Lassiter takes an immediate shine to Jane Withersteen, a kindly, weathered soul who once had eyes for Venters, who is nearly hanged by the corrupt Bishop Tull until Lassiter’s fortuitous intervention as the novel opens.
SAGE is much a dual romance as it is an adventure: Though out to avenge his sister’s death, Lassiter pursues Jane (who doesn’t exactly put up a fight), while Venters shoots Oldring’s Masked Rider, discovers this peculiar figure is really (gasp!) a girl, nurses her to health and proposes marriage. Throw in gold, gunfights and the love of an orphan girl, and SAGE has “lasting influence” written all over it.
Grey’s language is not as staid as you would expect for something nearly a century old. In fact, it’s rather alive and bristles with the ambience of the skies and plains (PURPLE prose, perhaps?). Sometimes that proves too much of a good thing, as Grey goes on for lengthy paragraphs and numerous pages with overdone descriptions of the landscape. Dialogue was not the man’s forte, as some characters get veritable soliloquies, with each strained pause intact. Oddly, though, I found this quaint; after all, if you’re looking for a true old-fashioned Western, you might as well go straight to the source.
As for being “uncensored,” all this means is that it’s finally as Grey originally wrote it. If you’re looking for R-rated material, look elsewhere, although one female character is now less virtuous than earlier editions made her seem. –Rod Lott
[...] TUESDAY >> 8.29.06 Thank God for censors. If not for their prissy excisions, publishers and writers alike would never benefit from the profit-bringing miracle of the “uncut” edition. The latest incarnation of this sensational strategy is Zane Grey’s RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, but be on the lookout for WEEKEND REGASM: UNEDITED, with 25 percent more typos. I’m going to make a mint. [...]
[...] But none of the bedding bogs down the incredibly simplistic storyline, since all these events happen while Longarm tracks down a slippery robber named Iron Shirt, whom everyone thinks is responsible for the theft … until Longarm figures it all out, despite not giving the reader one clue for themselves. That’s what makes me as a reader nuts. I mean, the reveal is so over-the-top with the who, whys and hows. Can anyone say deux ex machina? But what do you expect from this type of stuff: RIDERS ON THE PURPLE SAGE? [...]