Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Published 1986 · 945 pages · 347,049 words · about 23 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

How hard is Lonesome Dove to read?

Lonesome Dove scores 51 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 52 out of 100
McMurtry writes in the language of the trail—practical, laconic, peppered with period slang and cowboy vernacular. The vocabulary is accessible, drawing on the plain speech of working men rather than literary ornamentation.
Sentence structure: 48 out of 100
The prose moves in relaxed rhythms, with sentences that rarely grow complicated. McMurtry's style is conversational and unhurried, matching the pace of a long cattle drive. You'll find yourself settling into the journey.
Abstraction: 52 out of 100
McMurtry keeps his narrative grounded in physical particulars—the landscape, the horses, the daily challenges of moving cattle across a continent. Whatever themes emerge do so from action rather than reflection.
Information density: 58 out of 100
The novel is long, with room to explore its large cast and many subplots without feeling rushed. McMurtry creates space for digression and development. The scope is epic but the pacing accommodates it.
Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
McMurtry tells his story directly, moving between characters with clear transitions. You always know what's happening and to whom. The pleasures are straightforward narrative pleasures.
Symbolic density: 52 out of 100
The drive itself embodies the closing of the frontier, but McMurtry doesn't insist on the symbolism. Gus and Call represent different relationships to the changing West, but they're characters first.
Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
McMurtry views his cowboys with affection and clear-eyed assessment of their limitations. The myth of the West is both celebrated and deflated. The irony is gentle, born of understanding.
Resolution withholding: 48 out of 100
The novel brings its cattle drive to completion, with fates determined for its major characters. McMurtry provides the satisfaction of an epic concluded, even when individual endings are tragic.
Structural complexity: 52 out of 100
The narrative follows multiple storylines across a vast canvas, cutting between the cattle drive and characters left behind or pursuing. McMurtry manages this complexity through clear organization and signposting.

How Lonesome Dove is regarded

Lonesome Dove holds a literary regard score of 72 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where Lonesome Dove sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (884 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Lonesome Dove scores 58 out of 100. A second mythos, tragedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.3. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic (with Romance undertow)
La cosa strana di Woodrow Call era la difficoltà che si aveva a prendergli le misure.
Symbol: Formal (with strong Mythical/Archetypal secondary)
Tutta l’America si trova in fondo a una strada selvaggia, e il nostro passato non è morto ma vive ancora in noi.
Mythos: Romance III (The Quest), shading into Tragedy (romance iii)
– Perché non andiamo a nord? – domandò Call, cogliendo Augustus di sorpresa.
Genre: Novel + Romance
NON NOLEGGIAMO MAIALI

Where the story of Lonesome Dove takes place

  • Great Plains cattle drive, Texas to Montana, 1876-1877 (1876 to 1877), the main setting
  • Lonesome Dove, Texas border, spring 1876
  • Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the trail south to Texas, 1876
  • Clara Allen's ranch on the Platte, Nebraska, 1876-1877 (1876 to 1877)
  • Hat Creek ranch on the Milk River, Montana, winter 1876-1877 (1876 to 1877)
  • Call's return with Gus's body, Montana to Texas, 1877

5 things that are true of Lonesome Dove, with the passage for each

  1. The Hat Creek sign that Augustus painted on an old door carries the line 'NON NOLEGGIAMO MAIALI' and a Latin motto he cannot translate.

    NON NOLEGGIAMO MAIALI

  2. Augustus counts the herd at 'duemilaseicento' head, plus the two pigs, as they leave the Rio Grande.

    – Facciamo duemilaseicento bovini e due maiali.

  3. The young Irishman Sean O'Brien dies of water-moccasin bites at the Nueces crossing.

    Prima che suo fratello attraversasse il fiume, Sean O’Brien morí.

  4. Dying, Augustus asks to be buried at Clara's picnic spot in Texas, thousands of miles back.

    Voglio essere sepolto nell’orto di Clara.

  5. Blue Duck, chained and awaiting the gallows, dives through a third-floor window and drags a deputy down with him.

    Blue Duck, incatenato com’era, stava volando nell’aria.

Scenes in Lonesome Dove that Frye would name

35 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Pathos, untitled
Prima che suo fratello attraversasse il fiume, Sean O’Brien morí. A sacrificial death early in the quest.
Pathos, untitled
Prima che Newt avesse finito di parlare, Jake Spoon diede un rapido colpo di speroni il piú in alto possibile sui fianchi del cavallo. Jake's hanging by his old comrades is a sacrificial scene.
Pathos, untitled
Poi Deets cadde in ginocchio. The death of Deets, the most loved of the company.
Anagnorisis, untitled
Oh, tuo padre è Woodrow Call, figliolo, – disse Augustus, come se fosse una cosa risaputa da tutti. Newt learns his parentage, the pivot of his arc.
Pathos, untitled
Il letto è pieno di sangue e il vostro amico è morto, – disse il medico. Death of Augustus, the book's central figure.
Agon, untitled
Non appena fu sicuro che il cavallo non si sarebbe rialzato, impugnò il fucile. Gus's last stand against the Indians, using his own horse's blood as a barrier.

Books that share these scenes with Lonesome Dove

About the author

Larry McMurtry