How to Read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Introductory Lecture)

'When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake — not a very big one.'

It’s time to begin our journey through the sweeping saga that is Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

Our reading of this masterpiece will teach us about friendship, love, family, identity, men and women, how to live a good life, the evolution of the epic, the history of the Wild West, American mythology, the hero's journey, and the human condition. We will befriend some unforgettable characters and, in doing so, ultimately meet ourselves.

Today we’re discussing how best to break into this breathtaking story and bring ourselves fully to this Great American masterpiece.

I am staying away from plot spoilers in this discussion. So enjoy the talk however best suits you. Feel free to use the timestamps to navigate to topics of interest at your own pace, or make yourself a nice drink and kick back with me and your copy as we dive into the world of Lonesome Dove.

The first half of the video covers the premise of the story, main characters, reading advice, and historical context, whilst the second half dives into McMurtry's aims as a writer, the rise of the Western genre, and appreciation for some marvellous aspects of this great writer's craft.

Video Timestamps:

0:00 why read Lonesome Dove?

2:00 my lifelong rereading routine

4:00 how to read Lonesome Dove

6:00 the novel’s grand cattle drive

8:00 appreciating the slow beginning

12:00 characters of Lonesome Dove

16:00 the era of McMurtry’s writing

18:00 Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call

20:00 what is Epicurean philosophy?

24:00 what is Stoic philosophy?

28:00 the influence of Don Quixote

31:00 Shakespeare vs Cervantes

33:00 change through friendship

35:00 Lonesome Dove book series

36:00 real life historical inspiration

38:00 the history of the Wild West

39:00 ‘end of the wilderness road’

40:00 early days of American frontier

41:00 era of the Comanche Empire

44:00 the post-Revolution frontier

45:00 the spirit of Manifest Destiny

46:00 history of westward expansion 

48:00 revolutions in Mexico and Texas

50:00 remembering history in legend

51:00 the violence of the Old West

54:00 the rise of the Texas Rangers

57:00 post Civil War landscape

59:00 living in a tamed Wild West

1:09:00 Comanche late in the century

1:02:00 Cattle Kingdom and railways

1:04:00 the danger of the cattle drives

1:05:00 cattle drive as metaphor for life

1:07:00 McMurtry and the epic tradition

1:08:00 idea that character is destiny

1:09:00 influence of Dante’s Inferno

1:10:00 mapping out your hero’s journey

1:12:00 older the violin, sweeter the music

1:15:00 McMurtry’s film screenplays

1:16:00 how Lonesome Dove was born

1:18:00 demythologising the Old West

1:20:00 influence of cinema on novels

1:21:00 novels of today are on the screen

1:23:00 popular stories as literary works

1:25:00 the rise of the western genre 

1:27:00 western tradition in cinema

1:29:00 John Ford vs Sergio Leone

1:31:00 McMurtry’s free indirect style

1:32:00 the passing of time in the novel

1:34:00 is this novel a man’s book?

1:36:00 how McMurtry subverts genre

1:39:00 influence of Larry McMurtry

1:42:00 Red Dead Redemption games

1:43:00 Lonesome Dove lecture series

1:44:00 book club reading assignment

1:45:00 diving into Lonesome Dove

Resources:

As we journey through Lonesome Dove together, we will have recommendations for rich side avenues and optional extracurriculars. You may wish to pursue some of these in order to deepen your appreciation of this masterpiece.

• Edition: I'm working from the 40th anniversary paperback edition published by Simon & Schuster, but Picador also has a great paperback version. My copy has become lovingly battered from carrying it around with me everywhere and filled with marginalia over the years. Don't be afraid to dog-ear and manhandle your personal copy too as you bring yourself to this powerful story. And thank you for readers pointing out that there are plot spoilers in the author's preface of the Simon & Schuster edition, so make sure you skip that if this is your first reading.

• Television Adaptation: You may already know about the famous television miniseries from 1989, which is directed by Simon Wincer and starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. If you haven't seen it already, my advice is to save this adaptation as a celebration treat for when you get to the end of the novel. As you read on, think about how you would adapt the story, especially as there a new film adaptation will soon be in the works. You might also consider the fact that the work began its life as a screenplay with Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich wanting John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda in the starring roles. If you want something to watch or play in the meantime, you can't go wrong with the 2004 HBO television series Deadwood and Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption games. See if you can feel the influence of McMurtry's 1985 novel in there.

• Meet the Author: Larry McMurtry has a wonderful biography called Books: A Memoir, which delves into his lifelong passion of collecting rare antiquarian books. Along the way, we are treated to charming anecdotes about his life and captivating stories about the books that meant the most to him and how he developed his craft as a writer.  

• Philosophy & History: You might find it interesting to explore two philosophical schools of thought as you read Lonesome Dove: Epicureanism and Stoicism. Think about the extent to which the central characters embody these two philosophies. For relevant historical context, Dee Brown's The American West and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee are superb. S. C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon is phenomenal and easy to digest, and the works of Peter Cozzens, like The Earth is Weeping, are excellent too. For something deep and comprehensive, Steven Hahn's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Nation Without Borders is an astonishing work to dip into. If you like to get your history in long documentary form, you can't go wrong with the sprawling masterpiece of television from PBS that is The West, directed by Stephen Ives and produced by Ken Burns.

• Film Appreciation: Cinema exerted a profound influence upon writers of the twentieth century. You can see this powerfully when it comes to the writers of Western novels. So we're going to want to bring great movies from the likes of John Ford, Howard Hawks, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, Clint Eastwood, and the Coen Brothers into the conversation. I'll be making curated recommendations for two masterpieces of the Western film genre with each lecture as we move through the book. You might want to give yourself a personal screening of a great film each week. I will also recommend a bonus movie for which Larry McMurtry developed the screenplay. Two westerns to get us started: Rio Bravo (1959, dir. Howard Hawks) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964, dir. Sergio Leone). For a movie from McMurtry's filmography, you might like to go back prior to his writing of Lonesome Dove and watch the coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show (1971, dir. Peter Bogdanovich), which was adapted from one of his early semi-autobiographical novels.

• Complementary: If you have read some of the great works of literature in the back catalogue of the book club, you might find it rewarding to compare and contrast Lonesome Dove as we read through together. When it comes to the Great American Novel, Larry McMurtry's saga is frequently spoken about in the same breath as East of Eden and Moby Dick. That's something to keep in mind as you ride through it. You might also like to contrast this novel with another great western from 1985: Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. You could consider the influence of Cervantes' Don Quixote or Dante's Inferno upon McMurtry's novel. If any of these works are new to you, pick one that you would be excited to explore at your own pace in the near future and check out some of our discussions around them.

• Ancient Greek Tragedy: You may notice that many of our reads throughout the year are designed to play off each other in a really profound way. The insights we uncover during our journey through Lonesome Dove will compound over the course of our reading adventure. Alongside our reading of this masterpiece, we will also enjoy a curation of classic theatre from the world of Greek Tragedy: the Oresteia, Oedipus Rex, and then Medea. This weekend coming, we will have our 'how to read' introductory lecture for Greek Tragedy, and the weekend after that we will be back to Lonesome Dove. We'll talk in-depth about translations, the tragic substance, ancient theatre, our approach to the plays, and much more in the video. You don't need to read anything for our theatre appreciation, so you may wish to give your prime focus to Lonesome Dove right now. But, if you do want to get jumpstarted, then Agamemnon, the first part of the Oresteia, is the one to begin with, and I personally love the Robert Fagles translation. This is a play that can be enjoyed in a single evening. For a volume that has all of our plays in one edition, The Greek Plays translated and edited by Mary Lefkowtiz and James Romm is excellent.

• Journalling: It's been so amazing to see how many readers have made the resolution to get into the habit of journalling and marginalia this year. I've mentioned it before, but my favourite book journal is from the Leuchturrm1917 range and this is how I typically approach reading with a pen: How to Journal on Great Literature.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will cover part one of the novel, which takes us through to chapter twenty-five. This coming weekend, we will have our introduction to Greek Tragedy, which means our next Lonesome Dove lecture will follow the week after that.

This alternating rhythm means a fortnight to deep-read the assigned chapters of this novel if one wishes to stay in line with when lectures come out. As always, do feel free to follow the pace that best suits you, your reading style, and your life right now.

So start making your way into the work, settle into the world, meet the characters, and note down any themes, ideas, or passages that personally resonate with you.

Questions for You:

1) What is your current relationship with Lonesome Dove? Is this your first reading or a rereading of this masterpiece?

2) What themes from your wider reading would you like to pull into Larry McMurtry's novel?

3) Why do you think the Western proved to be such a popular and influential genre with readers, writers, and filmmakers in the twentieth century?

4) What does your hero's journey for the year ahead look like? What is the next part of your personal story about?

Happy reading, everybody!