Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove is a 1985 novel by American author Larry McMurtry. Chronologically, it is the third book in the Lonesome Dove series, although it was published before its two prequels, Dead Man’s Walk (1995) and Comanche Moon (1997). One of the most celebrated novels in the Western genre, Lonesome Dove tells the story of former Texas Rangers Augustus (Gus) McRae and Woodrow Call (Call) as they take a herd of cattle on an ill-fated drive from Texas to Montana. The cattle drive serves as the backdrop for McMurtry’s exploration of loyalty, freedom, family, and the brutality of the American West.

Lonesome Dove received major critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was also adapted into a popular miniseries starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.

Content Warning: Lonesome Dove depicts sexual assault, graphic violence, and characters with racist biases, and contains offensive stereotypes of Indigenous American characters. These topics are pervasive in the text and appear in most summary and analysis sections of this guide.

Plot Summary

The novel unfolds in three parts set in the late 1870s. In Part 1, Gus, Call, and their men have been running a small cattle outfit in the tiny border town of Lonesome Dove, Texas, since they left the Texas Rangers.