Riders of the Purple Sage is often cited as the first traditional Western. The issue with this is that instead of ageing gracefully, one would expect that it would seem, ironically, cliched to the modern reader. The fact that it would have invented those cliched conventions is only of historic interest, it does not change the experience for the modern reader.

Interesting enough, it would appear that few Western tropes appear in the novel. If there is some generic plotting, it is due more to the conventions of escapist literature and not that of Westerns.

So, what does it have? It has the capable gunslinger in the form of Lassiter. It has damsels in distress. It has cattle rustlers, a town ruled by corrupt leaders that make their own laws, and Western scenery. And not one of these elements (well, except for the scenery) are used in what we would deem as the typical Western way. The damsels are as capable as they can be, the gunslinger very rarely gunslings, the cattle rustlers are...well, almost incidental, and the corrupt leaders are Mormon polygamists.

Oh, there's also a revenge storyline that involves the gunslinger, but it hardly seems all-consuming to the plot. It functions more as a means of showing the development of the character.

The storylines are simple. Nothing complicated here (though a bit convoluted) and the two stories are told through the viewpoints of Jane and Venters. Jane's story is the one advertised on the synopsis. She has inherited quit a bit of riches from her father and wants to remain independent for a bit when Tull proposes marriage to her. As a result, Tull uses his position in the Mormon hierarchy of Cottonwoods to put pressure on Jane's financial well-being in order to reign her in. At that point, Lassiter the infamous slayer of Mormons shows up to help Jane out.

Interesting enough, this plot seems almost secondary to the story of Venters. This is a much simpler story, Venters is a non-Mormon that hung out with Jane and was run out of town be a jealous Tull. Wondering in the wilderness, he has some experiences where he discovers that he does not have to be alone and finds love, etc. Someone looking for a book about Jane's storyline will be shocked to fine that over half of the novel is about Venters in the plains of sage.

Which gets to the actual main character of all Westerns: the scenery. And boy howdy is there a lot of it. I am under the impression that at the beginning of the 20th century, when this book was written, travel was not nearly as possible for the vast majority of Americans. To them, books not only acted as an escape to another time, but also allowed them to visit different places they might not otherwise see. So we get lots of descriptions of the plains of purple sage, canyons, passes, valleys, ranches, the weather of the west, and even some Anasazi ruins. And this is where the novel really shines. This is where the best writing is, the scenery does not exist for the plot, the plot is an excuse to show off the scenery.

I found this to be an unexpected pleasant read. Mostly because for having the basic components of a traditional Western, it does not follow the tropes. Here, we can see that other writers and film makers took aspects of the novel that they liked and expanded on those aspects.

And what about the controversy? Some of the bad guys are Mormons. Get over it.