Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

Conscience thundered that she should be grateful on her knees for this baptism of fire; that through misfortune, sacrifice, and suffering her soul might be fused pure gold. But the old, spontaneous, rapturous spirit no more exalted her. She wanted to be a woman--not a martyr.

Jane Withersteen is a beautiful and wealthy Mormon homesteader in Cottonwoods, Utah. She is well known for her generosity to those who "ride" for her, driving and protecting her cattle, even those who are "Gentiles." Elder Tull has his eye on her, desiring to add her to his stable of wives, and her extensive property to his. His methods are underhanded: "calling in" the Mormons among her riders, and partnering with the notorious cattle rustler Oldring to drive her herds away. Into this tense atmosphere rides the gunman Lassiter, an avowed Mormon-hater on a mysterious mission of vengeance. Jane vows that she can soften him toward her people, but can he save her from Tull and the conniving Bishop Dyer?

Riders of the Purple Sage is one of the first and most important western novels of the early 20th century. It's got all the elements: cattle rustling, gunmen who live by their own code, damsels in distress. It strikes me as a link in a long chain of popular culture that runs from Shakespeare to the MCU: scenes of action and tension are actually subordinate to cornier and more maudlin elements. There's even an adorable little child who says things to Lassiter like, "Will oo be my favver?" Christ. On the other hand, the book has an almost hilariously sour view of Mormons, who are consistently depicted as sneaky and cruel. Jane is the exception to the rule, and though she vows to make Lassiter give up his Mormon-hating ways, it's him that drives her out of the church in the end. (The novel paints Jane as intensely devout, but the thinness of detail about the religious life of a 19th century Mormon makes me think that Grey knew very little about their practices.)

I actually preferred what you might call Riders of the Purple Sage's "b-plot": one of Jane's riders, Bern Venters, is exiled by the Mormons of Cottonwoods. Riding out, he encounters the cattle rustler Oldring and shoots a notorious lieutenant known only as "the Masked Rider," only to discover that the Masked Rider is really a young woman named Bess who Oldring has disguised. Venters nurses Bess back to health in a secret canyon decked with ancient Pueblo cliff dwellings. These sections really give Grey license to do what he does best, which is describe in affectionate detail the striking landscape of southern Utah. Here Bess and Venters' meditations on the long-gone cliff dwellers--"What was the good of their living at all!" Bess asks, "They're gone! What's the meaning of it all--of us?"--briefly elevate the book above melodrama.