Last of the Duanes

by Zane Grey

When this unforgettable novel was first published—in a much shorter form—in a magazine in 1914, it was a rousing success and was made into a movie four times by 1941. Yet when Zane Grey submitted the full-length manuscript to his book publisher, it was rejected because it contained too much gunplay. And so a masterpiece of Western fiction remained unpublished in book form for more than 80 years. Finally, this powerful tale is available in its entirety.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Adult

319 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Pearl Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. As of June 2007, the Internet Movie Database credits Grey with 110 films, one TV episode, and a series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater based loosely on his novels and short stories.

Reviews

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such melodrama! There was enough action to entice me to finish the book, but it was a fairly mediocre western with a meandering plot and not very believable characters. This was my first time reading Zane Grey. He's supposed to be like the granddaddy of the western genre, so I'll probably read at least one more of his books to try to discern what the big deal is. Maybe Riders of the Purple Sage will crank my tractor. Based on this book, though, I gotta say he can't compare to Louis L'Amour.

[Andrew O'Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars due to my dark state of mind and sleepless nights in the mental asylum. This book and an encyclopedia on events from the year 2003 (all they had in the looney bin) got me through anxiety filled nights where I only thought of my beautiful kids that I know I will never see again.
Duane’s approach in facing the obstacle head on makes for an interesting character to read about. The lonely year he spent in the hut after his Jennie was taken away is fucking deep. What a lonely place planet earth can be. Peace to all.

[Eric Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Rating 3.0/5.0]
Interesting premise, very fun at times, and I liked how often the status quo changed during the course of the story. Unfortunately Last of the Duanes is bogged down by uneven pacing which is quite slow for stretches, and also naval gazing from the protagonist that becomes excessively repetitive.

[Dan Hixson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“He was the gunman, the gun thrower, the gunfighter – passionate and terrible. His father‘s blood, that dark and fierce strain, his mother spirit, that strong and unquenchable spirit of the surviving Pioneer – these had been in him and the killings, one after another, the wild and hunted years, had made him absolutely in spite of his will the gunman. He realized it now, bitterly, hopelessly. The thing he had in intelligence enough to hate he had become. At last he shuttered under the driving, ruthless, inhuman bloodlust of the gunman.“

I usually don’t write reviews for old western novels, but this one is special to me. I have spent the last 9 months reading this out load to my father who was slowly leaving this earth. We started in November 2024 because he was only supposed to last a few weeks. He lasted 9 months and I was two chapters short when he passed July 17, 2025. My dad loved Zane Grey novels and now I will. This book will always hold a special place in my heart.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Melodramatic, overwrought. High emotion for Jennie, first and last beloved "white face with its sweet, sad lips and the dark eyes, so tender and tragic" p 284, "her face, white, sweet, with the dark, staring, tragic eyes" p 237. "She was a woman, weak" p 93. Prejudices of the time fill the pages, lessening females and Mexicans. " He only hit a greaser" p 65.

"He was the gunman, the gunthrower, the gunfighter - passionate and terrible" p 304. "He sat there with foreboding of more and darker work ahead" p 99."Their first kiss" p 209 almost overwhelms them both.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

DEEP INTO THE MIND OF THE GUNSLINGER

This tale, like no other, brings one deep into the psyche of the gunslinger; the gun thrower as described within. The anti hero Buck Dueane struggles as a fugitive and miraculously finds redemption in the least likely of places, and from the least likely of a person, not counting himself.

If you like a good western yarn, read this, pronto.

[Richard Koerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had several less than satisfying reads and was happy to read a book by Zane Grey. I enjoyed this book of a good man forced into a gunfight and then forced to flee as it was unclear that he would be able to stay out of prison. He ends up getting a surprise way of clearing himself and rises to the occasion, beating of course all the odds placed in his way. It was a good, entertaining, satisfying read and gives me more insight into what created this crazy country of ours.

[Thomas James · Rating 5 out of 5]

She will know.

How many young men get forced by circumstances or talk of glory get caught in this same nightmare? In the military they call it honor, but it's all PTSD. I call them ghosts. It doesn't go away. You can't hide it - always. Maybe she can help him deal with his ghosts. I hope so.

[Christine Nerheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last of the Duane’s.

Typical Zane Grey but as typical, excellent. Perhaps among his best. Thank you to his heirs for restoring, and compiling, this novel from its previous fragmented form. Had is publishers a stronger sense of its strengths, it might have been sold in this form in Grey’s lifetime. In any event, I am glad it was sold in mine.

[Thomas G. Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Zane Grey at its finest

Verbal pictures of the old West, the landscape, and the people who lived in it worked Zane Grey's gift . That gift was served well in this book. The character development painted a picture of the outlaws and what made them . A great book.

[Phalguni Mukherjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of his best

Perhaps the best to have come from Zane Grey's pen. Thorough character building, the detailed descriptions, the emotional context, all point to a masterpiece. I started reading Zane Grey when I was 14, still enjoy reading him at 55.

[Pat Ison Saylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zane Grey At His Best

Grey always delivers. He brings forth a time of fierce battles for life and the deep love of the women who loved them. How a man can't kill without being haunted.

[Michael D. Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Law in old west

A master at reliving the old west , able to put into words the way of the west in early years! Law and order brought to this great state , The Texas Rangers! Bringing law and justice to all! Zane Grey, Master Pen!

[Utisz Reza · Rating 5 out of 5]

The original and far far better version of "The Lone Star Ranger".
The first two thirds of the two books are identical, but the endings are different.
This book has a far better and more satisfying ending without the looses ends found in "The Lone Star Ranger"

[Don Follett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read by a renowned western writer. The son of a known gunfighter kills a man in a fair fight. He flees and meets many badmen of the day. He subsequently kills three bad men. He meets and falls in love with a young lady. He becomes a Texas Ranger and in assigned a difficult mission.

[Harold · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't finish it it was too depressing

It was page after page of deep thinking personal recriminations a lot of what if and what could I have done. Not a lot of actual action. I found it to be depressing and could not finish it.

[Kristen Gengenbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a huge fan of Westerns, but this book was given to me by my old neighbor before we moved. Buck Duane was a good man among thieves, and a brave one to boot! Nice summer reading as we completed our move to Texas

[Beverly Kee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant storyline!

I loved this story, almost as Riders of the Purple Sage! To me it tells the truth that should be in the outlaws hearts, though maybe that's only in the one's who didn't enjoy hurting people!

[Teri Heyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 2nd time I've read Last of the Duanes. It's one of Zane Grey's best books, although Riders of the Purple Sage is still my favorite. I'm sure Zane Grey fans will agree that Last of the Duanes is a keeper and worth reading more than once.

[Joseph P Geiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Zane Grey

A classic western of a redeemed Gunfighter. Grey pinpoints the emotional turmoil inside a tortured gunman.
I felt like I was riding a horse right next to Duane!

[Tony Hedrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, a great book!

[James Brooke]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading every Zane Grey story I have read. I came to him quite late in my reading career and, for me, he is a more stimulating and thought provoking read than most other authors.

[Valmorian · Rating 4 out of 5]

MUCH better than the horrible mashup that was the Lone Star Ranger.

[James Loudermilk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story that you will never forget.

Lots of action & a wonderful love story well written from a very human and sensitive heart I loved every minute of it.

[THOMAS E. TONEY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last of the Dishes by Zane Grey

One of the best novels of the West that I have ever read! Zane Grey is a master in his narrative about the outlaw Buck Duanes!

[Thomas J Fecher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and organized. A pleasure to read

It's so cliche , but the language and way it's written makes you feel like you're there. I just thoroughly enjoyed the book.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time I think of Zane Grey, I think of my grandparents, who loved the books so much they named their oldest son after him, with a middle name of Grey. They read these books aloud to each other early in their marriage, and my aunt read them to my grandma in her later years.

I enjoyed this book more than I did Grey's "The Riders of the Purple Sage," but not as much as I did his "The Man of the Forest," which had more depth and richness in its description of nature.

This story, "The Last of the Duanes," was published posthumously in its entirety, but fragments of it had been used before. Part of it had been changed and used in his publication, "The Lone Star Ranger," which had inspired the TV show, "The Lone Ranger." I had never known that Zane Grey had inspired "The Lone Ranger."

Loren Grey also said in the foreword that her father's original version of "The Last of the Duanes" was rejected because of the main character's brutality. She also said, "When one views the amount of blood spilled during just one day of today's television shows, this [rejection] letter is almost amusing, to say the least."

I felt ambivalent about reading it after such an introduction. I don't like violence, blood, and gore in the stories I read. But, in this instance, I found Loren Grey's evaluation to be correct. The deaths were not told in a gory manner. In fact, they were more like those presented in the TV show, "The Lone Ranger."

The first half of this book told about Duane's descent into becoming an outlaw. He shot someone in self-defense and so garnered the reputation of a murderer. In that regard, it reminded me of the story of Anakin Skywalker's descent into becoming Darth Vader, different genre, I know. I don't like stories of people turning to the dark side or becoming evil. There's usually nothing enlightening or inspiring or hopeful in that.

However, Duane tried to live by his morals even in the underworld of the Old West, refusing to fall into theft, cattle rustling, or gambling. That is, perhaps, unrealistic, considering the company he had to keep. But people do exist who rise above the base level of morality around them. He did have to fight blood-lust from within, always wondering if he had a faster gun than various other outlaws.

Loren Grey also mentioned in the foreword that Zane Grey had delved into the psychology of a criminal before it was popular to do so. Two of my favorite quotes from the book had to do with that aspect:

"The beauty of the soaring moon, the ebony canons of shadow under the mountain, the melancholy serenity of the perfect night, made Duane shudder int he realization of how far aloof he now was from enjoyment of these things. Never again so long as he lived could he be natural. His mind was clouded. His eye and ear henceforth must register impressions of nature, but the joy of them had fled."

"Sometimes he had a feeling of how little stood between his sane and better self and a self utterly wild and terrible." That is actually true of all of us, more or less.

The second half of the book involved Duane's becoming a Texas Ranger and his quests, more the "Lone Ranger" side of him. He remained an anti-hero though, in that he continued to have to fight the blood-lust from within.

[Stefaniab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! There is a reason why this story, previously published as "The Lone Star Ranger" has gotten a lot of praise over the years. It is full of gunfights, nasty desperadoes, and morally ambiguous outlaw heroes--the typical stock characters and incidents that pop up everywhere in modern western novels. But wait, the story first appeared in magazine form 100 years ago.

Most of the Zane Grey books that I have read have been "problem" books, in that many had major themes that were as important, if not more important, than the plot. For example, "The Vanishing American" - horrible deal that the US gave returning American Indian veterans of WWI; "Code of the West" -- contrasting moral views between an old-fashioned boy of the Arizona Mogollon Rim country vs. an invading flapper from NJ (IIRC). These are not what 21st century folks would think of when they hear the name Zane Grey.

"Last of the Duanes" is far more typical of what a novice Grey reader would expect. It stars hero Buck Duane, who epitomizes the Darwinist, survival of the fittest hero found in so many of Grey's later novels. He is an outlaw who survives by honing and using his skills as a gunfighter. Thus, this particular novel involves more gunfights, mass killings, etc., then any of the Grey novels that I have read so far. (Perhaps the much later "Arizona Ames" is the exception.) Grey's style is relatively compact, almost terse, more contemporary to our times than his. Missing are the magnificent descriptions of the countryside prevalent in "Riders of the Purple Sage," "Light of Western Stars," and even "Wildfire." (Maybe Grey was far less impressed with the Tex/Mex border country than he was of the Southwest four corners area. I personally love all that flowery Mogollon Rim descriptive stuff.)

In summation, I recommend "Last of the Duanes" as good starter Grey action novel, particularly for those who find long descriptive passages fiercely old-fashioned.

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This western exceeded my expectations by being more a complex and introspective tale. I liked how the author was in the head of the main character to explore the struggle of living with violence. There was considerably less gunplay than I was lead to believe there was. There was one chapter that was rather melodramatic. This may be a reflection of the period of time when this was written.

[Red Rocky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite like a good western..., what I don't like is soppy romance in the middle of a gritty read.