The Revenant
A Novel of Revenge
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4.2 • 127 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, Michael Punke's The Revenant is the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass.
The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier.
Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Beautiful and brutal in equal measure, this compulsive adventure story is based on the real-life adventures of American frontiersman Hugh Glass (played onscreen by Leonardo DiCaprio, in an Oscar®–winning role). Set in the unforgiving, icy wilderness of 19th-century South Dakota—where Glass is savagely mauled by a mother bear and abandoned on the brink of death—The Revenant had us reading at breakneck speed. Despite the book’s grisliness, we couldn’t tear our eyes away from Michael Punke’s sparse, unrelenting prose as the wounded Glass refuses to give up his fight for survival and revenge.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Based on a true incident of heroism in the history of the American West, this debut by a Washington, D.C., international trade attorney and former bureaucrat in the Clinton administration is an almost painfully gripping drama. A Philadelphia-born adventurer, frontiersman Hugh Glass goes to sea at age 16 and enjoys a charmed life, including several years under the flag of the pirate Jean Lafitte and almost a year as a prisoner of the Loup Pawnee Indians on the plains between the Platte and the Arkansas rivers. In 1822, at age 36, Glass escapes, finds his way to St. Louis and enters the employ of Capt. Andrew Henry, trapping along tributaries of the Missouri River. After surviving months of hardship and Indian attack, he falls victim to a grizzly bear. His throat nearly ripped out, scalp hanging loose and deep slashing wounds to his back, shoulder and thigh, Glass appears to be mortally wounded. Initially, Captain Henry refuses to abandon him and has him carried along the Grand River. Unfortunately, the terrain soon makes transporting Glass impossible. Even though his death seems certain, Henry details two men, a fugitive mercenary, John Fitzgerald, and young Jim Bridger (who lived to become a frontier hero) to stand watch and bury him. After several days, Fitzgerald sights hostile Indians. Taking Glass's rifle and tossing Bridger his knife, Fitzgerald flees with Bridget, leaving Glass. Enraged at being left alone and defenseless, Glass survives against all odds and embarks on a 3,000-mile-long vengeful pursuit of his ignominious betrayers. Told in simple expository language, this is a spellbinding tale of heroism and obsessive retribution.
Customer Reviews
The Revenant
It seems the men and women of these times were spectacles of endurance. It is utterly amazing to me how our founding fathers mapped and explored our lands in these times. From the heat and humidity of the south with the insects and swamp, to the extremes of winter cold and the immediacy of their self reliance the people of these times were true pioneers. The added level of war with all factions of the indigenous peoples elevates the test. Even the words within this book that express this as fully as they can, I believe pale in the true test of these times what would have been endured. This book is an impressive instance of these times. It was a great read and one I would highly recommend.
They should have made this movie.
Read it. You will see.
Shuddup and buy this book
Mr. Punke's novel, the Revenant, is a captivating, dark epic that will capture your imagination and keep it even when you put the book down, bleary-eyed like one of his memorable characters.
If you're a man like me, comfortably lost in the age of GPS, you'll love losing yourself in this place.
The wilderness is painted in broad impressionistic strokes, which suits the time, and me, just fine.
The action flows as steady as the cold rivers therein, and the moments of reflection are as true as the North Star under which they were made.
If only the teachers that inspired the author could be as skillful raconteurs, this time in our history wouldn't be such a mystery.
If you know a man who doesn't read fiction, buy him this book. Watching the movie, albeit a version of this story undoubtedly more spectacular than I could ever imagine, just won't be as satisfying as spending hours, like the protagonist, dragging yourself, from page to page, tired but feeling very much alive.