Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Dances With Wolves

Dances With Wolves
Dances With Wolves
Author: Micahel Blake
John J. Dunbar, a Union soldier, is rewarded for his heroism on a Civil War battlefield with his choice of a transfer to any post and he decides to follow a lifelong dream to see the Western frontier. Throught a fateful turn of events, he winds up at the remote, completely deserted Fort Sedgewick with his horse and a curious wolf as his only co...  more »
ISBN: 267450
Pages: 320
Rating:
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1

4.5 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: Newmarket Press
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
delightful read, re-enter the world of Indians and the cavalry and one man's search for himself
reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 52 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
One of the great classics od American Indian life , as white soldiers were just beginning to interfere and make their presence known. **** Very good book.
reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 533 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The Costner movie based on this book is one of my favorite movies ever, so it was only natural for me to pick this book when I saw it. As most would agree, the movie is NEVER as good as the book, so I quickly surmised that, since the movie was fabulous, the book must reach vast unknown limits of greatness, right? Well, not exactly. Michael Blake's writing of DANCES WITH WOLVES is certainly a good book and a wonderful story, it is Costner's ability to turn this story into such a brilliant production that is the real achievement here.

I have found that normally, if I like a movie and read the book afterwards, it serves to enhance what I saw on film. In this case, however, the book had somewhat the opposite effect for me. There are differences between the two that only seem to diminish Costner's work. A couple of things I knew already, such as Costner's use of the Indian Chief, Ten Bears, who I knew to have been a great Comanche, not a Sioux.

Well, as it turns out, the book is written to that effect. The Indians befriended by Lt. Dunbar and portrayed in the movie as Sioux, are actually Comanche. Now I can understand the alteration here, for a couple of reasons. First of all, though most Americans are notoriously ignorant of our rich history, for the most part, people do know the Comanche were the badest of the bad and it would be an increased degree of difficulty to portray the Comanche in a positive light as being rather passive and wanting only to be left alone to live in peace. Though the Sioux were hardly any more docile, their reputation is certainly not nearly as notorious. Also, for cinematic reasons, it's certainly understandable that the domain of the northern Sioux is a more picturesque backdrop that the barren plains of the Southern Comanche. Also, the Sioux language of the movie has a more poetic feel to it and is somewhat more widely recognized than the rather obscure Shoshonean spoken by the Comanche.

I hope I haven't given the wrong impression here. This is a very enjoyable read, though it is a rare occasion where the book was not nearly as enjoyable, for me at least, as was the movie.
AMAZON.COM READER'S REVIEW
reviewed Dances With Wolves on
Helpful Score: 1
a wonderful book.
reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Enjoy the book.
Read All 26 Book Reviews of "Dances With Wolves"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 60 more book reviews
Great book! A lot to think about as you read about how a life of solitude in a strange land caused a soldier to learn the ways of native americans he encountered and how he came to understand and respect them.
RoyalCatwoman avatar reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 278 more book reviews
Set in 1863, the novel follows Lieutenant John Dunbar on a magical and unpredictable journey from the ravages of the Civil War to the far reaches of the imperiled American frontier, a frontier he naively wants to see "before it's gone".

His posting to a desolate and deserted outpost is the springboard for contact with the lords of the southern plains...the Comanches.

Though he does not speak their language, has no knowledge of their customs and is considered a trespasser, Lieutenant Dunbar finds himself intrigued by the exotic and alien culture of the buffalo-hunting people of the plains.

A simple desire to know more about his wild neighbors ignites a great adventure of transformation that culminates with the emergence of a different kind of man...a man called Dances With Wolves.

Dances With Wolves has appeared in hardcover only once in the United States. That edition has been out of print for more than ten years.
reviewed Dances With Wolves on + 13 more book reviews
This book (and the movie!) is definitely one of my all time favorites. It reminds me of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. If you have seen the movie, the book is even better.


Genres: