"What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise."
The Border Trilogy is a series of novels written by Cormac McCarthy and published between 1992 and 1998.
The books in the series are:
- All the Pretty Horses (1992) - Set in 1949 Texas, John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old who is abruptly cut off from the ranch life he longed for, spanning generations in his family. Unable to accept this, he embarks on a journey south to Mexico with two companions to work on a Mexican ranch. What initially appears as an idyllic and sometimes comic journey ultimately leads to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.
- The Crossing (1994) - Set in 1930s New Mexico, it tells the story of two brothers, Billy and Boyd Parham, who, after capturing a she-wolf that thrashes their property, decides to send it back to Mexico. There the brothers learn the hard truth about life and the inevitable tragedy that awaits them there.
- Cities of the Plain (1998) - Set in 1952, both John Grady Cole and Billy Parham now work together on a ranch in New Mexico. Though they soon knew that the things they hold dear will lose with time and John Grady's obsession with trying to save the life of a troubled prostitute in Mexico will set off a chain of irreversible tragic events.
Tropes found in the series:
- Anachronic Order: With the exception of Cities of the Plain, which was published as the third and final entry of the trilogy, the two other entries were published non-chronologically, with the middle entry All the Pretty Horses being published first and the first entry The Crossing came in second.
- Canon Welding: Unsurprisingly, Cities of the Plain ties in the two previously unrelated entries together, with John Grady Cole and Billy Parham appearing together.
- Darker and Edgier: The Crossing is notably darker and somber in tone, emphasizing philosophical inquiry, deeper themes, and the inevitable tragedy that awaits Billy and Boyd Parham. Though it's not without a tragedy, it's almost a stark contrast to the enjoyable, thrilling and sometimes comic tone of All the Pretty Horses and Cities of the Plain.
- Doorstopper: Taken together, it's a staggering book of 1040 pages long.
- Hybrid Genre: On top of being a Western story, the trilogy is also Coming-of-age, Adventure, Drama, Romance, Epic, Historical and Tragedy.
