The Longest Ride Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary (2024)

Overview

In 2013’s The Longest Ride, Nicholas Sparks, one of the most prolific and successful American romance novelists of the millennium, investigates how despite their differences, opposite personalities can find their way to commitment. In juxtaposing two relationships, one ending after more than 50 years and the other just beginning, this #1 New York Times bestselling novel explores how love can flourish, endure, and sustain even through the most difficult times. The novel is part Western (one couple features a champion bull rider who falls in love with an art historian), part traditional love story, part sweeping cultural biography of post-World War II America, and part investigation into the tonic power of art.

This guide uses the 2013 Grand Central paperback edition.

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Plot Summary

The Longest Ride parallels two love stories, following three characters: 91-year-old Ira Levinson, a lonely widower who faces a grim cancer prognosis; Luke Collins, a 20-something champion bull rider who is attempting a return to competition after a devastating spill during a competition nearly killed him; and Sophia Danko, a senior majoring in art history at Wake Forest University.

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In February 2011, Ira Levinson, driving alone at night, careens off an icy road in a remote stretch of rural North Carolina. Struggling to stay conscious, Ira finds himself being comforted by the specter of his beloved wife, Ruth, who died nine years earlier. Ruth’s spirit encourages him to think back on their long and happy marriage. As the hours slowly pass, Ira recalls meeting Ruth shortly before he joined the Army Air Corps in WWII. Despite Ira’s shyness, they fell immediately and unconditionally in love. In France, Ira contracted mumps, which left him sterile. Although she dreamed of having children, Ruth married Ira, her true love. Ira worked in his family’s haberdashery business; Ruth became a third-grade teacher. She loved her students; one student in particular, Daniel McCallum, a troubled kid from a dysfunctional home, found Ruth and Ira a comfort.

Over the years, Ira and Ruth came to share a love of art. On their honeymoon, they happened upon the campus of tiny Black Mountain College in western North Carolina. After meeting the college’s art department faculty and then strolling through its galleries, Ira and Ruth decided to collect art. In 30 years, they bought works ranging from celebrated regional artists to those by major figures such as Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning. When he found out about his cancer diagnosis, Ira was determined to sell the collection, now valued in the millions.

Interspersed with Ira’s memories is the story of the budding love between Luke Collins, a champion bull rider with aspirations to compete nationally, and Sophia Danko, an accomplished art major in her senior year at Wake Forest. The two meet at a mixer off campus four months before Ira’s accident, when Luke gallantly rescues Sophia from a very drunk and very belligerent ex-boyfriend. Although the two have little in common, the attraction between them is immediate and powerful. Despite their dissimilar backgrounds, they fall in love.

Sophia, uncertain about life after graduation, is drawn to Luke’s down-to-earth pragmatism, his rugged athleticism, and his quiet confidence. Sophia, from the suburbs of New Jersey, is amazed by Luke’s family ranch, which Luke and his mother have struggled to maintain since Luke’s father died six years earlier. Luke keeps a secret from Sophia: A year earlier, a hard fall from a notoriously wild bull left Luke with a head injury; another fall could cost him his life, but Luke wants one last run at a championship. The prize money would cover his staggering medical bills. Neither Sophia nor Luke’s mother want Luke to compete.

Luke enters a rodeo competition and wins, but decides he is finished with bull riding—Sophia and his mother matter more. He picks up Sophia to tell her. On the way, the two spot Ira’s truck off the side of the road and quickly dial 911. At the hospital, Ira asks Sophia to read to him a letter he wrote to Ruth just weeks earlier, an emotional thank you for their years of happiness. Ira dies that night.

Some months later, as Sophia struggles to find a job with graduation nearing, she invites Luke to attend a major art auction: the Ira and Ruth Levinson Collection. When no one bids on the first item, a crude portrait of Ruth obviously done by a child, Luke bids all he has with him, $400, to gift the painting to Sophia. The auction is then summarily stopped. Ira left a codicil in his will: The person who buys that painting, by Ruth’s young student Daniel McCallum, receives the entire collection. Sophia and Luke are flabbergasted. Over the next several months with the help of art appraisers, they sell the collection and use the considerable money to settle the financial obligations of Luke’s ranch. They keep only the painting of Ruth. Luke understands, however, that the real treasure was not the collection but Sophia herself, a lesson which he is sure Ira would approve.

The Longest Ride Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary (2024)

FAQs

What is the longest ride movie about summary? ›

Do Ira and Ruth have a baby? ›

In flashbacks, it is revealed that Ruth, a school teacher, became attached to a young student named Daniel McDonald after finding out she and Ira wouldn't have children of their own. They wanted to adopt him but Daniel's uncaring relatives wouldn't allow it. Luke is injured while riding and is rushed to hospital.

What injury did Ira have in the longest ride? ›

However, Ira is shot during an attack and is later informed by the doctor that he can no longer have children, news that causes distance between him and Ruth when he returns because he knows how much she wants to be a mother.

What is the message of the longest ride? ›

The Longest Ride examines specifically how opposites attract. Sparks uses two couples to explore the dynamics between people motivated only by a mystically powerful attraction to be together. Can they find their way to the comfort, stability, and consolation of emotional commitment? Defying the odds, they do.

Do Luke and Sophia end up together? ›

Luke Collins is a character in The Longest Ride (film). He is a former bull-rider and is now married to Sophia Danko.

Is The Longest Ride a sad ending? ›

There is a couple of sad parts, but for the most, it's a happy ending.

Who is the father of Ruth's baby? ›

Ruth became Boaz's wife, and bore him a son, Obed, who became the father of Jesse, the father of King David.

What age did Ruth get pregnant? ›

Ruth's age is not specifically given in the Christian Bible or the Jewish Tanakh, but generally she is assumed to have been about 40 years old at the time of her marriage to Boaz (the central event of the Book of Ruth) and her resulting pregnancy.

Why can't Ira have kids longest ride? ›

Young Ira and Ruth hit a rough patch when she wants a big family and he can't give her children because of a war injury (Alda is about 15 years too young to play a modern-day WWII veteran, which is distracting).

Why can't Ruth and Ira have kids? ›

Due to the peritonitis it was likely he couldn't have children. Ira knew that having a child was something Ruth really wanted in the future and he didn't want to deprive her of that. He thought the right thing to do was to let her move on with someone that could give her exactly what she wanted.

Is The Longest Ride true story? ›

The central romance and characters in The Longest Ride are fictional, it highlights the transformative power of art and love and connects the story to a real-life couple who were dedicated to arts and left a large impact on the cultural landscape.

Who was the actual bull rider in The Longest Ride? ›

Four current BFTS bull riders acted as stunt doubles for Eastwood: Bonner Bolton, Josh Faircloth, Markus Mariluch and Billy Robinson. Eastwood's doubles had to ride a real, top-ranked PBR bull named Rango, who was also named Rango in the movie.

Why couldn t the old man have kids in The Longest Ride? ›

Basically, he was wounded in the war and couldn't have children, but he and his wife (Oona Chaplin), who always wanted children, found happiness through compromise.

What happened to Daniel in The Longest Ride? ›

Daniel became a professor of astronomy in memory of his favorite teacher. Sophia continues her studies at Wake Forest and Luke continues to ride bulls.

How does the book The Longest Ride end? ›

At the hospital, Ira asks Sophia to read to him a letter he wrote to Ruth just weeks earlier, an emotional thank you for their years of happiness. Ira dies that night.

What is the story behind the movie The Ride? ›

The Ride recounts the life of Glaswegian pro BMX rider and author John Buultjens, who grew up with an abusive father and wanted to ride ever since he watched E.T. When he was adopted by foster parents, Buultjens received a bicycle on his tenth birthday and a lifelong love affair began.

What is The Longest Ride based on a true story? ›

No, The Longest Ride is not officially based on a true story but there's a conversation surrounding a possible reference. The film is an adaption of Nicholas Sparks' eponymous novel, and as reports suggest, Herb and Dorothy Vogel are the real-life couple who served as an inspiration for the story.

What is the movie full ride about? ›

When a troubled teen is caught by the law, it's a choice of jail or an all-star football training camp.

What is the main conflict in The Longest Ride? ›

Conflict: Luke having conflict with his mom about riding bulls would be the conflict of the story. She stays mad at him until he stops riding. Rising action: The reader finding out about Luke's brain injury. Climax: Sophia finding out about Luke's brain injury would be the climax.

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