Ratings5
Average rating3.2
The Virginian (1902) is Owen Wister's classic popular romance, and a significant shaping influence on cowboy fiction. Its narrator, fresh from the East, encounters in Wyoming cattle country a beautiful, baffling, and sometimes violent land where the handsome figure of the Virginian battles Trampas for supremacy and demonstrates that the "customs of the country" must eventually prevail. In his courtship of the Vermont schoolteacher, Molly Wood, the Virginian encounters a battle of a different kind. Rich in vernacular wit and portraying a romanticized escape from the decorum of the patrician East, The Virginian conveys a sense of redemptive possibility drawing on Wister's ranching, hunting, and fishing trips in Wyoming and Montana between 1885 and 1900. This edition includes Wister's neglected essay, "The Evolution of the Cow-puncher" (1895), a revealing companion to a novel that has disturbing undercurrents. - Back cover.
Reviews with the most likes.
It's a shame to have a book on my favorites shelf and never get around to reviewing it. This book is credited with being the first true Western written... The tale of the Virginian and how he made good in the West. He was from Virginia, hence the nickname (in a land where men were often known more by their handle than their Christian name)—only once, near the end, do we hear what that name is. Then there is the matter of the Eastern lady schoolteacher who comes out with high ideals of bringing civilization to the ranges and is in for some rude surprises.
In many ways this is one of the greatest romances ever written. Even the villain of the piece has some sympathy early on, before he turns totally to evil; also, there is the young fellow who the Virginian once rode with who begins to think the way of evil more easy than the way of hard work; we see the Virginian pleading with him to reconsider his path, then grieving for him as his choices overwhelm him. Add to that the heroine, who must sort through what good and evil actually are when they're beyond the reach of police and courts. The story is deeply layered and masterfully plotted.
There's humor, too...one of my favorite scenes is the baby-swapping: I laughed aloud at that one!
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