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Book Club: Discuss/find out about a Classic Tale Set in Wyoming: The Virginian

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Front-Ranger:
Let's read a BetterMost book together! This topic is for discussing The Virginian, by Owen Wister. It was first published in 1902 and updated in 1957. Millions of copies are in print. The book is set in Wyoming, and starts with the final steps in a stage journey to Medicine Bow, where the narrator alights on a visit.


{Edited to add the N to 'Virginian')

Front-Ranger:
I bought the paperback version from the Casper, Wyoming, library for added authenticity. The cover has a photo of one of the actors who has played the Virginian (the movie has been produced four times and there have also been TV versions). It's hard to tell who it is but I'm guessing Gary Cooper. He's quite a handsome devil with a fine head of black hair, somewhat reminiscent of Jake.

Toast:


Philadelphia born Owen Wister published this novel in 1902 and in doing so established the conventions of the Western. Although dime novels had already featured cowboys and their ways, the stereotype reached fruition with The Virginian. It is a story of natural justice and of the contrast between American East and West. The narrator sees exquisite beauty in the Wyoming landscape that, like the 'sublime' in the eighteenth century, makes the trivialities of "Fifth Avenue" and the like all the more explicit. "They live nearer nature and they know better", the narrator says of the townsfolk. Even so, the Virginian himself and all the major players in the novel are Easterners. Oddly, despite being responsible for the invention of the cowboy there are no cattle-working scenes. But this is really the tale of new land and the unknown, the name "cowboy" meaning far more than its component parts and standing for an attitude and a lifestyle.

U of Virginia - Complete Text of "The Virginian" in chapters

From Bibliomania - Complete Text of "The Virginian" with page breaks
ps.  there is a link to next page/chapter at the bottom of each page.


Now we have no excuse to not read the book.
Mmmmm

Front-Ranger:
I noticed that each of these sites has the same typos! But they are fairly minor. The story starts out with a bang: the passengers on a train are stopped due to some kind of difficulty, giving them the opportunity to watch a group of cow-boys (as the author calls them) trying to break (or just lasso at that point) a group of cow ponies. The author doesn't have the same terse delivery that Annie Proulx does, but neither is he flowery and verbose. It's really ingenious the way he introduces the Virginian to us, as the only cow-boy successful in getting a lasso around a horse's neck. The chapters are fairly short too, and eminently readable.

Some background: You may recall from Annie Proulx's lecture to the Center for the American West how feral horses have roamed the Wyoming backcountry. Before the cattle ranching could be done, these horses had to be rounded up and tamed by the cow-boys.

Front-Ranger:
Chapter One "Enter the Man" finishes up with a discussion of the Virginian's talk with Uncle Harold Hughey!! There's some fine dialogue in this chapter.

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