The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Book Club: Discuss/find out about a Classic Tale Set in Wyoming: The Virginian
Front-Ranger:
Just a few quotes from this pivotal chapter:
"Springtime they'd sing like girls in the organ loft." TV of the frogs in Tulare, California
The story climaxes when Saint Augustine, of Philly's most famous restaurant, and Delmonico, of NY's most famous restaurant, each travel to the frog raising fields, and anonymously meet. After it is all over, they retreat from Tulare and "as soon as they got to a safe distance, they swore eternal FRiendship, in their excitable foreign way. And they went home over the Union Pacific, sharing the same stateroom." Union Pacific indeed!!
Front-Ranger:
Tall tales always end with a giveaway. And this one was no exception.
But, I won't tell you...you'll have to read it for yourself!! But here's a clue:
"'Rise up liers, and salute your king!' yelled Scipio. 'Oh, I'm in love with you!' And he threw his arms around the Virginian."
Who wouldn't?
Front-Ranger:
I went out at lunchtime to pick up the annotated version that Meryl got at Barnes and Noble. Not knowing the store very well, I approached the customer service desk to ask where it might be found. And guess what was lying on the desk...The Virginian.
It's destiny!!
Also, this weekend I'll be dining at The Virginian Hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming!!
Front-Ranger:
A quote from Wister's earlier novel, Lin McLean, which was renamed A Woman's Fool:
--- Quote ---"He was evidently howling the remarkable strain of yells that the cow-punchers invented as the speech best understood by cows - "Oi-ee, yah, whoop-yah-ye-ee, oooo-oop, oop, oop-oop-oop-oop-yah-hee!" But that gives you no idea of it. Alphabets are worse than photographs. It is not the lungs of every man that can produce these effects, not even from armies, eagles, or mules were such sounds ever heard on earth. The cow-puncher invented them. And when the last cow-puncher is laid to rest (if that, alas! have not already befallen) the yells will be forever gone." (from Lin McLean, 1898)
--- End quote ---
Front-Ranger:
Another interesting quote from the book Novels Into Film:
--- Quote ---"Wister's idealization of the Westerner situates the site of American virtue in the West. In a manner suggesting the influence of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Wister views his protagonist as a primal man, often describing him as "natural" or "wild." At the same time, there is an element of Horatio Alger." (from Novels into Film by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, 1999)
--- End quote ---
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version