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

[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.

[Front-Ranger]

I have never been part of an actual book club, so let me know if I'm goin too fast and need to put the brakes on, or if I have too many spoilers!!

[Front-Ranger]

Okay, Front-Ranger, you are doin just fine, keep it up, don't put the brakes on! Your FRiend, Lee

Back to The Virginian. We first saw him with a whole pen full of low-startle-point horses. He manages to pull the wool over one's eyes by lassoing it without raising an arm. Subsequently, the docile horse falls into step behind him. Well, that horse was me when I read that passage!! It called up a whole host of man-horse relationships from Black Beauty to the Horse Whisperer, to BBM of course. Then I realized that those other scenes were quoting the one and only original!! Another passage which it called into mind was the relationship between Gulliver and the horse mother in Gulliver's Travels. That part of the story always brings tears to my eyes.

[Front-Ranger]

We can discuss Chapter One longer if you like. I will delete the following post which goes on to Chapter Two.

Is there a Western that doesn't have a homerotic subtext? I can't think of one. Anyway, the first of several such subtexts appears early in Chapter Two. The narrator, new in the town of Medicine Bow, is reeling over the culture shock--the distances, the squalor of the town--when he receives a new blow. He and the Virginian run into an acquaintance, Steve, who informs them that all the available beds are taken in the town. The Virginian bets Steve that he will be able to scare one of the travellers into giving up their bed, rather than having to share with a total stranger. Steve is a person we'll see throughout the story who causes a "freak" meaning a fright or a scare of some sort.

[Lynne]

I started reading Chapter One last night, but drifted off midway (not bored, exhausted).  But I'll catch up - y'all just keep on going and I'll hop in when I'm ready.
-Lynne

[Front-Ranger]

The chapters are fairly short, Lynne, so you should catch up easily. You can skip the "To the Reader" section without any harm done.

As Steve and The Virginian are parting, Steve calls him an SOB affectionately, and the narrator's jaw drops. He half-expects The Virginian to take offense and start a fight. But astoundingly, the tall dark-haired one does not. Thus the narrator learns another lesson about the West, just as we did when Ennis exclaimed, "Jack f**kin Twist!" (See the Cowboy Etiquette thread.) This is one of the many amusing and light-hearted parts that punctuate the story.

The two men go to wash up and join all the travelers in the eating hall. The narrator is again shocked at the primitive nature of the washing-up facilities, but the Virginian manages to get the proprietress to change the linen with his simple but eloquent and always respectful ways. Skillfully the author lets us know of the Virginian's and proprietress's mutual attraction without in any way having them act improperly for their mileu. The scene in the eating hall, and the subsequent antics that take place later that night are told with style and dispatch, with just the right dose of authentic dialogue.