The Virginian - Softcover

Wister, Owen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451518071 ISBN 13: 9780451518071

Publisher: Signet Classics, 1979

Synopsis

The Greatest Western Novel Ever Written! In 1989 the New York Times wrote the following about The Virginian: "The 1902 novel, ancestor of the classic western, turned out to be not only corny and flag-waving but also intolerant and reactionary by today's standards. The story includes sentimental lectures on Americanism that sound like a jingoist speech by Theodore Roosevelt, to whom the book is dedicated." God forbid that a book, in the eyes of the Times, should be "flag waving" or view America as an exceptional place. But credit must be given where credit is due. The Times was right; The Virginian does all that and more. In fact, it established the rugged, individualistic, self-dependent, cowboy as a cultural icon in our society. Indeed, it can be said that the western fictional genre began the day this book was published; and it was the best selling book of its day. You would be hard pressed to find a better endorsement for any book than to have the New York Times condemn it as containing... dare I say the words... "sentimental lectures on Americanism." You would also be hard pressed to find a better western novel. Zane Gray, Louis L'Amour, Larry McMurtry, and all the others began right here. The First True Western Novel. Condemned by the New York Times. Now Available to You

About this title

From the Back Cover

This is the classic novel of the American West, which served as a model for thousands of later novels and films.

It is a story of ranch life and cowboy living at the turn of the century. The hero of the novel, the "Virginian", the only name by which he is known, has left his native state at an early age to try his fortunes in the western country. After roughing it along the way, he settles on Judge Henry's cattle ranch in Wyoming, where the owner makes him his right-hand man. The Virginian is strikingly handsome, twetny-seven years old, and, though unversed in the ways of the world and ignorant as to book learning, he has character and personality that inspire respect from all who know him. He manages to force on a turbulent community his idea of law and order-- "getting the drop" on an enemy, vigilante committees, and lynch law.

The novel recounts his adventures, including his romantic initiation at the hands of Molly Wood, the Vermont girl who became a western school techer. And it introduces him to Trampas, the legendary villain who is the prototype of the "bad guys" of future western novels and films.

"The Virginian" has been filmed three times, most memorably with Gary Cooper, and also became a long-running television series.

About the Author

Owen Wister (1860-1938) was born in Philadelphia and raised in Germantown, Pennsylvania. At age 25, he spent a summer in Wyoming on the advice of his physician. Encouraged by his friend from Harvard, Theodore Roosevelt, he later wrote about his experiences and observations of the American West. His greatest success came in 1902 with the publication of The Virginian, which was a bestseller for months and would be dramatized and filmed numerous times. 

John Seelye is a graduate research professor of American literature at the University of Florida. He is the author of The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain at the Movies, Prophetic Writers: The River in Early American Literature, Beautiful Machine: Rivers and the Early Republic, Memory's Nation: The Place of Plymouth Rock, and War Games: Richard Harding Davis and the New Imperialism. He is also the consulting editor for Penguin Classics in American literature.

About this edition

• Publisher: Signet Classics
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0451518071
• ISBN 13: 9780451518071
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English