About this title: Although the origins of the western are as old as colonial westward expansion, it was Owen Wister's novel The Virginian, published in 1902, that established most of the now-familiar conventions of the genre. On the heels of the classic western's centennial, this collection of essays both re-examines the text of The Virginian and uses Wister's ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Macmillan and Co., London
Date Published: 1913
Description: Fair-Poor. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Pale blue cloth with gilt titles to spine. Cloth faded and damp stained. Edge wear. Both free end papers missing-which has weakened the binding. Pages slightly age toned and have occasional fingermarks. Occasional spots of foxing to pages, near to spine. Pencil scribbles to rear paste down. Occasional pencil marks in text. 316pp. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York: London
Date Published: 1902
Description: Keller, Arthur I. Fair. No dust jacket. Blue cloth with black and white titling on cover and spine. Some green highlights. Binding a bit loose, no writings or markings inside. Some rubbing to edges and top and bottom of spine. xiii, 504, p. : ill.; 20 cm. Includes Plates. Cloth over boards. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780140390650ISBN:0140390650
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean pages, no marks or tears, a couple of creases on cover, minor shelf wear with dings to corners, pages slightly turned up, tight binding, solid good book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 416 p. Penguin Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Reader's Digest Association
ISBN-13:9780895773050ISBN:0895773058
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
ISBN-13:9780803297364ISBN:080329736X
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"When we chose a Western for book club, I was pretty confidant that I wouldn't enjoy it. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised. The Virginian can be hard to understand because of the writing style and the conversational text ("hyeh" = here!), but many of the scenes had me laughing out loud. So, although it started off slow for me, by the end I couldn't wait to finish.
Favorite quotes:
Molly: I don't think I like you. Virginian: That's all square enough. You're goin' to love me before we get through.
Mr and Mrs. Henry, after she helped the Virginian write love letters: "I shall presently be in love with him myself," she told the Judge. "And it's time for you to become anxious." "I am perfectly safe," he retorted. "There's only one woman for him anymore."
"I read somewhere that this book has sold record numbers of copies. It should. There was never written a better Western romance or any other kind of romance.Fooey on Camelot and those posturing Round Table guys with their plumes and flashy scabbords. The Virginian makes them look like woosies.
I fell in love with the Virginian and Molly, the New England school ma'arm whom he courts for three years before she will marry him because she does not want to disgrace her old-line family. Molly is adorable despite her family pride.l
Everything is in here: the cowboys, the roundups, the barbeques with whole steers roasted, the hanging, the shoot-out, the judge and his wonderfyully aristocratic wife, both of whom see how terrific a man the Virginaian is. Mrs. Judges says, "He's too good for her, but he doesn't know it." The judge's wife is right. No woman is good enough for the Virginian. I
read that this book is the model for all Western romances that came afterward. As far as I can tell, this is Owen Wister's only book, cobbled from a series of short cowboy tales that he had written and then patched together to make this one wonderful story.
I have read it twice, and I am going to read it
again."
"Not bad. A good story-line, great characters. I was actually quite surprised by its simplicity. I guess I expected more elevated language or something, but I had no problem at all getting through this read.
I think it's great that we go through the ENTIRE novel without knowing the name of the main character or the narrator! And yet it is absolutely clear what kind of a man the main character is!"
"The story in this book was really great. Romance, cattle theivery, murder, intrigue, all set in "the west". I think this was the first Western ever written, and he did a good job of it. The one thing that kept irritating me, and I know this is dumb, but it was written first person, but then also first person when the person telling the story wasn't actually there. So, something happens with the narrator and the Virginian and he tells about it, then the narrator goes back east and is still talking about the Virginian's tale out west. It was a tad distracting to be wondering, "How can he know that? He wasn't even there!" Wister also wrote phonetically how the Virginian would talk, like "thank yu' ma'am" and that was fun to read. There are a few gems of lines in this book. It was entertaining and had a happy ending, and has pretty much supported my newfound knowledge that I like western novels. A very good read."
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