Customer Reviews

The Virginian (Enriched Classics (Pocket))

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For anyone fascinated by how the myth of the Western hero came into being, this is the book to read. Published in 1902, it became hugely popular for decades and inspired movies (a version with Gary Cooper in 1929) and a long-running TV series (1962-1971). A modern reader could easily guess the storyline without reading a synopsis - the classic elements are all there: tall, dark, handsome cowboy hero; pretty schoolmarm from back East; the villain who must finally face justice at the end of a gun.

Few historical novels are dedicated to American presidents, however, and another whole dimension of the novel opens up with the name appearing on the dedication page -- Theodore Roosevelt, a college friend of the author's. What Wister does, besides telling a story of adventure and romance, is portray a particular kind of heroic figure, a natural man whose integrity is untainted by the corrupt (though civilized) values of the East.

The book is a deliberate and often worshipful character study for the age of Teddy Roosevelt-style masculinity. The young Virginian charms us (and the narrator) with his courage and modesty and his thoughtful attempts to understand a world in which some men (even good ones) act dishonorably and make cowardly choices. Stoic and cool on the surface, the currents of sentiment run deep in this man. So does the will to self-improvement, as he reads Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott.

This book connects with so much of American myth over the last 100 years that you could easily write another book about it. Or you can simply enjoy it for what it is, a historical romance so well conceived, in spite of its sometimes dated views, that you keep on reading through each episode of the story, glad that Wister was in no hurry to cut to the chase. This is a book for any reader of Western literature, fiction or nonfiction. In it the many traditions of the western come together in popularized form for the first time.

Readers who enjoy this book will also like Elmer Kelton's novel, "The Day the Cowboys Quit." While it's more historically accurate in its portrayal of working cowboys, it captures many of Wister's same narrative elements, in the courage, modesty and thoughtfulness of its hero, its portrayal of the relationship between a top hand and his boss, its fateful pursuit of cattle rustlers, an account of a troubled friendship between two men, and of course the loneliness and yearning at the heart of a man who loves a woman from afar.

This is the classic story by Wister (1860-1938) of the ranch foreman, known only as the Virginian, his courtship of Molly Starkwood, the "schoolmarm" from Vermont, and his conflicts with Trampas. In 1977, the Western Writers of America voted this novel as the top western novel of all time. It probably started the whole genre (even if one counts the pulp fiction popular in the late 19th century). Historians have always pointed out that there never really was a "Code of the West." This was just something thought up by writers, journalists, and film makers. The West was made up of both good and bad men, just as today. But, in my opinion, this book challenges that concept. Wister based his characters on real people he interacted with in the West a few years earlier. There really were men like the Virginian. There really were people who, unknowingly, followed a Code (just as there are today).

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VIRGINIAN -by Owen Wister ( first reviewed 30 April 2006)

Though "The Virginian" has a standing as a Western novel, it is philosophically rich, and Owen Wister used this novel to articulate certain fundamental truths. (I always find great clarification from older books, books written before TV, before Computers, and even before Radio. In these, one can still find clarification of values, that is not easily found in modern literature, when those who write books don't know the difference between "Come!" and "Go sic'em!" ) Wister's book is not just a "shoot'em-up". The reader needs to be aware of the depth of the philosophical arguments offered by his characters

(1)
the definition of a "gentleman" (in Chapter Two)

(2)
the conflict between GOOD (the Virginian) & EVIL (Trampas, the cowhand turned rustler and worse, corrupter of men, resulting in their destruction

(3)
the definition of "love" ; NOT the romantic love between the school teacher and the cowboy. Rather, it was the love the Virginian showed to his fellow cowhands, who were vulnerable to manipulation and deceit by crooked men, and in trying to shepherd souls along the lines of the soul's deepest strengths. (Example: the Judge's hired hand who loved horses).

(4)
the definition of "spirituality"; Wister draws a stark contrast between the traveling preacher, who wears his religious "act" like a cheap black suit and poorly conceals his contempt of common men in his arrogance and superiority complex.
Moreover, Chapter Two demonstrates the essential requirement of HUMILITY that the Virginian manifests (a character trait utterly lacking in the minister).

(5)
the definition of "conflict": indeed, the entire book is about the very human fight at the very core of life. The Virginian demonstrates the singular truth, clear to anyone who actually engages life, that you cannot find an answer to life's conflict by simply turning away and riding out of town. There is no answer to life's problems in mere "conflict-avoidance", nor in folding our hands and practicing some NAMBY-PAMBY sentiment passing under the guise of LOVE.

I am not proposing that two-handed fisticuffs are the means for resolving all problems. What I am attempting to show is that at some level, whether physical, emotional, ethical or otherwise mental and spiritual, that problems must be faced on some teleological basis.

When The Virginian beats the stuffing out of one of the most despicable of human beings (the abuser of horses) he demonstrates the timelessness of the truth, that good people must stand for something. Even today, deceit and lies have been popularized so that one often hears admonitions, suggesting that we should all practice, "NON-JUDGEMENT." That only bears out, if you choose to embrace ideological horse-flop as life's dearest treasure.

Some fights must be fought, though we do not enjoy them. The EVIL that Trampas represents, will not back down, in its mindlessness. Riding away simply turns over the reins of power to the embodiment of EVIL.

(6)
the definition of "humor": (I cannot spoil the story but...the CHICKEN, the DRUMMERS, the railroad ride after the cattle sale)
There are numerous accounts demonstrating how good people find humor at every chance, and who use humor and imagination to fight evil in everyday circumstances.

(7) DUTY: As Foreman of the Judge's ranch, the Virginian endures many slights and insults to his authority by a "top hand" or two. Not once does he inform the Judge of these difficulties. Why? Because performing his duty includes these things. It is his job; and the Virginian performs his duty as a worthy hand.


The Virginian was written by Wister to a deep purpose, so deep in fact, that I believe it was largely lost on the world. True, it was made into many movies, but even in these, even the great ones, the TRUTHS Wister elaborates in the book are vastly watered down. You cannot acquire Wister's purpose merely by watching a movie. You can only find them in the book.

The book, in the wording of an older era, may seem awkward, perhaps ...slow; but I suggest you think of it as a foray into another place, the Wyoming of a hundred years ago, with vast prairies of open sky, only rarely interrupted by a human dwelling, and more rarely still, by a town. Words then, were a relief from the prairie, which alternates from being vastness of eerie silence, punctuated by violence.

In certain ways, Wister eclipses Melville's "Moby Dick". He was not credited with being the literary giant that Melville enjoys in literary history, but in my opinion, he arrived at a deeper point, and quicker. Melville's characters are melodramatic and driven, often as not, by superstition and wild, incomprehensible urges. Wister's characters are driven by a more familiar greed, a more familiar goodness, a more familiar treachery, an everyday ordinariness, if you will.

When Melville gives his characters something to contend with, they must contend with the ultimate superwhale, Moby Dick, or, it is the strange obsessive madness of the captain. These are less often encountered by people generally, in any age. Wister's evil is not, like Melville's, the Arch-Evil of some cartoonish melodrama. Wister's evil is the cattle rustler, driven by personal selfishness, and a contempt for common values. In my opinion, there is more of a lesson for us in Wister's presentation of evil as more of an everyday, and an ordinary thing, in an ordinary humanity.

There is a foreshadowing in Wister's novel, of a theme exploited to great success by Louis L'Amour half a century later: the notion of a cowhand, who has vaguely ridden on the wrong side of the law. From the start, we become aware that the Virginian is not a "saint". He is a man molded by hard living in the American West. Somewhere on Life's road, a choice was made to care for people, and not merely to steal from others to advance self. Wister's rejection of EGO-CENTRISM as a basis for living is clear. Duty to principle is the honorable alternative.

****** The ACADEMICS and their perspectives on the Virginian*********


There have been some academics who have written prefaces, introductions, and essays about the Virginian, and their natty-brained intellectualizations frequently seem to dominate the public's understanding of the Western, and Wister's tale.

Here's where they go wrong. Writing from the concrete castles of academia, these academics are far removed from the realities of life, especially from the world Wister showed us. Academics operate in an abstract realm of ideas, where they assure themselves that human conflict (and even violence) are all a thing of the past, and that their wordy perambulations have encompassed all that is known of man. After all, they tell us with great bluster and probity that the cowboy and his myth have vanished. That may be so; but what has never changed in life is CONFLICT. It was not removed when TV was invented.

There are those who afford themselves the privilege of scoffing at defining good and evil. These are people who are not engaged in the struggle. They are the spectators in life, and that is why we must guard carefully to never let such tell us how we ought to think and act. Invariably, they will discourage all action. By this philosophy, a cynical and skeptical view is proper, and paralysis, passivity, and inaction, are the order of the day.

Wister's Virginian, shows where a man's duty lies, and how he ought to go about conducting himself in facing conflict. The cowboy may be gone, but human conflict is always with us.

Though literary critics advance Mark Twain or Nabokov or Melville or some such as authors of The Great American Novel, for me, it will always be The VIRGINIAN. --Bruce Bain





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Like another reviewer, I picked up my copy at a second-hand bookstall before going on holiday. I do this so that I can jettison the book when read without feeling I've wasted money. I recognised the title as that of a TV show, and was expecting an easy-read non-engaging story. How wrong I was. The story is hard to follow and demands concentration. After reading it "to see what happened in the end" I started at the beginning again to relish the writing and enjoy the situations. The story is about the Virginian, but the person who makes the longest journey is Molly. The man's rival is not another man, but another culture. Molly is in love with the man, but he is a cowboy. Although he is the most wonderful, handsome, wise man she has ever met, he wears chaps, carries a rope and a gun, and rides a horse all day. How can she ever possibly take him home to Bennington, where he will be a figure of fun. He will never fit in back home in Vermont. Although Wyoming is in the same country, it might as well be on the moon. Molly cannot bear the thought of the shame that must follow. It gets worse later when she finds out that the man has killed, and intends to kill again. Well, as you all know, love does eventually conquer all, and Molly gives in. The Virginian DOES fit in back East (a bit unbelievably I think) and all is well. Finally, the quality of writing is superb. Every sentence is worthy of that second read to get the best out of it. My favourite quote is "Has any botanist set down what the seed of love is? Has it anywhere been set down in how many ways this seed may be sown? In what various vessels of gossamer it can fall, and live unknown, and bide its time for blooming?" How true. I think the mark of good writing is how often the reader murmers "Yes, that's true." Well, this book is about cross-cultural relationships and marriage, and I think a lot of it strikes pretty true.

This is one of my favorite books. I just finished reading it for the second time. The Virginian is a man's man, a man of honor and integrity, a man of resolute character loved by all. The cowboy's life of honor is witnessed in the book, with dashes of adventure, suspense, humor and a romance all the way through with the school marm. Definitely the archetypal hero and epitome of the American cowboy.

This one's the tale of a tall, silent and supremely competent cowboy in old Wyoming, who hails from the South, a young fellow who ran away from his kin at 14 and made his life in a variety of places out on the Great Plains of the American West. A little bit simple and not much on plot, it chronicles this cowboy's growth, from rootless 25 year old cowhand to ranch foreman and, ultimately, success in his own right via the uplifting influence of his passion for a New England school marm, come west to change her own life. Somewhat episodic, it reflects events reported to us by an eastern companion of our hero who, for reasons never described, makes numerous visits to the western ranch of Judge Henry, the Virginian's employer, going from mistrusted tenderfoot to confidant of the new foreman. In the mix is an ongoing feud with the no-good cowhand, Trampas, which culminates in a battle with rustlers and a final showdown that happens so swiftly, and internally within the Virginian's own perceptions, that we almost miss it! Rife with cliches that we may assume were somewhat fresher at the beginning of the twentieth century when this book was written, the tale rises above the noble hero and conflicted school marm at its core to give us a look at how the West really was just as it was losing its frontier flavor. I found the first-person narrative which seemed to drift, repeatedly, into unexplained third-person (since the narrator kept reporting on things and events he could not possibly have known) somewhat clumsy and distracting, but, on balance, this was a most enjoyable read, a Western that transcends its genre to give us a real sense and flavor of another time and place, one that lives on in our American mythology. The characters were not strongly drawn and most were mere shadows in the background, but the Virginian, himself, came through quite clearly and we grow to appreciate this lonely paradigm of the American frontier type who became a staple in the Western mythos. Good book and worth your time. -- SWM

When I was growing up, my Mother told me that she had been given this book by a beau, had read it and enjoyed it. This was in the early 1900s! When I saw it in a used Book Store about a year ago, I picked it up. I am just now reading it. I was totally surprised to find that it is beautifully written, presents a wonderful picture of a vanished time and people and is funny. I find myself smiling at the phrases that have become cliches - "When you call me that smile." and at the fact that I am getting as much pleasure from reading it as my Mother did all those years ago.

"The Virginian" is a masterpiece. While it is a novel, based largely on Wister's conception of the cowboy, the Virginian had a face to him; and it's story line is firmly based in fact. Some of the original sites, such as the "Goose Egg" ranch (the dance and switching of the babies) are actual historical spots - parts of the the old stone ranch house were still standing in the 1960's and perhaps some remnants of it remain today, although it is all on private property now along Bessemer Bend along the Platte River. The Occidental Hotel, in Buffalo, a well-made ancient brick building, is still standing in remarkable condition and still in use today, and was the scene of the shoot-out between the Virginian and Trampas. The little town of Medicine Bow still holds physical remnants of the Virginian's story in historical significance to be seen and felt. As is the song "High Noon", sung by Tex Ritter, a reminder of this unforgettable story that crosses from literature into song and legend.

"The Virginian", like the legendary movie "Shane" has much of it's subtle nuances revolving around the nefarious Johnson County Cattle War. (Buffalo, Wyoming) This was during a wild, untamed era when the range was unfenced, big cattle empires, some of whom were English Lords rather than Americans (Frewen's Castle is a prime example of another historical Wyoming ruin near Buffalo - owned by an Englishman and now also on private property) ran huge herds of cattle on free grass and fattened their wallets as much as they fattened the cattle; somehow, these big cattlemen decided they owned the entire state without benefit of deed or law. When the Homestead Act brought in settlers to this vast land, the end of the free grass became quite apparent to these individuals, who had laid claim to the land without benefit of deed. They decided that the fastest way to deal with the problem was to "eliminate it" and hired guns from Texas and Oklahoma were brought in with the blessing of the governor of the state of Wyoming at that time, Gov. Barber.

There was, indeed, as there always is, two sides to the story, and the settlers did rustle some cattle, no doubt. The subtle references to this problem appear during Judge Henry's dialogue in the Virginian. The Virginian's dearest friend, Steve, comrade of his youth, was caught up in it; and was caught with stolen horses. The chapter that dealt with this is especially poignant and emotional; the hanging and the scene of the Virginian's torment of the night before; the grim foreboding sight of "the cottonwood" looming in the shadows, where vigilante justice is to be served up in the morning; and Steve's stilted, cowhand's way of sending the Virginian his farewell - is very moving.

It is also a tale of lost individuals attaching themselves to predators because they need someone to guide them and there is no one else in their fragmented lives; the character of "Shorty" is one of these - the boy/man who is ill-equipped to make his way in the world of men, hence is an easy mark for Trampas - yet is always good to his horse.

There is much to this book, both as a novel based in fact and history, and as a literary accomplishment. Wister dresses up his narration a bit, of course, but essentially, the picture of life out here is fairly close to being accurate at that time. Unlike "Shane", whose splendid film treatment will go down in it's own history as being one of a kind, "The Virginian" has never had a worthy movie made of it, in my view.

I recommend this to anyone wishing to read an old book that is still vastly worthwhile, even though it's subjects are long gone and only their shadows remain. Look deep into it's pages because there's a lot stirring there that takes a second look.

I was in the used book store and I saw this book. The Virginian. "Hm," I thought. "I used to watch that show on television when I was a kid." By Owen Wister. "So, it's a book!" And I though that was pretty cute. Oh, and I liked the cover. The edition that I bought was in the Pulp Fiction section of the book store, that real old book smellin', yellowing pages, origional cover price anywhere between 15 and 99 cents section. So I bought it, read a couple of pages expecting to find out that it was the cheesest thing I'd picked up in a hundred years. And before I even knew what was happening The Virginian, black curly hair in desperate need of a cut, quick draw, lonesome maverick, the new teacher for the one room schoolhouse-yes, even the one room schoolhouse!-all were in my purse, going with me everywhere...Never mind that it's a western, get over yourselves and read this book! It's so much fun. Mr. Wister gives a good story, well told.

The Virginian is a classic because of the superb characters who fill its pages. The protagonist, known only as the Virginian, embodies a code of manly virtue. He is unique. Without Mary's civilized purity or the Virginian's wild perfection, the book would be a dry, uninteresting Western, full of stereotypical cowboys swaggering around with their pistols on their hips. Instead of a Buffalo Bill, Wister gives us a young man who loves Shakespeare and Dostoevsky and who does unpleasant things because he must, not because he enjoys them. I really enjoyed this book.