The Virginian

Rating:
Summary: When you call me that, smile!
Review: 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).

Rating:
Summary: The Western as Historical Novel
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: A Real Classic
Review: 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.