The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (Signet Classics (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Would have been a guilty pleasure if the book wasn't so good
Review: 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.

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: 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.