The Virginian by Owen Wister

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Cover of the 1902 first edition.

It is my second time reading this wonderful novel. Set during the brief time of the West, the protagonist, the Virginian, is a true man of noble convictions and generous heart. The story is a little slow at the beginning but once the school marm is introduced it takes off at a pace that keeps you reading with delight right to the last page. This one is chicken broth plus for the soul and will be one I will keep on my shelf.

The cover picture on my edition is A Cold Morning on the Range by Frederic Remington who was a friend of Wister and Roosevelt




Far too many great quotes to list all but a few of my favourites:

I’ll tell yu’ this: a middlin’ doctor is a pore thing, and a middlin’ lawyer is a pore thing; but keep me from a middlin’ man of God.

Here in flesh and blood was a truth which I had long believed in words, but never met before. The creature we call a gentleman lies deep in the heart of thousands that are born without chance to master the outward graces of the type.

An interesting aside it that Wister went on the advice of his doctor, S Weir Mitchell to Wyoming for a change because of his nervous condition. The Virginian stems from that experience. This is the same doctor that Charlotte Perkins Gilman had who ordered complete rest cure for her post partum depression. This very nearly drove her insane and resulted in the novel The Yellow Wallpaper. Strange how for a male he recommended outdoors and fresh air and activity and yet had a female isolated and confined not only to a room but to her bed. Bit of a misogynist I am thinking.

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