The Virginian, Owen Wister
The Virginian, Owen Wister
List: $30.99 | Sale: $21.70
Club: $15.49

The Virginian
A Horseman of the Plains

Author: Owen Wister

Narrator: Jack Garrett

Unabridged: 16 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/14/2011

Synopsis

Originally published in 1902, Owen Wister' s The Virginian pre-dates the classic novels of Zane Grey and Max Brand and is considered by many to be the original Western. Dedicated to Wister' s friend and fellow outdoorsman Theodore Roosevelt, this timeless tale almost single-handedly established the cowboy archetype in literature. A quiet, noble foreman of a Wyoming cattle ranch in the 1870s, the Virginian falls for pretty schoolteacher Molly Wood. But when a rival suitor challenges his honor, the Virginian struggles to make his beloved Molly understand the harsh justice of the West.

About Owen Wister

The scion of a wealthy Germantown family, Owen Wister (1860-1938) showed promise as a musician early in his life, but his father directed him into a career in banking and then the law. Plagued with neurasthenia, Wister took a variant of the "rest cure" of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, traveling to Wyoming on Mitchell's advice. From these experiences, Wister began to write short stories about the West. His Western writing culminated in the 1902 publication of The Virginian, the most popular Western ever. In addition to novels, Wister wrote short stories, operas, plays, poetry, and nonfiction, including biographies of Ulysses S. Grant and George Washington.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Henry on December 15, 2024

This novel The Virginian, the first real western book published in 1902, began the genre as a popular art form in America the wild cowboy and the schoolmarm, cattle rustling the lynchings, Indian attacks an explosive card game the deadly shoot out between the good guy and the villain in the streets......more

Goodreads review by J.G. Keely on October 12, 2007

I cannot believe that I sat in American Lit reading Hawthorne when I could have been reading this. If you have never heard of this book, then I am not sure why; just as I am not sure why I had never heard of it. It is surely Romantic, and sometimes Heroic, but there is a depth of emotion, wit, and t......more

Goodreads review by Charles on October 27, 2019

Review of free Kindle edition A Public Domain Book Publication date: May 12, 2012 Language: English ASIN: B0082RIL04 250 pages Considered to be the first real American western, The Virginian began an entire new genre of literature. A genre whose authors and readers are not limited to America. A fine novel......more

Goodreads review by Mike (the Paladin) on August 23, 2015

I have been meaning to get to this book for years, literally. It's one of the novels I'm sure my dad read and he wasn't really a reader, at least not when I knew him. I'm sure that some of you will like this book far better than I do. I think that it's an exceptionally well written novel. The prose i......more

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