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Book Review: The Virginian
Nov. 23rd, 2012 12:02 pmI decided to read Owen Wister’s The Virginian, the first western, because it pops up a lot in books about the the Progressive Era. “A western!” quoth I, when I began. “How droll! How quaint! Maybe I’ll become a western fan. Hahaha how funny, that will never happen.”
...joke’s on me.
Well, maybe not, because I don’t intend to run out and read more westerns, but The Virginian was surprisingly fun. The titular Virginian - he never does get a name - rounds up cattle, pulls pranks (he convinces a whole passel of cowboys that there are ranches out in California that herd frogs), hangs one of his best friends as a cattle thief - we don’t actually witness the hanging, but there are lots of feelings - and woos and wins Miss Molly Wood, the Yankee schoolmarm who saves his life after he gets shot by Indians.
(About the best thing that can be said about the racial politics in this book is that they’re a side note rather than it’s raison d’etre. Oh, and the book’s anti-lynching. This is not a foregone conclusion with a Progressive Era book.)
Anyway, Miss Molly Wood! When she comes upon him, shot and borderline delirious in a gully, she ignores his rambling insistence that she should leave, loads up his six-shooter and tells him she’ll shoot anyone who attacks - no one does attack; even the climactic gun-battle is off-screen in this book. Wister successfully paints the West as a dangerous and violent place without showing much violence at all, which is impressive.
And then Molly nurses him back to health, they fall in love (it’s rather sweet), and there’s an unavoidable smattering of crap about the Virginian mastering her heart and will. Also, lots of pretty Western scenery. You have to maintain a certain cool distance from some of it, but overall, an interesting (and, as an ebook, free!) portrait of a very different time and place.
...joke’s on me.
Well, maybe not, because I don’t intend to run out and read more westerns, but The Virginian was surprisingly fun. The titular Virginian - he never does get a name - rounds up cattle, pulls pranks (he convinces a whole passel of cowboys that there are ranches out in California that herd frogs), hangs one of his best friends as a cattle thief - we don’t actually witness the hanging, but there are lots of feelings - and woos and wins Miss Molly Wood, the Yankee schoolmarm who saves his life after he gets shot by Indians.
(About the best thing that can be said about the racial politics in this book is that they’re a side note rather than it’s raison d’etre. Oh, and the book’s anti-lynching. This is not a foregone conclusion with a Progressive Era book.)
Anyway, Miss Molly Wood! When she comes upon him, shot and borderline delirious in a gully, she ignores his rambling insistence that she should leave, loads up his six-shooter and tells him she’ll shoot anyone who attacks - no one does attack; even the climactic gun-battle is off-screen in this book. Wister successfully paints the West as a dangerous and violent place without showing much violence at all, which is impressive.
And then Molly nurses him back to health, they fall in love (it’s rather sweet), and there’s an unavoidable smattering of crap about the Virginian mastering her heart and will. Also, lots of pretty Western scenery. You have to maintain a certain cool distance from some of it, but overall, an interesting (and, as an ebook, free!) portrait of a very different time and place.
