From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Virginian

Owen Wister

Start date: March 1, 2018

Finish date: March 31, 2018

Discussion: Lesser Know Classics

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Lesser Know Classics

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What Members Thought

Oct 25, 2020 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: usa, audible-uk, 2020-read, adventure, philo-psychol, classics, hf, relationships, humor, love

This book kept surprising me, from the start to its very end. It surprised me in a good way.

I went into this expecting a rough and tough, wild west cowboy tale. The beginning is the opposite; the start is instead cute and amusing. We are told of a hen, Emily, who sits herself down on not just eggs but turkey chicks, stones and even puppies! Poor Emily is confused. It’s hilarious. It cracks you up. A few pages later we have men, cowboys, but here they are called cowpunchers, travelling on a trai ...more

35 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2012 Melissa (ladybug) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: yearly-challenge, 4stars, help-me-decide

This book wasn’t at all what I expected. I dreaded reading it because I thought it would be dry, hard to read western, but it wasn’t at all dry. I do not think it is a “western” at all. It is the story of the untamed wilderness when men were men and justice was immediate and harsh. It had a rawness and adventure feel to it that I was delighted to see. The modern westerns owe their beginnings to books such as “The Virginian”.

I could not stand to put this book down. Its gentle humor, the influence ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2022 Douglas Beagley rated it it was amazing

Great. It’s a western, before western was a genre. It has a “confirmed bachelor” narrator that meanders from first person to omniscient, and it reads a bit like Mark Twain and a bit like Jane Austen. The author touches on a lot of things, and includes enough coded hints about homosexuality to help a lonely reader (written in 1908) feel seen, and I appreciate that effort. This is best book I’ve read in a bit, and the only recent read that I look forward to reading again some day. All the western ...more

1 like · Like · see review