The Virginian (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Owen Wister

• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781411433434
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Clásicos

The Virginian, by Owen Wister, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.

The western is one of America's most important and influential contributions to world culture. And it was Owen Wister 's The Virginian, first published in 1902, that created the familiar archetypes of character, setting, and action that still dominate western fiction and film.

The Virginian s characters include: The hero, tall, taciturn, and unflappable, confident in his skills, careful of his honor, mysterious in his background; the heroine, the "schoolmarm from the East, " dedicated to civilizing the untamed town, but willing to adapt to its ways—up to a point; and the villain, who is a liar, a thief, a killer, and worst of all, a coward beneath his bluster. Its setting—the lonely small town in the midst of the vast, empty, dangerous but overwhelmingly beautiful landscape—plays so crucial a role that it may be regarded as one of the primary characters. And its action—the cattle roundup, the capture of the rustlers, the agonizing moral choices demanded by "western justice, " and the climactic shoot-out between hero and villain—shaped the plots of the thousands of books and movies that followed.

John G. Cawelti has published ten books, including Apostles of the Self-Made Man, Adventure, Mystery and Romance, The Spy Story, Leon Forrest: Introductions and Interpretations, and The Six-Gun Mystique Sequel. He has also published about seventy essays in the fields of American literature, cultural history, and popular culture, and has made oral presentations at more than one hundred universities and scholarly conferences.

Table of contents

• From the Pages of The Virginian
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Owen Wister
• The World of Owen Wister and The Virginian
• Owen Wister’s Virginian and the Modern Western
• Dedication
• Rededication and Preface
• To The Reader
• —1— - ENTER THE MAN
• —2— - “WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT, SMILE!”
• —3— - STEVE TREATS
• —4— - DEEP INTO CATTLE LAND
• —5— - ENTER THE WOMAN
• —6— - EM’LY
• —7— - THROUGH TWO SNOWS
• —8— - THE SINCERE SPINSTER
• —9— - THE SPINSTER MEETS THE UNKNOWN
• —10— - WHERE FANCY WAS BRED
• —11— - “YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE ME BEFORE WE GET THROUGH”
• —12— - QUALITY AND EQUALITY
• —13— - THE GAME AND THE NATION—ACT FIRST
• —14— - BETWEEN THE ACTS
• —15— - THE GAME AND THE NATION—ACT SECOND
• —16— - THE GAME AND THE NATION—LAST ACT
• —17— - SCIPIO MORALIZES
• —18— - “WOULD YOU BE A PARSON?”
• —19— - DR. MACBRIDE BEGS PARDON
• —20— - THE JUDGE IGNORES PARTICULARS
• —21— - IN A STATE OF SIN
• —22— - “WHAT IS A RUSTLER?”
• —23— - VARIOUS POINTS
• —24— - A LETTER WITH A MORAL
• —25— - PROGRESS OF THE LOST DOG
• —26— - BALAAM AND PEDRO
• —27— - GRANDMOTHER STARK
• —28— - NO DREAM TO WAKE FROM
• —29— - WORD TO BENNINGTON
• —30— - A STABLE ON THE FLAT
• —31— - THE COTTONWOODS
• —32— - SUPERSTITION TRAIL
• —33— - THE SPINSTER LOSES SOME SLEEP
• —34— - “TO FIT HER FINGER”
• —35— - WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT
• —36— - AT DUNBARTON
• Endnotes
• Inspired by The Virginian
• Comments & Questions
• For Further Reading