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The Virginian

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About this listen

He is the Virginian - the first fully realized cowboy hero in American literature, a near-mythic figure whose idealized image has profoundly influenced our national consciousness. This enduring work of fiction marks the birth of a legend that lives with us still.

Public Domain (P)2011 Audible, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction

Editor reviews

In addition to being one of the first full-length Western novels, Owen Wister's The Virginian still ranks among the most satisfying. Richard Davidson's performance of this classic tale of an honorable cowboy and the woman who loves him captures the outsized personalities that populated the Wyoming frontier at the turn of the century. Davidson summons the particular cadences of good guys as well as villains, Indians as well as refined East Coast schoolteachers. The performer's gilded and self-assured delivery reveals his sizable experience. He has won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Audiobook Non-fiction and has performed over 200 audiobooks in his career.
All stars
Most relevant
The Virginian is often cited as the first of the classic Western genre and the elements are all there. The mysterious character at home in a sometimes lawless land, the landscape and the larger than life characters. It is worth reading for that, but it is meandering and later stories are better.

Of its time

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A very slow moving novel of the life of the Virginian. So very uninspiring

Uninspired

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