The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Virginian, by Owen Wister

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Title: The Virginian
A Horseman Of The Plains

Author: Owen Wister

Posting Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1298]
Release Date: May, 1998

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIRGINIAN ***

Produced by Bill Brewer

THE VIRGINIAN

A Horseman Of The Plains

By Owen Wister

To THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Some of these pages you have seen, some you have praised, one stands
new-written because you blamed it; and all, my dear critic, beg leave to
remind you of their author's changeless admiration.

TO THE READER

Certain of the newspapers, when this book was first announced, made a
mistake most natural upon seeing the sub-title as it then stood, A TALE
OF SUNDRY ADVENTURES. "This sounds like a historical novel," said one
of them, meaning (I take it) a colonial romance. As it now stands, the
title will scarce lead to such interpretation; yet none the less is this
book historical--quite as much so as any colonial romance. Indeed,
when you look at the root of the matter, it is a colonial romance. For
Wyoming between 1874 and 1890 was a colony as wild as was Virginia one
hundred years earlier. As wild, with a scantier population, and the
same primitive joys and dangers. There were, to be sure, not so many
Chippendale settees.

We know quite well the common understanding of the term "historical
novel." HUGH WYNNE exactly fits it. But SILAS LAPHAM is a novel as
perfectly historical as is Hugh Wynne, for it pictures an era and
personifies a type. It matters not that in the one we find George
Washington and in the other none save imaginary figures; else THE
SCARLET LETTER were not historical. Nor does it matter that Dr. Mitchell
did not live in the time of which he wrote, while Mr. Howells saw
many Silas Laphams with his own eyes; else UNCLE TOM'S CABIN were
not historical. Any narrative which presents faithfully a day and a
generation is of necessity historical; and this one presents Wyoming
between 1874 and 1890. Had you left New York or San Francisco at ten
o'clock this morning, by noon the day after to-morrow you