Virginian

Written in 1902, Owen Wister's The Virginian is often seen as the progenitor of the Great American Western. Like the genre pieces that followed, The Virginian sets up a quest for justice and sets large cattle ranchers and smaller family businessmen. Frontier justice is meted out, often reluctantly, in lynchings carried out by the hero, the unnamed Virginian, who serves as the prototype for many western characters to follow -- a rugged man who speaks few words and lets his actions speak for themselves. The Virginian is a deeply moral man who tries to emulate God, seek out justice even when it is distasteful, and defend himself and his honor. His moral center is in place throughout the novel and he always tries to live out these virtues.

In Wister's idealized version of the West, where working on a cattle ranch apparently involves very little physical labor, the Virginian...
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