The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (Classic Reprint)

CERTAIN of the newspapers, vhen this book
Vias first announced, made a mistake most natural
upon seeing the sub-title as it then stood, A
Tale 0/ Sundry Adventures. "This sounds like
a historical novel," said one of them, meaning (I
take it) a colonial romance. As it no,v stands,
the title will scarce lead to stich 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 W yorning 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 pritnitive joys and
dangers. There were, to be sure, not so many
Chippendale settees.
'vVe know quite well the common understanding
of the tern1 "historical nove1." Hugh Wy1zne
exactly fits it. But S£las Laphanz is a novel as
perfectly historical as is Hugh WY1Zne, for it
pictures an era and personifies a type. It matters
not t

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS; J ENTER THE MAN ; II "WHEN YOU SAY THAT, SMILE!" •; Ill STEVE TREATS; IV DEEP INTO CATTLE LAND; V ENTER THE VOMA~; VI EM'LY; VII THROUGH '[VO SNOWS •; V III THE SINCERE SPI~STER; IX THE SPINSTER MEETS THE UNKNOWN •; X WHERE FANCY WAS BRED; XI "YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE ME BEFORE WE GET; THROUGH" ; XII QUALITY AND EQUALITY; XIII THE GAME AND THE NATION - ACT FIRST • ·; XIV BETWEEN THE ACTS ·; XV THE GAME AND THE NATION - ACT SECOND; XVI THE GM[E AND THE NATION- LAST ACT ; XVII SCIPIO MORALrZES ·; XVIII "WOULD YOU BE A PARSON?"; ,; ·; XIX DR MACBRIDE :BEGS PARDON ·; XX THE JUDGE IGNORES PARTICULARS ·; XXI IK A STATE OF SIN