The Virginian (sometimes titled The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains) is a pioneering Wild West novel by the American author Owen Wister, published in 1902. The copyright has long since expired, and it is available on the Internet. The book was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt, a good friend of Owen Wister.

Plot summary

Ostensibly a love story, the novel really revolves around a fictionalized version of the Johnson County War in 1890s Wyoming. The real Johnson County War was a dispute between large ranchers and smaller operators over cattle theft. The novel takes the side of the large ranchers, and depicts the lynchings as frontier justice, meted out by the protagonist, who is a member of a natural aristocracy among men; this theme of the wilderness as a magnifying glass for humans' inherent qualities is also found in other fiction of the period, such as Tarzan of the Apes. In a central episode, the protagonist participates in the lynching of an admitted cattle thief, who had been his close friend. The lynching is represented as a necessary response to the government's corruption and lack of action, but the protagonist feels it to be a horrible duty. He is especially stricken by the bravery with which the thief faces his fate, and the heavy burden it places on his heart forms the emotional core of the story. The romance between the Virginian and the young eastern school teacher Miss Molly Wood is cleverly woven into the main plot.