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Calamity Jane? Austen and Owen Wister's The Virginian.(Jane Austen)

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From: Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal
Date: 20050101
Author:Francus, Marilyn

BEFORE KIPLING BROUGHT JANE AUSTEN into the trenches of World War I, Owen Wister took her to the American West in his novel The Virginian (1902). Wister's novel was astonishingly popular, topping the bestseller lists in 1902 and 1903. (1) As an archetypal Western novel, The Virginian casts a long shadow over American culture, as the figures of the strong, laconic cowboy and the virginal schoolmarm (and their doubles, the villainous cattle rustler and the lady of pleasure) meet in a land of opportunity, violence, and romance. While Austen represents the European (and arguably the ...