Voice in the novel The Virginian

I've been studying math the past few weeks, so my reading has slowed considerably. In fact, I have not finished The Virginian yet. And that is what I want to talk about--The Virginian.

The story is told in the first person, yet the narrative turns to omniscient somewhere along the way. The narrator talks about things he could never have witnessed. He even gets inside the heads of several characters during those episodes in which he is absent.

I wonder if that writing faux pas will be reconciled by the end of the novel. If it isn't, then my hat is off to Owen Wister, the author, for pulling it off.

Damn, The Virginian is another one of those books that makes me wish I could write.