My Antonia

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It seems almost sacrilege to infringe upon a book as soulful and rich as Willa Cather's My Ántonia by offering comment. First published in 1918, and set in Nebraska in the late 19th century, this tale of the spirited daughter of a Bohemian immigrant family planning to farm on the untamed land ("not a country at all but the material out of which countries are made") comes to us through the romantic eyes of Jim Burden. He is, at the time of their meeting, newly orphaned and arriving at his grandparents' neighboring farm on the same night her family strikes out to make good in their new country. Jim chooses the opening words of his recollections deliberately: "I first heard of Ántonia on what seemed to be an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America," and it seems almost certain that readers of Cather's masterpiece will just as easily pinpoint the first time they heard of Ántonia and her world. It seems equally certain that they, too, will remember that moment as one of great light in an otherwise unremarkable trip through the world.

Ántonia, who, even as a grown woman somewhat downtrodden by circumstance and hard work, "had not lost the fire of life," lies at the center of almost every human condition that Cather's novel effortlessly untangles. She represents immigrant struggles with a foreign land and tongue, the restraints on women of the time (with which Cather was very much concerned), the more general desires for love, family, and companionship, and the great capacity for forbearance that marked the earliest settlers on the frontier.

As if all this humanity weren't enough, Cather paints her descriptions of the vastness of nature--the high, red grass, the road that "ran about like a wild thing," the endless wind on the plains--with strokes so vivid as to make us feel in our bones that we've just come in from a walk on that very terrain ourselves. As the story progresses, Jim goes off to the University in Lincoln to study Latin (later moving on to Harvard and eventually staying put on the East Coast in another neat encompassing of a stage in America's development) and learns Virgil's phrase "Optima dies ... prima fugit" that Cather uses as the novel's epigraph. "The best days are the first to flee"--this could be said equally of childhood and the earliest hours of this country in which the open land, much like My Ántonia, was nothing short of a rhapsody in prairie sky blue. --Melanie Rehak

Book Description

In Willa Cather's own estimation, My Antonia, first published in 1918, was "the best thing I've ever done." An enduring paperback bestseller on Houghton Mifflin's literary list, this hauntingly eloquent classic now boasts a new foreword by Kathleen Norris, Cather's soulmate of the plains. Infused with a gracious passion for the land, My Antonia embraces its uncommon subject - the hardscrabble life of the pioneer woman on the prairie - with poetic certitude, rendering a deeply moving portrait of an entire community. Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland with all its insistent bonds. Guiding the way are some of literature's most beguiling characters: the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride, Antonia's desperately homesick father and self-indulgent mother, and the coy Lena Lingard. Holding the pastoral society's heart, of course, is the bewitching, free-spirited Antonia Shimerda.

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In this powerful and astonishing novel, Willa Cather created one of the most winning yet thoroughly convincing heroines in American fiction. Antonia Shimerda, the daughter of Bohemian immigrants, not only survives her father's suicide, poverty, and a failed romance, she triumphs with high spirits.

Customer Reviews:

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep. .......2007-04-27

I had to read this book for a school project and didn't want to read it at first. It didn't have an eye catching cover and seemed dull. As I started reading it though I found myself slowly pulled in and I couldn't stop. When trying to describe My Antonia, I find myself at a lost of words. Never have I read a book as beautiful as My Antonia.
Willa Cather has the amazing ability to make words float of the page and appear right before your eyes. Every landscape, every scent, every feeling created by her, and every character is tangible. When reading this book I felt as if I had been drawn into the scene. I could smell the fresh prairie grass, hear the voices all around me, and feel the prairie beneath me. As I lived every page I became a part of the book, I became a part of every character I read. I felt the adrenaline rush they felt, and the emotions that ran through them. To make one feel so close to book is a true form of art.
If you haven't read this book I won't spoil it for you, but I strongly encourage you reading it. English has never been as beautifully used as in My Antonia.

Hauntingly Beautiful.......2007-04-24

I am not a reader of the classics. I started this book as an assignment for my English CRAW-Fiction class. Yet right from the start, I knew there was something magical about this book. I can hardly describe it in any adequate words. It breaks my hearts, I guess would be the only way I could think to put it. Willa Cather has a way with words that just pulls you right into the landscape, into the lives of the characters and makes you love them... truly, truly love them. The beauty of the English language has never been more brilliantly exemplify than it has been in My Antonia. The writing is so achingly beautiful that at one point I actually had tears in my eyes... especially the beginning and towards the end of the novel.

Jim Burden and Antonia pulls at your heart-strings. Their relationship is more romantic and more breath-taking than any I've ever encounter, in books or in real-life. There is something timeless and eternal about about their love for one another that makes you ache inside with an indescribable feeling of warmth and wonderment. Was there ever a love as great and as boundless as the love between Antonia and Jim Burden?

Yes, it is that good.
Buy it, read it.
This book is bound to touch a special place inside all those who reads it.

Leaves You Wondering!.......2007-04-16

I started "My Antonia" just to find out what this literary classic was about. I soon found myself captivated by a development of characters and their relationships.

The story is seen through the eyes of Jim Burton, who begins the story as a ten year old orphan traveling from his family home in Virginia to his grandparents' farm near Black Hawk, Nebraska. The other two primary characters in the book are Antonia Shimerda, a Bohemian immigrant four years older than Jim, and Lena Lingard, a similarly aged girl from the local Norwegian community. As the years and the book pass, we see the characters develop in different ways. During this their relationships change, but the reader's interest is held.

The ability of this book to captivate the reader in intriguing! It has no real crises, no particular tragedies, just developing personalities and relationships. Although the main characters change, they all seem to develop along self directed lines, with no winners or losers. At the end the reader rides off with Jim, possessing many of the same feelings as he expresses. One test I apply to a novel is whether it leaves me wondering. Wondering why the characters lives develop as they do, wondering if the characters are really satisfied with their lives, wondering whether they desire something that the others have, wondering what happens to them after the last page. I am still wondering about "My Antonia." Any book that can do that has earned its status as a classic.

Classical Allusions in My Antonia.......2007-02-11

My Antonia, by Willa Cather, was written in an extremely unusual and interesting way. The author portrays the two main characters, Jim and Antonia, as the classical allusion of the earth and the sky, but she does it in a very subtle way. For example, at the beginning of the book when Jim and Antonia are in the fields together, she is trying to figure out the English word for sky, and to communicate more clearly, points to Jim's eyes, which are blue as the sky is. Immediately after this happens, Antonia finds a dying cricket and nurtures it back to life by warming it in her hair. When she first picks the cricket up, there is immediate warmth that Antonia brings to it, and this feeling of warmth is repeated many times throughout the book. This experience also shows that Antonia is a natural born mother, like mother earth, and foreshadows the events that are to come later in the book. For example, when Jim visits the Cuzack's farm at the very end of the book and sees the children running up from the cellar [that is built within the earth] he is astonished. This experience symbolizes how these many children came from Antonia, the earth. Lastly, the earth and sky analogy is represented in the fact that Antonia and Jim can never be together. They, like the earth and the sky, must always be separate although they together make something whole. Clearly, the classical allusion portrayed in My Antonia is really what makes this book so amazing.

A Different Novel.......2007-02-02

My Antonia is most definitely a different type of novel. My whole A.L.A. class had to read it, and about half of the people said that they liked it and the other half despised it. It is not a novel that you read for fun and enjoyment, you have to have a reason to read it or else you would most likely put it down mid-way through the book.
The story is about two kids, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda. Jim is a white boy who has grown-up in America and Antonia is an immigrant girl who has just come with her family to farm. The first part is about them growing up (to teens) on their farms and all the good times then hardships that they have together or on their own. The second part is about when Jim and his grandparents move into town and invite Antonia down to help keep house for his neighbor. There, in town, more obstacles occur and several new characters appear, such as Lena Lingard. In the third part of the book it is about all of the "hired girls" in the town such as Antonia and Lena, who have come from other countries. The fourth part shows about Jim in college in a bigger town where Lena and he are very close friends. Then the last part is about Jim when he is graduated and teaching and Antonia when she has an enormous family on the farm.
Even though a some times this book could be interesting, there is nothing exciting to look forward to, no real climax. It is more so a biography in my world than it is a novel. But give it a try and maybe you will find out that it works for your taste in books.

Cooking with My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes, from Bari to Big Stone Gap

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Cooking with My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes
I feel like I'm with my family
You feel like one of the sisters!
Cooking With My Sisters
If you're expecting a cook book, you will not be pleased

Cooking with My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes, from Bari to Big Stone Gap
Adriana Trigiani , Mary Trigiani , Lucia Anna Trigiani , Antonia Trigiani , and Francesca Trigiani
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Essays | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0812974824
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Book Description

For the Trigianis, cooking has always been a family affair–and the kitchen was the bustling center of their home, where folks gathered around the table for good food, good conversation, and the occasional eruption. Example: Being thrown out of the kitchen because one’s Easter bread kneading technique isn’t up to par. As Adriana says: “When the Trigianis reach out and touch someone, we do it with food.” Like the recipes that have been handed down for generations from mother to daughter and grandmother to granddaughter, the family’s celebrations are also anchored to the life and laughter around the table. We learn how Grandmom Yolanda Trigiani sometimes wrote her recipes in code, or worked from memory, guarding her recipes carefully. And we meet Grandma Lucia Bonicelli, who never raised her voice and believed that when people fight at the dinner table, the food turns to poison in the body.

Adriana Trigiani’s voice springs to life from the first page of Cooking with My Sisters, a collection of beloved family recipes that the Trigianis have been enjoying for generations. But there’s much more here than just the food. Peppered with hilarious family anecdotes, poignant letters, and exquisite color photographs, Cooking with My Sisters draws us into the warm and witty world of the Trigiani clan. Each recipe has a story behind it, and each chapter has tips from different sisters, reflecting the unique personalities of the latest generation of Trigiani women.

Here are mainstay meals, featured in sections such as “The Big Life” and “The Big Wow,” which include the chapters “Pasta, or as We Called It, Maccheroni” and “Food We Hated as Kids but Love to Serve Now.” Accessible to any cook, the recipes range from Chicken and Polenta, Zizi Mary’s Rice Soup, and Gnocchi to favorite desserts like Grandmom’s Buttermilk Cake–and all the delectable dishes are geared toward bringing your family together.

Written with Adriana Trigiani’s trademark humor and verve, this wonderful book will appeal to anyone who values the bonds that food, community, and cultural tradition can provide.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Cooking with My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes.......2007-01-10

Before I even tried the recipes I read the narrative part of the book and enjoyed all of the family pictures. I felt I got to know the author's whole family. I noted similarities in some of my mom's recipes (Sicilian) and some of my Grandmother's (Abruzza) recipes. I marked the recipes that I want to try. My daughters and I share cooking together as part of our close family relationship so I related well to this book. Not only is it a good recipe book but it is also a good read.

I feel like I'm with my family.......2006-10-02

I come from a close knit Italian family. I am third generation but all of my Grandparents and their friends are immigrants. It was soooooo much fun reading this book because it reminded me of my family and the food and the love and the fun. As I was browsing through it again last night I went to sleep with the thought that I had been truly blessed to have been raised this way as I am sure Adrianna feels as well. I would love to meet them all. Oh and by the way the recipes are SUBERB as well.

You feel like one of the sisters!.......2006-04-28

I married into an Italian-American family. This book describes the complexities and joys of being Italian-American and the little quirks are hilarious. It's a joy to read and the recipies are wonderful.....easy to follow, ingredients you usually have available and after trying a few recipes will even impress your Italian mother in law! Also, LOVED the photos and letters from 'grand-mom'.

Another winner from Adriana Trigiani!

Cooking With My Sisters.......2005-10-11

I come from a not very close small family. I always enjoy reading about adult siblings that are still close. I have four children and now that they are in their thirties, they are getting closer and family get togethers are more fun. I enjoyed the recipes and especially the tips. I love Adrianna Trigiani and her books and now I feel a little more insightful about her writing. Makes me want to do some Italian cooking with my own brood.

If you're expecting a cook book, you will not be pleased.......2004-11-16

I purchased this book because of a segment I watched on NBC's weekend morning show. The author spoke of her book and demonstrated a recipe or two. I though it would be a nice addition to my cookbook collection, however I was extremely disappointed.
This book is overloaded with stories and family photos rather than recipes and photos of the prepared dishes.

Coming from an Italian family I can tell you that the recipes in this book are a bit bland. I was disappointed to read the recipe for tomato sauce, calling for garlic powder as opposed to fresh, crushed garlic!

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The Woman Who Won The West
Enriched version helpful
Antonia -- the Original Ivory Soap Girl [51][94]
Excellent supplementary material
wonderful

My Antonia (Enriched Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0743487699

Book Description

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED
BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

The moving portrait of an orphan boy and immigrant girl who find hardship -- and love -- on the American prairie.

EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information

• A chronology of the author's life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

Customer Reviews:

The Woman Who Won The West.......2007-10-07

The trappers and the Mountain Men grew old. Carson stayed on but most went east. The wagon trains moved on to California and Oregon. Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp ended their days near New York City. Antonia stayed. Not many others did.
Lied to by land agents, often speaking no English and ignorant of farming, they found themselves on plains and prairies whose very extent is frightening, and at the mercy of constant wind, blizzard, drought, hail, prairie fire, locusts ... the list goes on and on. Five minutes of hail might wipe out a crop ready for harvest. Rain is too much or too little, and never at the right time. In blizzards, men and women have gotten lost and frozen to death between the house and the barn; and the roads may not open for weeks. Railroad rates were exorbitant and the local banks - themselves struggling to survive - ever ready to foreclose.
Antonia would have seen the wagons rolling East: "In God We Trusted. In Nebraska we busted."
Few of her descendants stayed on. Like Cather herself and Jim Burden, the lure of the outside world, the city, was strong. There were often too many kids to leave each enough land to live on. One hundred - twenty, one hundred - fifty years later, a few of the old names survive. One is Pavelka. Antonia Shimerda is the real person, Annie Pavelka. We leave her in 1914, but she lived well into the 1950s and is buried near Red Cloud, Nebrasks. Her stone is a monument to that tough, stubborn breed who turned the Great American Desert into the breadbasket of the world.
Read about her. You'll take her to your heart.

Enriched version helpful.......2007-09-27

This edition was quite helpful to read before leading a book discussion group. The glossary, notes and suggestions for discussion did enrich the experience for high school students reading the Cather novel. This book is a good value. Note: Cather fans should check out the University of Nebraska archives of her letters and photos to further enrich their experience.

Antonia -- the Original Ivory Soap Girl [51][94].......2007-09-01

Fresh as a country day - that describes the topic and writing style of Willa Cather's "My Antonia." Antonia herself is the "country girl", the original Ivory Soap Girl. Beautiful without adornment. A great mother. A great friend.

In chapter one, you meet youngsters and get to know something about their past - most importantly the orphaned past of Jim Burden and his immigrant friend Antonia.

In chapter 2, many of the country kids move to the town, where their impressionable minds grow, and see them learn about many things which will shape and contour their respective futures.

Chapters 3-5 depict their adult years and how these once-simple kids lead divergent and not simple adulthoods. One succeeds in business, another goes to Harvard, a third goes to Alaska and makes a fortune, another stays in the area and another joins the successful business person. Some age with shame, but most without.

Like vanilla ice cream -- simple and overwhelmingly alluring -- the glorious and soothing writing style of Cather makes you turn page by page of the simple story of simple life involving not-so-simple life stories. And, being someone from the midwest, this story maybe resonates more to me than it would to others.

Her descriptions of winter, summer, winds, work on the farm . . . clearly and accurately depict the truth - so much so that many memories were aroused when reading this book.

If you ever lived in a small town in the midwest, there was an Antonia, there was a Jim - there was a character who you knew who was so much like the characters she knew or created. Empathy for them and the town abound.

Tears may come to you when you read the final chapter when Burden and Antonia reunite after a 20-year absence.

This book and "O Pioneers" create strong matriarchs on the farms in the midwest; this book and "O Pioneers" are deservingly proclaimed classics.

Excellent supplementary material.......2006-11-09

The writing is art. This a classic, so anything I want to say has already been said, and probably with more eloquence. I do want to recommend this edition of the book for its excellent supplementary material: biography, historical timeline, discussion questions, and detailed notes.

wonderful.......2006-11-03

An excellent book for any age. I didn't read this book and that's a shame. It's a colorful, well-written account of prairie life during westward expansion.

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A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC...

My Antonia (Oxford World's Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019283200X

Book Description

'As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains...And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.' My Antonia (1918) depicts the pioneering period of European settlement on the tall-grass prairie of the American midwest, with its beautiful yet terrifying landscape, rich ethnic mix of immigrants and native-born Americans, and communities who share life's joys and sorrows. Jim Burden recounts his memories of Antonia Shimerda, whose family settle in Nebraska from Bohemia. Together they share childhoods spent in a new world. Jim leaves the prairie for college and a career in the east, while Antonia devotes herself to her large family and productive farm. Her story is that of the land itself, a moving portrait of endurance and strength. Described on publication as 'one of the best [novels] that any American has ever done', My Antonia paradoxically took Cather out of the rank of provincial novelists as the same time that it celebrated the provinces, and mythologized a period of American history that had to be lost before its value could be understood.

Customer Reviews:

A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC..........2006-10-12

I first read this book when I was in junior high school. I admit that, at the time, I did not appreciate the strengths of the book and the quality of its writing. I am quite glad that I decided to give it another chance, as, having re-read it, I now understand why it is considered to be a classic in literature. It is simply a beautifully written book, covering many of the themes that one stumbles across in life and coalescing them into a work of extraordinary breadth.

The book is the story of two young people, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda. They meet for the first time when Jim is ten years old and Antonia is fourteen. Recently orphaned, Jim has moved to the Great Prairie to live with his grandparents in Nebraska. Antonia, on the other hand, has been wrenched from her homeland in Bohemia, emigrating with her parents to the United States and finding herself in Nebraska. Jim and Antonia's chance encounter on a train sets the stage for the forging of a friendship and unconditional love that time will not diminish.

The book relates the harshness of immigrant life through the eyes of Jim, who narrates the events contained in the book. There is a relentless stoicism about the book, which is written in spare, clear prose. With intense imagery and descriptive exactitude, late nineteenth century Nebraska comes to life. It also relates the paths that each of the characters choose to follow, as well as the vicissitudes of life that mold and shape them in ways that no one would have imagined.

The focus of the book, which is also a coming of age tale, seems to be on the female characters and their strengths. All the women in it seem to be survivors, despite the hardships that they encounter. This is, without a doubt, a life affirming book, wrought with great feeling and a decided sense of time and place. Yet, despite its poignancy, the book is surprisingly unsentimental and straightforward. It is a testament to the author's literary talent that this book has emerged as a timeless classic. Bravo!

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A Timeless Classic!
A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC...

My Antonia (Signet Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451529723

Book Description

Lush descriptions of the rolling Nebraska grasslands interweave with the blossoming of a woman in the early days of the twentieth century, in an epic novel that chronicles America's past.

Customer Reviews:

A Timeless Classic!.......2007-03-27

I concur with the wonderful review written by Lawyeraau (see below) this novel is truly one of the treasures of American literature. I can't recommend this one enough. Willa Cather spins a tale of such beauty and charm about friendship and unconditional love between the two main characters in the novel - Antonia Shimerda and Jim Burden. It is a coming of age tale that focuses on the positive aspects of the human condition. All of the characters suffer loss, and incredible hardships at times. Yet, unconditional love and the friendships they form with each other save the day and win out in the end. The bottom line, we need more stories like this one! Novels that focus on the positive, rather than the negative. This is a charming little story that really has a great message as well. That friendship and love really does conquer all. After you are done with the story, you can't help but feel a bit saddened that it is over. It is such a great book that it makes you almost wish that it never ended. Antonia is one of my favorite female fictional characters of all time.

Where have all the Willa Cathers of the world gone? The elegant and vivid way she writes makes this novel feel almost like one is reading a long epic poem. I also really adore the colorful way she uses words to describe the rough Nebraska terrain. Cather is simply one of our greatest American writers and this is one of her finest works. It is my personal favorite because of it's charm and eternal lesson of the value of friendship and the importance of unconditional love. This is one of those novels that truly does make you feel happy to be alive and helps to reaffirm ones belief in humanity.

A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC..........2005-08-22

Three Novels: O Pioneers!, the Song of the Lark, and My Antonia

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Three Novels: O Pioneers!, the Song of the Lark, and My Antonia
Willa Cather , and Maureen Howard
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786705981

Book Description

Complete in one volume, here are three of the most adored works by early 20th-century writer Willa Cather. O PIONEERS! (1913) tells embodies American heroism in one pioneer woman. THE SONG OF THE LARK (1915) plots a great Wagnerian soprano's journey toward her destiny. MY ANTONIA (1918), is the story of a strong farm woman who still affirms her passion for the land after her father's suicide and desertion by her lover.

My Ántonia (Classic Collection (Brilliance Audio))

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A TIMELESS CLASSIC

My Ántonia (Classic Collection (Brilliance Audio))
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1597371394
Release Date: 2005-06-25

Book Description

My Ántonia chronicles the life of Ántonia, a Bohemian immigrant woman, as seen through the eyes of Jim, the man unable to forget her. Jim, now a successful New York lawyer, recollects his upbringing on a Nebraska farm. Even after twenty years, Ántonia continues to live a romantic life in his imagination. When he returns to Nebraska, he finds Ántonia has lived a battered life. Although the man to whom she dedicated her life abandons her, she remains strong and full of courage.

Customer Reviews:

A TIMELESS CLASSIC.......2005-10-09

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Nebraska 5, settlers 0
A TIMELESS CLASSIC OUT OF AMERICA'S HEARTLAND
Skip the LONG introduction, and get into the book.

My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 1593080247

Book Description

“No romantic novel ever written in America . . . is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.” —H. L. Mencken

Widely recognized as Willa Cather’s greatest novel, My Ántonia is a soulful and rich portrait of a pioneer woman’s simple yet heroic life. The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia must adapt to a hard existence on the desolate prairies of the Midwest. Enduring childhood poverty, teenage seduction, and family tragedy, she eventually becomes a wife and mother on a Nebraska farm. A fictional record of how women helped forge the communities that formed a nation, My Ántonia is also a hauntingly eloquent celebration of the strength, courage, and spirit of America’s early pioneers.

Customer Reviews:

Nebraska 5, settlers 0.......2007-07-14

I had previously read "Death Comes to the Archbishop" by Willa Cather and was disappointed in this book. Although Ms. Cather's descriptive writing made the raw Nebraska farmland very real, the story line and the characters were, in my opinion, weak. I really didn't care too much what happened to any of them. The title character, Antonia, was especially disappointing. What made her such a delightful playmate? What about her was so special to the author? If she was so special, why didn't he form more of an adult relationship with her? There was nothing about the story's narrator to make him likeable or detestable. He was just a "good" kid who did what was expected of people in his social class, lacking the character to take action on his alleged love for Antonia. Again, the descriptive passages regarding the farmland and the hardships faced by the immigrants who came to Nebraska were excellent but, overall, I was disappointed in this classic.

A TIMELESS CLASSIC OUT OF AMERICA'S HEARTLAND.......2005-09-27

Skip the LONG introduction, and get into the book........2004-05-08

A 35 page introduction on one persons thoughts on this book is 35 too long. I loved this book. Willa Cather was a genius of her time. My Antonia is not only the story of the pioneers out west, but also of the immigrants who made it their home.

Average customer rating:

My Antonia
simple, subtle, sublime
Antonia, "who seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood."
A Boring off-topic book.
A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC...

My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1593082029

Book Description

“No romantic novel ever written in America . . . is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.” —H. L. Mencken

Customer Reviews:

My Antonia.......2007-09-20

Great timing...and the book was in great condition. Thanks for having a good product, what you see is what you get.

simple, subtle, sublime.......2006-07-15

reading cather's 'my ántonia' is like sitting under a shady tree on a hot summer's day with a glass of cool lemonade: not a life changing experience, but one that will be remembered with pleasure for years.

cather uses an interesting literary device: she begins in the first person writing to a childhood friend from nebraska, jim. they decide to tell each other their memories of ántonia, a bohemian (czech) immigrant who came into their lives early-on and was a profound presence. once jim starts, he realizes he can't stop. now a successful lawyer in new york (where cather is a writer), he excuses his clumsiness as a non-writer, and then completes the book.

the story is gentle and unexciting: the travails of denizens and immigrants in early nebraska on the farm, and then in town; the coming of age of an orphan who happens to be bright, humble and good (and damn righteous). the story is told so guilelessly that it's a shock compared to the tenor of today's rancor and brutality.

the joy comes from cather's writing: precise observation and wording, the lilting cadence of her phrasing, the beautiful and clear pictures she evokes of scenery and characters, and the unfamiliar, old fashioned words and expressions she uses.

there's a sweet sadness one feels as jim describes this wonderful young girl who becomes a remarkable woman living life to its fullest; who takes what comes vigorously and without complaint. this, in stark contrast to jim's going through his paces as he avails himself of the benefits of his class, race, and social status (i.e. education and avoiding the hard labor of a farm). cather is vague about whether jim actually loves ántonia (and maybe, in fact, it is she who was in love with her), and i believe this is her point: she's not writing about carnal love, but rather a profound platonic love that is comforting, stirring and compelling.

and this is what you're left with as you put down the book: thinking of those in your life whom you love deeply and have had a strong impact - or those you might have had that role if the complexities of sex (and reality) didn't interfere.

this book made it clear why cather is one of america's most beloved novelists.

nb, this edition uses british-english spelling, which is jarring considering the 'americanness' ( <--italics) of the author and subject.

Antonia, "who seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood." .......2005-10-11

In 1882, when author Willa Cather was nine years-old, her family left their home in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, and moved to Nebraska, near the settler country in Red Cloud where they farmed a homestead. Ms. Cather, often thought of as a chronicler of the pioneer American West, frequently drew on her memories of prairie culture and her own personal experiences. She wrote about the themes closest to her heart. Of primary importance was the drama of the immigrant struggling to survive in a new world, epitomized here in "My Antonia." In this extraordinary novel, Miss Cather weaves together the story of Antonia Shimerda, an immigrant girl from Bohemia who represents the optimism, determination and pure grit that newcomers to America needed to make a successful life, and that of American-born Jim Burden, our narrator.

Burden, a successful and cultured East-coast lawyer, is returning to his childhood home in Blackhawk, Nebraska for a visit. On the long train ride, he reminisces with an unnamed friend about the place where they had both grown up and about the people they knew - especially their dear friend Antonia, "who seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood."

When young Jim Burden was orphaned at age ten, he left his native Virginia to live with his grandparents on their farm, just outside of Blackhawk. At almost the same time that Jim arrived, the Shimerda family settled on their land. Mrs. Shimerda had argued effectively for a move to America so that the children, especially Ambrosch, the eldest son, would have the chance to make a better life for themselves, with more possibilities of moving up in the social hierarchy and of acquiring wealth. The Bohemian newcomers were the Burden's closest neighbors. Fourteen year-old Antonia Shimerda, the eldest daughter became a close friend of Jim's. He was immediately drawn to her warmth and friendliness. When Antonia's father, a sensitive, refined man, discovered that Jim was educated he asked the boy to teach his daughter to speak English. "Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my Án-tonia!" he told/asked Mrs. Burden. Together the two young people worked the land and explored the glorious prairie. And Antonia began to learn English.

Unfortunately, Antonia's studies came to an end with her father's tragic suicide. The man missed his native land terribly and was not able to accept his family's extreme poverty or the demands of his wife and son. When he lost his only friends, he sunk into a deep depression from which he was not able to escape. After Mr. Shimerda's death, Antonia had to work even harder, performing the heaviest, most physically demanding chores, just to keep the farm from going under. She was not able to go to school with Jim, and began to slowly lose the refined ways she had learned from her dad.

The author describes Antonia's life as Jim perceives it, and from information he gathers from others about the long periods when he did not have contact with her. Their widely different positions in society dictated their life choices and their fortunes. And their lives, their personal histories, parallel the changes and the transformation of the Great Plains. When Antonia and Jim explored the Nebraskan wilderness, it was a wilderness as far as the eye could see. "There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made. No, there was nothing but land--slightly undulating..." And, "I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man's jurisdiction. I had never before looked up at the sky when there was not a familiar mountain ridge against it. But this was the complete dome of heaven, all there was of it." When Jim makes his return trip by train, years later, everything had changed.

Willa Cather's prose is straightforward, the narrative is deceptively simple and crystal clear. Her characters are complex and the wonderful, richly textured descriptions of the landscape and life on the plains make reading the novel pure pleasure. The author also captures the interior landscape of her characters with great perception and sensitivity. This is a great work of fiction which depicts a people, and a place in time, which only remain on the pages of a book, preserved vividly by Willa Cather.

This Barnes and Nobel Classic Edition provides an Introduction and Notes by Gordon Tapper, author and Assistant Professor of English at De Pauw University, as well as a biography of Willa Cather, and a chronology of her life and work; a timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context; an outline of key themes and plot points; and discussion questions ideal for book club conversations.

H.L. Mencken wrote, "No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as 'My Antonia.'"
JANA

A Boring off-topic book........2005-07-17

First of all, the book Is about a boy named jim and a girl named Antonia. Short and simple, its off topic, barelly mentions antonia, and describes the same details over and over and over makeing it long and repetitive. If you like romance novels, you might like it, but just to let you know, the only reason i even picked up the book was for a school class.

A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC..........2004-12-28

I first read this book when I was in junior high school. I admit that, at the time, I did not appreciate the strengths of the book and the quality of its writing. I am quite glad that I decided to give it another chance, as I now understand why it is considered to be a classic in literature. It is simply a beautifully written book, covering many of the themes that one stumbles across in life and coalescing them into a work of extraordinary breadth.

The book is the story of two young people, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda. They meet for the first time when Jim is ten years old and Antonia is fourteen. Recently orphaned, Jim has moved to the Great Prairie to live with his grandparents in Nebraska. Antonia, on the other hand, has been wrenched from her homeland in Bohemia, emigrating with her parents to the United States and finding herself in Nebraska. Jim and Antonia's chance encounter on a train sets the stage for the forging of a friendship and unconditional love that time will not diminish.

The book relates the harshness of immigrant life through the eyes of Jim, who narrates the events contained in the book. There is a relentless stoicism about the book, which is written in spare, clear prose. With intense imagery and descriptive exactitude, late nineteenth century Nebraska comes to life. It also relates the paths that each of the characters choose to follow, as well as the vicissitudes of life that mold and shape them in ways that no one would have imagined.

The focus of the book, which is also a coming of age tale, seems to be on the female characters and their strengths. Consequently, the book has a faintly feminist undercurrent to it, as all the women in it seem to be survivors, despite the hardships that they encounter. This is, without a doubt, a life affirming book, wrought with great feeling and a decided sense of time and place. Yet, despite its poignancy, the book is surprisingly unsentimental and straightforward. It is a testament to the author's literary talent that this book has emerged as a timeless classic. Bravo!

New Essays on My Ántonia (The American Novel)

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My Antonia

New Essays on My Ántonia (The American Novel)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0521459052

Book Description

My Ántonia is the Cather novel that is most often taught in high school and college courses, and the one that most readers try first when they approach Cather. It is at once her most autobiographical novel and her most aesthetically complex; it can be enjoyed both for its simple, pure prose and for its literary depth. The essays in this volume place the novel in the context of American literary history, African-American music, and Southern writing, and offer illuminating ways of reading Cather's best-known work.

Customer Reviews:

My Antonia.......2001-09-01

My Antonia, was very interesting to me and would be a book
that I would recommend to others. I believe there are many different ways to analyze the actual meaning in this book.

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