My Antonia

Wonderful book even on the 2nd go round. I thoroughly enjoyed the turn of phrase and descriptions of the terrain and seasons. Great characters too!

"My Antonia" is part of my [reading required list from High School] which comprises 48 books in total. It’s the first book of the list I read officially, starting the countdown. This novel is the last of the Great Plains Trilogy. "My Antonia" is a beautiful novel celebrating the gift of everlasting friendship. The main character, Jim Burden, shares his childhood upbringing with his grandparents in Nebraska, at the beginning of the 20th Century. There he meets, the Shimerdas, a Bohemian immigrant family. Jim became best friends with their daughter, Antonia. Jim’s account is special because we witness his genuine and compassionate approach to the European immigrants and his attachment to the land. Through the description of his surroundings, we witness how Jim identifies wholeheartedly to the country lifestyle. How much it contributes to his well being: "I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 12). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition. One of my favorite description of the land marked a definite moment when he encounters Antonia and her family, later on in life, thus embellishing this experience. For an instant, it reminded me of the famous scene of Gone with the Wind where Scarlett stand on top of the mountain and promised to never go hungry in her life. "For five, perhaps ten minutes, the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting on opposite edges of the world. In that singular light every little tree and shock of wheat, every sunflower stalk and clump of snow-on-the-mountain, drew itself up high and pointed; the very clods and furrows in the fields seemed to stand up sharply. I felt the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of those fields at nightfall. I wished I could be a little boy again, and that my way could end there." Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 152). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition. Apart from this friendship admiration, Jim describes the prejudices of the community towards the European immigrants. The well known, established American families were repulsive in letting their son marry one of these girls. They were stained with bad reputation and were called “Hired Girls”. "What did it matter? All foreigners were ignorant people who could n’t speak English. There was not a man in Black Hawk who had the intelligence or cultivation, much less the personal distinction, of Ántonia’s father. Yet people saw no difference between her and the three Marys; they were all Bohemians, all “hired girls.”" Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 98). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition. I think this was one of the major impediment on Jim and Antonia relationship. Thus contributing to never surpass the status of friendship. We feel Jim’s nostalgia, all along, for what could’ve been. One feels Jim’s regret, sadness and loneliness. Thus, accepting his fate by holding on to their everlasting friendship. "I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister — anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.”" Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 152). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition. Having read this novel, I must admit that I may not have appreciated its beauty back in High School. I think I would have found it boring and slow paced. Now that I am more patient and open-minded, I was able to enjoy the storyline and the beautiful narration of the prairie lifestyle. It’s weird to say this but I am glad I read it at this moment and not before. I listened to the audio companion narrated by Jeff Cummings. I was not impressed. It was ok. [Message of the novel:] "Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again." Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 155). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition. Great Plains Trilogy: 1. "Oh Pioneers!" 2. "The Song of the Lark" 3. "My Antonia"

"My Antonia" is a very lovely novel authored by Willa Cather. It is about farm and town life in Nebraska near the end of the Nineteenth Century. The story is told through a male narrator and Antonia is a central figure throughout. Willa Cather made me love both this title character and the novel. I have been reading Willa Cather novels in chronological order. This is the third of the so call Prairie Trilogy. I have found that these stories are not depended on each other and each can be read independently. I did enjoy all of them very much and am glad to have read all of them. I would say this is my favorite, however I liked all of them, and also particularly enjoyed "The Song Of The Lark". "The Song Of The Lark" is set in Colorado and the characters are different. It is markedly lengthier than "My Antonia". I read this particular novel while at the same time listening to an audiobook narrated by Jeff Cummings. Antonia and others are native Europeans. Mr. Cummings was excellent and used accents that really added to my enjoyment of the reading experience. I feel I have a mediocre inner narrator and a professional narrator often adds to my personal reading enjoyment. However, Miss Cather carefully paints portraits of scenery with words. When I arrive at such a point, I stop and carefully read the words at my own pace and take my time to picture the landscape. As a possible aside, I would like to mention that Willa Cather also authored one of the most poignant short stories that I have ever read. It is "Paul's Case". It is a short story, but it is not brief. It is set in Pittsburgh. Thank You.

I grew up in Nebraska and attended Willa Cather Elementary school, so I have always wanted to read a book by Willa Cather. As I am slowly making my way through Moderns Library's 100 Best Novels, I found My Antonia on the list and decided to read it. The story is told by the character Jim Burden, who moved from Virginia to live with his grandparents in a small farm community in Nebraska. During that time period, migrants were coming to the area to farm the land. At the beginning of the story we meet Antonia, who is the young daughter of a Bohemian family and throughout the story the reader watches Antonia grow up and experience hardships of a migrant girl. Although the story is primarily about Antonia, there are other important characters and storylines. One of the major themes in the book is how the group of poor migrant girls in this community, working as farmhands, nannies and maids, grow up and where their paths lead each of them in life based on the choices they made in their late teens/early twenties. Antonia is a sweet, hardworking girl, loved by all, and her fate is not what others expected of her. Yet, in the end, Antonia is where she wants to be. There is a part at the end that I found very beautiful, when the narrator describes Antonia's appearance as an older woman: "I know so many women who have kept all the things she had lost, but whose inner glow has faded. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of her life. Her skin, so brown and hardened, had not that look of flabbiness, as if the sap beneath it had been secretly drawn away." Willa Cather was known for her writing about frontier life and descriptive portraits of the Nebraska landscape. It is also very interesting to read this book, 100 years after it was written, to understand the history of some of the farming community in the Great Plains.

My Ántonia by Willa Cather had me longing for the innocence of childhood— the happy nonchalance towards harsh circumstances that can only be the preserve of children and the naiveté of their conviction in the wonders of the future. Cather begins her masterpiece with a train journey during which two friends who chance upon each other converse about their mutual friend, Ántonia Shimerda, whom they both remember fondly. One of them entreats the other, a man named Jim Burden, to write about her and what follows is the story of this Bohemian girl and her immigrant family living in Nebraska, America. There’s not much I’d like to say about the plot but I do want to share what made me adore this beloved classic. The book takes a close look at the hardships faced by immigrant families in foreign lands. The problems of not knowing the native language, the constant sense of being ill-at-ease because of ‘looking different’ from the ‘original inhabitants,’ the urgency of adapting to harsh climatic conditions, sustaining on limited means, and above all an acute awareness of the wealth of your neighbours. Cather foregrounds these challenges with much eloquence and pathos. While reading the book, I was mesmerised by the friendship between Jim and Antonia. They were friends as children and the sweetness of their relationship remained invulnerable to time and distance. The fact that they loved each other was made more beautiful because that feeling wasn’t bound by a need for marriage. They continued to acknowledge what the other meant to them in front of their respective families even when they grew up. It’s rare to see such a relationship in books, let alone classics, and it warmed my heart to witness the splendour of friendship between a man and a woman without the underlying subtext of an obligation of matrimony. I think I picked up this book at the best possible time with its overarching theme of nostalgia for bygone times echoing our present-day yearning for a life that wouldn’t be so complicated and claustrophobic. My Ántonia’s wistful gaze at rustic lives, the glowing, sun-kissed prairies, the majestic farms, the canopy of trees, and the coexistence of humans and animals was a humbling reminder of there being a whole world that exists outside of us which desperately needs our attention.

Lively, engaging depiction of early pioneer and homesteading days in Nebraska. First rate character development. Highly recommended for its historical perspective.

Superbe !

Cather is sublime. Above all, her characters (here orphaned American boy Jim and Antonia, daughter of poor immigrant farmers) live on in the reader's mind and heart for ever. They are archetypes. Like the places visited in her books, from the prairies to the canyons, from New York to 17th-century Quebec, her characters come to life so naturally that they become unforgettable. The introduction to My Antonia, which, at just two or three pages, is actually a key part of the novel, is one of my favourite passages in all literature, and in this lovely Dover paperback you get a bit more of it than you do in other editions, where it is curtailed, reflecting a cut made to the passage by the author herself after publication - a rare misjudgement on her part. The relationship between the two central characters is also one of the loveliest relationships in literature. Cather and her characters have many qualities, one of which is strength, another lack of sentiment but great warmth. As a writer, Cather is economical but her prose is consistently fine. Her writing is a joy to read, and it is no exaggeration to call her great. What she has to say and how she says it are inseparable, indispensable, enduringly fine. When you have discovered her, you will struggle to find her equal. Her short stories are as good as the novels. For the full-length books, start with Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Shadows on the Rock, Song of the Lark, and One of Ours - and somewhere among them dip into the Collected Stories (including the magnificent Neighbour Rosicky and Tom Outland's Story, later incorporated into another of the novels: The Professor's House). For me the early novels Alexander's Bridge and the later Sapphira and the Slave Girl are less good, but overall Cather is one of the finest writers in the English language.

Il libro è arrivato con qualche minima imperfezione in copertina. Questo libro racconta di un America ancora rurale e poco sviluppata, dal punto di vista di immigrati. Il protagonista, Jim Burden entrerà in contatto con una famiglia di boemi, la cui figlia maggior, Antonia giocherà un ruolo essenziale nella sua vita. Questo romanzo fu pubblicato nel 1918 come parte della "Praire Trilogy" che includeva "O, Pioneers" e "The song of the Lark" e si basa, in parte, su delle reminiscenze della stessa autrice. Consigliato!