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My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics)
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Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Author: Willa Cather
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Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Author: Willa Cather
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
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My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9781593082024
ISBN: 1593082029
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2005-08-01
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9781593082024
ISBN: 1593082029
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2005-08-01
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics
Editorial Review of My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics)
My 聲tonia, by Willa Cather, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
“No romantic novel ever written in America . . . is one half so beautiful as My 聲tonia.” —H. L. Mencken
Widely recognized as Willa Cather’s greatest novel, My 聲tonia is a soulful and rich portrait of a pioneer woman’s simple yet heroic life. The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, 聲tonia 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 聲tonia is also a hauntingly eloquent celebration of the strength, courage, and spirit of America’s early pioneers.
Gordon Tapper is Assistant Professor of English at DePauw University. He is the author of The Machine That Sings: Modernism, Hart Crane, and the Culture of the Body, from Routledge.
Customer Reviews of My Antonia (Barnes & Noble Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Nice idea, just didn't go anywhere
Review: I liked the idea of this novel, the characters and everything, but it was a dull read. I kept expecting there to be some sort of plot or climax but there wasn't any (that i could tell)! I needed a book for school and chose this, but there are definitely better reads out there.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races."
Review: Published in 1918, this novel, set on the plains of Nebraska, is as fresh and memorable today as it was when it was published, largely because author Willa Cather has chosen to emphasize her fascinating characters and setting, instead of creating a fast-paced plot. As children, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda arrive on the plains of Nebraska at the same time, he to live with his grandparents, and she and her family to try to carve out a new life for themselves after emigrating from Bohemia. Jim narrates the story, as he and Antonia discover that nature offers many opportunities for exploration and joy. Both children also help work their farms, however, and they also understand nature's harshness.
For Cather, who lived in Nebraska, life on the plains, seen through Jim and Antonia and their families, offers freedom and independence--the kind of sturdy self-reliance that enables children to build strong characters. Though her portrait of life on the farm is sometimes romantic (as seen, for example, with Jim's first Christmas celebration during a snowstorm when everyone is housebound), life is also full of danger and uncertainty, a price farmers are willing to pay to live close to the land and away from cities. Eventually, both Jim and Antonia leave the farm for better opportunities, she to work in Black Hawk, and Jim to attend Harvard. Their paths diverge and do not reconnect for twenty years.
Antonia, as Jim lovingly portrays her, is a character who throws herself into whatever she is doing, whether it is plowing or learning to cook. Her joyful embrace of whatever life offers is a testament to her spirit, which we see as characteristic of the strong, independent prairie women she represents. Jim, on the other hand, though professionally successful, is far more constrained, a man whose character may have been formed on the prairie but whose life has moved toward the hurly-burly of urban life. Antonia becomes Mother Nature or the Earth Mother, a woman surrounded by many children on the farm, while Jim, who works for the railroad and lives in the highly populated east, represents the growing industrialization of the country.
Throughout this warm and sensitive novel, Cather includes many symbols. When Jim, in the presence of Antonia, kills a gigantic snake, the Garden of Eden comes to mind. The seasons dominate the lives of the characters, and some of the saddest events occur in the depths of winter. Roads wind into and out of the farmland and are a sharp visual contrast to the railroad for which Jim eventually works. As Cather develops her characters and follows them for twenty-five years, the reader comes to know them and to understand their choices. A moving tribute to the pioneer spirit and to those, like Antonia, who helped settle the plains. Mary Whipple
The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)
Cather Novels & Stories 1905-1918: The Troll Garden, O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark, and My Antonia
Great Short Works of Willa Cather
Willa Cather: A Biography (Literary Greats)
O Pioneers! (Willa Cather Scholarly Edition)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: immigrants
Review: What struck me about the book was how vividly Cather captured the immigrant's struggle with the new land - their having to accept the beginning of a denial of a past that seems in the frozen wasteland of america to have been a better place. the third generation characters describing the immigrants see this from a distance and are judgmental, though they understand the harshness of the process and do their best to help the 'ignorant' along. for capturing this particular spirit of the american mind, this book gets a definite 5 stars.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: My Antonia
Review: Great timing...and the book was in great condition. Thanks for having a good product, what you see is what you get.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: simple, subtle, sublime
Review: reading cather's 'my 嫕tonia' 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 嫕tonia, 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 嫕tonia (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.
Review Summary: Nice idea, just didn't go anywhere
Review: I liked the idea of this novel, the characters and everything, but it was a dull read. I kept expecting there to be some sort of plot or climax but there wasn't any (that i could tell)! I needed a book for school and chose this, but there are definitely better reads out there.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races."
Review: Published in 1918, this novel, set on the plains of Nebraska, is as fresh and memorable today as it was when it was published, largely because author Willa Cather has chosen to emphasize her fascinating characters and setting, instead of creating a fast-paced plot. As children, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda arrive on the plains of Nebraska at the same time, he to live with his grandparents, and she and her family to try to carve out a new life for themselves after emigrating from Bohemia. Jim narrates the story, as he and Antonia discover that nature offers many opportunities for exploration and joy. Both children also help work their farms, however, and they also understand nature's harshness.
For Cather, who lived in Nebraska, life on the plains, seen through Jim and Antonia and their families, offers freedom and independence--the kind of sturdy self-reliance that enables children to build strong characters. Though her portrait of life on the farm is sometimes romantic (as seen, for example, with Jim's first Christmas celebration during a snowstorm when everyone is housebound), life is also full of danger and uncertainty, a price farmers are willing to pay to live close to the land and away from cities. Eventually, both Jim and Antonia leave the farm for better opportunities, she to work in Black Hawk, and Jim to attend Harvard. Their paths diverge and do not reconnect for twenty years.
Antonia, as Jim lovingly portrays her, is a character who throws herself into whatever she is doing, whether it is plowing or learning to cook. Her joyful embrace of whatever life offers is a testament to her spirit, which we see as characteristic of the strong, independent prairie women she represents. Jim, on the other hand, though professionally successful, is far more constrained, a man whose character may have been formed on the prairie but whose life has moved toward the hurly-burly of urban life. Antonia becomes Mother Nature or the Earth Mother, a woman surrounded by many children on the farm, while Jim, who works for the railroad and lives in the highly populated east, represents the growing industrialization of the country.
Throughout this warm and sensitive novel, Cather includes many symbols. When Jim, in the presence of Antonia, kills a gigantic snake, the Garden of Eden comes to mind. The seasons dominate the lives of the characters, and some of the saddest events occur in the depths of winter. Roads wind into and out of the farmland and are a sharp visual contrast to the railroad for which Jim eventually works. As Cather develops her characters and follows them for twenty-five years, the reader comes to know them and to understand their choices. A moving tribute to the pioneer spirit and to those, like Antonia, who helped settle the plains. Mary Whipple
The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)
Cather Novels & Stories 1905-1918: The Troll Garden, O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark, and My Antonia
Great Short Works of Willa Cather
Willa Cather: A Biography (Literary Greats)
O Pioneers! (Willa Cather Scholarly Edition)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: immigrants
Review: What struck me about the book was how vividly Cather captured the immigrant's struggle with the new land - their having to accept the beginning of a denial of a past that seems in the frozen wasteland of america to have been a better place. the third generation characters describing the immigrants see this from a distance and are judgmental, though they understand the harshness of the process and do their best to help the 'ignorant' along. for capturing this particular spirit of the american mind, this book gets a definite 5 stars.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: My Antonia
Review: Great timing...and the book was in great condition. Thanks for having a good product, what you see is what you get.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: simple, subtle, sublime
Review: reading cather's 'my 嫕tonia' 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 嫕tonia, 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 嫕tonia (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.