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Willa Cather: Early Novels & Stories
“Let your fiction grow out of the land beneath your feet.” Willa Cather’s remark describes her own reasons for re-creating in her works the Nebraska frontier of her youth. Set on the vast northern Great Plains, where the earth has only recently come beneath the plow, the stories and novels in this Library of America volume partake of an impressive physical space and a uniquely American ethnic. Panoramas of lonely prairie and open sky reflect the heroic aspirations and stoicism of her characters and the rebelliousness of their spirit.
The Troll Garden (1905) was Cather’s first book of fiction. It contains seven stories, including the justly famous “Paul’s Case,” a study of a young man who escapes the world of the ordinary and briefly tastes the life of romance. Also included is “The Sculptor’s Funeral,” about a world-famous young artist who remains without honor in his native town.
O Pioneers! (1913) is the story of a young Swedish-American girl, Alexandra Bergson, who is left to manage the homestead farm when her father dies. Although she must contend with the shiftlessness of two brothers and the brutal murder of a third, her instinctive identification with the forces of nature helps bring the land to abundant fruition, and she finds her own happiness in a kindred spirit—an engraver, gold prospector, and fellow dreamer.
In her lyrical novel The Song of the Lark (1915), Cather’s love of music and theater and her faith in the spiritual influence of the Western landscape find expression in the ardent and talented Thea Kronborg. Moving from Colorado to Chicago to the primitive Southwest, Thea finds her destiny not in romance, but as a great Wagnerian soprano in the Metropolitan Opera. Her success, and that of all Cather’s heroines, derives from what the author calls “the naïve, generous country that gave on its joyous force.”
A masterpiece at once austere and exuberant, historical and mythical, My Ántonia (1918) portrays a family of Bohemian emigrants on the Nebraska frontier. Despite the suicide of her father and the desertion of the father of her child, Ántonia Shimerda retains an unselfish nature that allows her to undergo years of drudgery and still affirm a courageous passion for life and motherhood—a dauntlessness intrinsically rooted in the awesome wonder of the prairie.
One of Ours, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1922, portrays the blighting effects of twentieth-century progress on a free spirit from the American frontier. Claude Wheeler, its hero, is an imaginative, restless young man who leaves his claustrophobic small town to become a soldier in France during World War I. The Old World shows him culture, art, generosity, and appreciation, and also the horror, waste, and tragedy of war.
The Troll Garden (1905) was Cather’s first book of fiction. It contains seven stories, including the justly famous “Paul’s Case,” a study of a young man who escapes the world of the ordinary and briefly tastes the life of romance. Also included is “The Sculptor’s Funeral,” about a world-famous young artist who remains without honor in his native town.
O Pioneers! (1913) is the story of a young Swedish-American girl, Alexandra Bergson, who is left to manage the homestead farm when her father dies. Although she must contend with the shiftlessness of two brothers and the brutal murder of a third, her instinctive identification with the forces of nature helps bring the land to abundant fruition, and she finds her own happiness in a kindred spirit—an engraver, gold prospector, and fellow dreamer.
In her lyrical novel The Song of the Lark (1915), Cather’s love of music and theater and her faith in the spiritual influence of the Western landscape find expression in the ardent and talented Thea Kronborg. Moving from Colorado to Chicago to the primitive Southwest, Thea finds her destiny not in romance, but as a great Wagnerian soprano in the Metropolitan Opera. Her success, and that of all Cather’s heroines, derives from what the author calls “the naïve, generous country that gave on its joyous force.”
A masterpiece at once austere and exuberant, historical and mythical, My Ántonia (1918) portrays a family of Bohemian emigrants on the Nebraska frontier. Despite the suicide of her father and the desertion of the father of her child, Ántonia Shimerda retains an unselfish nature that allows her to undergo years of drudgery and still affirm a courageous passion for life and motherhood—a dauntlessness intrinsically rooted in the awesome wonder of the prairie.
One of Ours, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1922, portrays the blighting effects of twentieth-century progress on a free spirit from the American frontier. Claude Wheeler, its hero, is an imaginative, restless young man who leaves his claustrophobic small town to become a soldier in France during World War I. The Old World shows him culture, art, generosity, and appreciation, and also the horror, waste, and tragedy of war.
1336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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384 people want to read
About the author
Willa Cather
885 books2,776 followersWilella Sibert Cather was born in Back Creek Valley (Gore), Virginia, in December 7, 1873.
She grew up in Virginia and Nebraska. She then attended the University of Nebraska, initially planning to become a physician, but after writing an article for the Nebraska State Journal, she became a regular contributor to this journal. Because of this, she changed her major and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English.
After graduation in 1894, she worked in Pittsburgh as writer for various publications and as a school teacher for approximately 13 years, thereafter moving to New York City for the remainder of her life.
Her novels on frontier life brought her to national recognition. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, 'One of Ours' (1922), set during World War I. She travelled widely and often spent summers in New Brunswick, Canada. In later life, she experienced much negative criticism for her conservative politics and became reclusive, burning some of her letters and personal papers, including her last manuscript.
She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. In 1944, Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments.
She died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 73 in New York City.
She grew up in Virginia and Nebraska. She then attended the University of Nebraska, initially planning to become a physician, but after writing an article for the Nebraska State Journal, she became a regular contributor to this journal. Because of this, she changed her major and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English.
After graduation in 1894, she worked in Pittsburgh as writer for various publications and as a school teacher for approximately 13 years, thereafter moving to New York City for the remainder of her life.
Her novels on frontier life brought her to national recognition. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, 'One of Ours' (1922), set during World War I. She travelled widely and often spent summers in New Brunswick, Canada. In later life, she experienced much negative criticism for her conservative politics and became reclusive, burning some of her letters and personal papers, including her last manuscript.
She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. In 1944, Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments.
She died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 73 in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 21, 2020
REVIEW OF: My Ántonia
This was my first Cather. Although only 215 pp., the novel is divided into five "Books," the first being the longest and the best. It is called "The Shimerdas," and it is about the arrival of a Bohemian family on the Nebraska plains. The eldest daughter of this family is the eponymous Ántonia Shimerdas.
Surprisingly, the novel is told from the 1st-person POV not of Ántonia, but of her neighbor Jim Burden. Tony, as she is called, only appears in about half of the book.
The first book reads like the kind of pioneer tale you'd so enjoy as a kid. It's what I imagine (having never read them or seen any of the TV episodes) the Little House on the Prairie books would be like, with its farming and hardships and family joys and letdowns and, of course, Mother Nature. Better still, Ántonia is not idealized. She's a good kid, but she doesn't lack for flaws.
After the first book's 90 pp., the rest play a decided second fiddle. Jim moves to the "big" (for Nebraska) town of Black Hawk, where we follow the lives of a few of the other farmer girls who moved to the not-so-big city. As they were bit players in the first book, it seems a bit of a letdown reading about them. Not until the 17-page fifth book do we return in earnest to Ántonia many years later. This was an enjoyable (albeit way too short) stretch, too.
So, combining the first and last of the five sections, you get a pretty good read with an author who is especially adept at description and nature writing. Four stars for Books 1 and 5. Two stars for the middle of the sandwich.
All in all, glad to meet you, Willa Cather!
This was my first Cather. Although only 215 pp., the novel is divided into five "Books," the first being the longest and the best. It is called "The Shimerdas," and it is about the arrival of a Bohemian family on the Nebraska plains. The eldest daughter of this family is the eponymous Ántonia Shimerdas.
Surprisingly, the novel is told from the 1st-person POV not of Ántonia, but of her neighbor Jim Burden. Tony, as she is called, only appears in about half of the book.
The first book reads like the kind of pioneer tale you'd so enjoy as a kid. It's what I imagine (having never read them or seen any of the TV episodes) the Little House on the Prairie books would be like, with its farming and hardships and family joys and letdowns and, of course, Mother Nature. Better still, Ántonia is not idealized. She's a good kid, but she doesn't lack for flaws.
After the first book's 90 pp., the rest play a decided second fiddle. Jim moves to the "big" (for Nebraska) town of Black Hawk, where we follow the lives of a few of the other farmer girls who moved to the not-so-big city. As they were bit players in the first book, it seems a bit of a letdown reading about them. Not until the 17-page fifth book do we return in earnest to Ántonia many years later. This was an enjoyable (albeit way too short) stretch, too.
So, combining the first and last of the five sections, you get a pretty good read with an author who is especially adept at description and nature writing. Four stars for Books 1 and 5. Two stars for the middle of the sandwich.
All in all, glad to meet you, Willa Cather!
December 5, 2017
Cather had an incredible gift for descriptive and expository writing. Her stories of the Great Plains—O Pioneers, My Antonia and the first half of Song of the Lark—are rightly considered the most accurate and humane statements of a bygone age. Her descriptions of the myriad of cultural influences in creating American identities is mostly overlooked in today's interpretations of the history of the American West.
Cather develops strong, sympathetic and thoroughly human characters. Jim Burden's account of his early life in My Antonia, his childhood friendship with an immigrant girl who shapes his life; Thea Kronborg, an opera singer born in the plains of Colorado who achieves worldwide fame lives the dreams of the many people who influenced her life in Song of the Lark; in O Pioneers, Alexandra Bergson's strength and stability builds a successful homestead while sacrificing her own independent future. Every character Cather creates is memorable.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel One of Ours follows Claude Wheeler as he enters adulthood and finally leaves Nebraska to join the American forces in World War I. It's a bit uneven, but the standards set by the first three novels in this collection are incredibly high.
The short story collection The Troll Garden and the second half of Song of the Lark are reminders of her cosmopolitan adulthood and her love and respect for artists of all types. This can be unsettling for readers who think of her as only a writer of the culture and history of the Great Plains. But, like Wallace Stegner, while her writing has strong geographical and cultural roots, there is a universality that has no boundaries. This is truly a special collection.
Cather develops strong, sympathetic and thoroughly human characters. Jim Burden's account of his early life in My Antonia, his childhood friendship with an immigrant girl who shapes his life; Thea Kronborg, an opera singer born in the plains of Colorado who achieves worldwide fame lives the dreams of the many people who influenced her life in Song of the Lark; in O Pioneers, Alexandra Bergson's strength and stability builds a successful homestead while sacrificing her own independent future. Every character Cather creates is memorable.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel One of Ours follows Claude Wheeler as he enters adulthood and finally leaves Nebraska to join the American forces in World War I. It's a bit uneven, but the standards set by the first three novels in this collection are incredibly high.
The short story collection The Troll Garden and the second half of Song of the Lark are reminders of her cosmopolitan adulthood and her love and respect for artists of all types. This can be unsettling for readers who think of her as only a writer of the culture and history of the Great Plains. But, like Wallace Stegner, while her writing has strong geographical and cultural roots, there is a universality that has no boundaries. This is truly a special collection.
May 16, 2008
A strong, stiring book about war. Wonderful
characters, vivid dialogue make this book a joy to read.
characters, vivid dialogue make this book a joy to read.
January 3, 2018
THE TROLL GARDEN: **. Not an especially strong first outing (similar to her first "novel," ALEXANDER'S BRIDGE, collected elsewhere by LOA) - while there are some fun surprises in her earliest collected tales and they put forth early versions of a number of the themes she went onto develop more fully in her novels, these are mostly lightweight, occasionally obvious, and largely bound by the storytelling conventions of their time. Though certain passages of "A Death in the Desert" and "Paul's Case" come close, there's nothing to match the subtlety of her best later stories in these eight gathered here. Read March 2017.
O PIONEERS!: ***1/2. As with many of Cather's "thwarted love" plots, I found myself missing something with this one, though the characters and settings were incredibly well-drawn. It might be that Cather is at her best when she isn't bound by plotting concerns - indeed, her best novels (in my opinion) are loosely structured affairs, more concerned with telling you the story of a place and its people than with conventional dramatic narratives. Read November 2015.
THE SONG OF THE LARK: *****. Cather's first masterpiece, and for my money the gold standard of novels about the education of an artist. It's a brilliant coming-of-age story as well, and should be especially looked to for its success in telling a story about a young woman without putting her romantic life front-and-center: although men, passion, and sex weave through her story, it's her talent and ambition which is always the focus. Read December 2013.
MY ANTONIA: ****1/2. Easily one of her simplest and most elegant novels, here tracing the changing landscape and culture of immigrant Nebraska farming communities from the 19th to 20th century through the friendship of two children and their intersections in their adult lives. This is a quick and easy read, remarkable for a novel of its time, but like some of her later, similar novels, you don't realize how quietly poignant this one is until the final pages. Read November 2014.
ONE OF OURS: *****. Unfairly maligned in its day for a) being a war novel written by a woman (cry me a river, Ernest Hemingway!) and b) depicting WWI without the same moral complexity as contemporaneous authors, ONE OF OURS may not be Cather's best novel but is more remarkable than you've heard. Loosely structured (the war chapters are only the last third, more or less), the novel is a coming-of-age novel about a young man doing everything he's supposed to do - school, business, marriage - but failing to find purpose in any of them. Subtly homoerotic, richly textured, and quietly scathing about modern life, this deserved the Pulitzer it ultimately won. Read December 2015.
O PIONEERS!: ***1/2. As with many of Cather's "thwarted love" plots, I found myself missing something with this one, though the characters and settings were incredibly well-drawn. It might be that Cather is at her best when she isn't bound by plotting concerns - indeed, her best novels (in my opinion) are loosely structured affairs, more concerned with telling you the story of a place and its people than with conventional dramatic narratives. Read November 2015.
THE SONG OF THE LARK: *****. Cather's first masterpiece, and for my money the gold standard of novels about the education of an artist. It's a brilliant coming-of-age story as well, and should be especially looked to for its success in telling a story about a young woman without putting her romantic life front-and-center: although men, passion, and sex weave through her story, it's her talent and ambition which is always the focus. Read December 2013.
MY ANTONIA: ****1/2. Easily one of her simplest and most elegant novels, here tracing the changing landscape and culture of immigrant Nebraska farming communities from the 19th to 20th century through the friendship of two children and their intersections in their adult lives. This is a quick and easy read, remarkable for a novel of its time, but like some of her later, similar novels, you don't realize how quietly poignant this one is until the final pages. Read November 2014.
ONE OF OURS: *****. Unfairly maligned in its day for a) being a war novel written by a woman (cry me a river, Ernest Hemingway!) and b) depicting WWI without the same moral complexity as contemporaneous authors, ONE OF OURS may not be Cather's best novel but is more remarkable than you've heard. Loosely structured (the war chapters are only the last third, more or less), the novel is a coming-of-age novel about a young man doing everything he's supposed to do - school, business, marriage - but failing to find purpose in any of them. Subtly homoerotic, richly textured, and quietly scathing about modern life, this deserved the Pulitzer it ultimately won. Read December 2015.
May 5, 2023
I’m glad I was introduced to Willa Cather during college. Ever since I read “Paul’s Case” in a class on short stories, I’ve wanted to read more. This book had five books in one and took me too long to finish, but I really enjoyed it.
Some people might think Cather’s writing boring, I thought it was incredible. She does such a good job at capturing human emotions and feelings: discontent, hope, yearning, love. She’s at her best when she describes characters who are looking for beauty and light in a dreary world. Those are the characters I like best, perhaps because I feel like I know a bit about how they feel. One line from “One of Ours” sums these feelings up best, “He would spring to his feet, turn over quickly in bed, or stop short in his walk, because the old belief flashed up in him with an intense kind of hope, an intense kind of pain, - the conviction that there was something splendid about life, if he could but find it!”
In this book, “O Pioneers!” takes the cake as the best novel, but “One of Ours” is a close second (see my update of my review of the former work for my thoughts there). I felt like I could relate in certain ways to Claude, the main character in “One of Ours.” I’ve never read such a sad ending that was at the same time so happy. When Claude joined the army I kept expecting her to skip several years and get the war over. How could she write about something she didn’t live through? Well she wrote about it alright. And she knocked it out of the park. I think it was easily a 4.5 star book. I’ll reread it several more times in my life.
“The Song of the Lark” but it comes just after “O Pioneers!” in this collection and so I kept expecting a heart rending twist of exciting events and deep emotions. It never came for me so I was a bit disappointed. It’s a good novel in its own way, but I felt it the weakest of the lot here. I’d give it 3 stars.
“My Antonia” was good but not great as well. I’d say it’s between 3-4 stars. I think Cather spent too long on the unimportant events and not long enough on the ones that really mattered. Still it offered a great illustration of the world - how things and people turn out in completely different and unexpected ways. It definitely makes one think about what truly defines “success” and how our decisions matter more isn’t that regard than the events that happen to occur in our lives.
Cather is a bit romantic, but so am I (and of course I don’t mean she writes boy meets girl stories, but romantic in the classical sense). If that’s not your scene, you may not like her. A good gauge would be if the song “Homeward Bound” stirs your soul or if you love John Steinbeck, I’d recommend her. If not, it’s probably not worth your time. As for me at least, I’ll be reading her for years to come.
Some people might think Cather’s writing boring, I thought it was incredible. She does such a good job at capturing human emotions and feelings: discontent, hope, yearning, love. She’s at her best when she describes characters who are looking for beauty and light in a dreary world. Those are the characters I like best, perhaps because I feel like I know a bit about how they feel. One line from “One of Ours” sums these feelings up best, “He would spring to his feet, turn over quickly in bed, or stop short in his walk, because the old belief flashed up in him with an intense kind of hope, an intense kind of pain, - the conviction that there was something splendid about life, if he could but find it!”
In this book, “O Pioneers!” takes the cake as the best novel, but “One of Ours” is a close second (see my update of my review of the former work for my thoughts there). I felt like I could relate in certain ways to Claude, the main character in “One of Ours.” I’ve never read such a sad ending that was at the same time so happy. When Claude joined the army I kept expecting her to skip several years and get the war over. How could she write about something she didn’t live through? Well she wrote about it alright. And she knocked it out of the park. I think it was easily a 4.5 star book. I’ll reread it several more times in my life.
“The Song of the Lark” but it comes just after “O Pioneers!” in this collection and so I kept expecting a heart rending twist of exciting events and deep emotions. It never came for me so I was a bit disappointed. It’s a good novel in its own way, but I felt it the weakest of the lot here. I’d give it 3 stars.
“My Antonia” was good but not great as well. I’d say it’s between 3-4 stars. I think Cather spent too long on the unimportant events and not long enough on the ones that really mattered. Still it offered a great illustration of the world - how things and people turn out in completely different and unexpected ways. It definitely makes one think about what truly defines “success” and how our decisions matter more isn’t that regard than the events that happen to occur in our lives.
Cather is a bit romantic, but so am I (and of course I don’t mean she writes boy meets girl stories, but romantic in the classical sense). If that’s not your scene, you may not like her. A good gauge would be if the song “Homeward Bound” stirs your soul or if you love John Steinbeck, I’d recommend her. If not, it’s probably not worth your time. As for me at least, I’ll be reading her for years to come.
November 15, 2021
As with any anthology, I preferred some novels over others, namely O Pioneers! and One of Ours. The novels center on first or second generation European immigrants and how they struggle to build lives for themselves in the American Midwest in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Cather has a clear and concise writing style that blossoms into poetry at times, which seems very fitting for the open landscape she so often describes. The characters are often torn between continuing their parents' legacy as farmers or reaching their full potential as artists, soldiers, lawyers etc. I think many of us had similar feelings upon reaching adulthood and figuring out who we wanted to be and how we wanted to live.
December 20, 2020
It is hard to review this book because it includes 5 early novels and stories. I enjoyed each story and found that Willa Cather does a fantastic job in developing her characters. Having just finished One of Ours, I found this to be a wonderful coming of age story. Having grown up and lived in Iowa my whole life, the midwestern stories of farming bring back memories of my grandparents and their times. I plan to continue to read more of her stories.
March 19, 2020
1297 pages included The Troll Garden, O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Antonia, and One of Ours. It took me long enough to discover this wonderful author. These wonderfully written stories endure through time.
January 18, 2023
Thoroughly enjoyed everything here, from the stories to My Antonia. Song of the Lark was my absolute favorite -- especially given the Chicago connection -- but all are very worth reading, and make me want to read all the rest as well.
December 21, 2020
Just re-read My Antonia.
January 21, 2024
I was familiar with Cather's novels but hadn't read the short stories of The Troll Garden. What writing! Seldom does a short story capture you from the first line.
November 10, 2008
Song of the Lark tells the story of Thea Kronberg, who lives to fulfill her dream of ecoming a great musician, as she grows up the overworked older sister on a prairie farm at the turn of the century. Her admirers, who nurture her over the years, include her childhood doctor, and a charming rake of an impresario. Colorful descriptions of nature, insightful observations of social mores, and subtle humor of the human condition, all make this worth reading.
One of Ours touched me deeply, made me cry. No wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Cather brilliantly sketches characters in only a few words. It is not her plotting which holds you, but the pleasure of her gentle company. Tone is of a pastorale, with lyrical evocations of nature. How a woman of her time came by her vivid descriptions of sea voyages, war battles, and doomed romances--all on a bedrock understanding of the bittersweet human condition--I wonder. The hero in this story found his destiny, one it killed him to find, but only after he had attained utter fulfillment. A poignant, satisfying end.
A favorite theme of Cather that of people born to a life they don't like or fit into--an artist or an adventurer, say, living amid rough farm sorts, silent, dull with no imagination, and the escapes that might be possible for Cather's characters. SG
One of Ours touched me deeply, made me cry. No wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Cather brilliantly sketches characters in only a few words. It is not her plotting which holds you, but the pleasure of her gentle company. Tone is of a pastorale, with lyrical evocations of nature. How a woman of her time came by her vivid descriptions of sea voyages, war battles, and doomed romances--all on a bedrock understanding of the bittersweet human condition--I wonder. The hero in this story found his destiny, one it killed him to find, but only after he had attained utter fulfillment. A poignant, satisfying end.
A favorite theme of Cather that of people born to a life they don't like or fit into--an artist or an adventurer, say, living amid rough farm sorts, silent, dull with no imagination, and the escapes that might be possible for Cather's characters. SG
February 8, 2010
In this collection, I had previously read O Pioneers! and My Antonia. The other three selections were new to me. I did not care much for The Troll Garden, a collection of short stories. One of Ours was OK, but seemed almost to be a "well, everyone is writing a WWI novel so I'd better too" sort of thing. I think I'd give the book as a whole a 2 or a 3 if left only to those two. But oh, The Song of the Lark! That one made up for a lot. Lovely, lovely story. Have to include a favorite passage from that one:
"It was over flat lands like this, stretching out to drink the sun, that the larks sang--and one's heart sang there, too. . . . It was, somehow, an honest country, and there was a new song in that blue air which had never been sung in the world before. It was hard to tell about it, for it had nothing to do with words; it was like the light of the desert at noon, or the smell of the sagebrush after rain; intangible but powerful."
"It was over flat lands like this, stretching out to drink the sun, that the larks sang--and one's heart sang there, too. . . . It was, somehow, an honest country, and there was a new song in that blue air which had never been sung in the world before. It was hard to tell about it, for it had nothing to do with words; it was like the light of the desert at noon, or the smell of the sagebrush after rain; intangible but powerful."
May 18, 2008
I'm only rating "One of Ours." A bit of a disappointment. As usual, Willa Cather does a great job describing the farming/midwestern life. But instead of her usual laudatory description, here she bashes it a bit. Claude is an idealistic young farmer with a frigid wife. He is, understandably, bored with his lot in life. But then World War I starts and he gets to do something fun with his life. He decides he likes Europe much better than life in Kentucky with ice-women, and then he gets killed. Good times.
My main gripe with the book is that it doesn't satisfactorily explain why Claude is happy about going to war. Is he happy to be engaged in a noble common endeavor? Is it just excitement? Or something merely negative - leaving his deadening Kentucky life behind? (Didn't he know there were bourbon distilleries near by?)
My main gripe with the book is that it doesn't satisfactorily explain why Claude is happy about going to war. Is he happy to be engaged in a noble common endeavor? Is it just excitement? Or something merely negative - leaving his deadening Kentucky life behind? (Didn't he know there were bourbon distilleries near by?)
April 25, 2012
I remember other students toting their assigned copies of My Antonia or O, Pioneers! when I was in high school, but Cather’s works were never assigned by my English teachers, nor was I inspired to read them on my own. My loss, as I’ve discovered, for Cather is less a writer of place (despite the buttonholing of her Prairie Trilogy, included in this volume) than of character within place. Her early oeuvre, from The Troll Garden (a short story collection) to the Pulitzer Prize-winning One Of Ours, are focused Bildungsromans of the Everyman; stark, beautiful narratives of maturity that reflect the triumphs & trivialities of the individual within a society that esteems the traditions of community as it denies the stultifying isolation those traditions breed.
Want to read
April 15, 2008I had an English professor who claimed that My Antonia is her favorite book. I had never come across Willa Cather before my college years, but from working part-time at the local Barnes & Noble, I soon discovered that it's a hot title on high school reading lists. When I went to check out the book, the elderly librarian gushed about her own Cather titles at home. I think I'm an old granny at heart...so we'll see.
January 15, 2024
I read 'O Pioneers' a year ago and Song of the Lark last Spring. Cather is truth a classic writer. Alexandra and Thea step right off the pages. I got right beside them and wanted them to succeed. Some of the most profound female characters in the history of literature. Looking forward to My Antonia!
January 11, 2010
I read the classic O PIONEERs contained in this larger collection. Willa Cather's gifts should not be missed. The characters of the Nebraska town are fully fleshed out, vivid and unforgettable. Cather is an author well worth getting to know...
August 21, 2007
Great collection of her best stories, but some of the works do not quite compare to the rest.
October 7, 2007
Willa Cather could sure write. I love her image of the grass waving on the plains as though buffalo hides were running in herds beneath the soil. Wow.
July 2, 2009
Good for what it was and when it was. Enjoyable and sharp.
June 27, 2014
She is one of my favorite authors. This compilation is one of those that, if you were isolated from society for some time, you would relish reading it over and over again. Cannot praise it enough.
February 26, 2016
The Troll Garden - finished 10/04/11
O Pioneers! - finished 12/06/10
My Antonia - finished 1986
The Song of the Lark - finished 11/30/14
One of Ours - finished 11/27/15
O Pioneers! - finished 12/06/10
My Antonia - finished 1986
The Song of the Lark - finished 11/30/14
One of Ours - finished 11/27/15
September 1, 2012
See my reviews of each of the five books in this collection.
January 15, 2022
My Antonia***** (9/27/21)
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