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Willa Cather
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My Ántonia (Bedford College Editions) Kindle Edition

by Willa Cather (Author), Guy Reynolds (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 4,244 ratings
My Ántonia (first published 1918) is considered the greatest novel by American writer Willa Cather. My Ántonia — pronounced with the accent on the first syllable of "Ántonia" — is the final book of the "prairie trilogy" of novels by Cather, a list that also includes O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Ántonia.
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  1. Print length
    284 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bedford Books
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    1 April 2018
  6. File size
    1.1 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07CB46LJT
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bedford Books
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 April 2018
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.1 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-2291006961
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 4,244 ratings

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Willa Cather

Willa Cather

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4,244 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise the book's descriptive prose and find it a wonderful read with engaging storytelling. They appreciate the character development, with one review noting how Antonia's character leaps from the page. The book's era receives positive feedback, with one customer describing it as evocative of a time long gone. The plot receives mixed reactions, with several customers noting there isn't much of one.

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36 customers mention ‘Writing style’36 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the book, describing it as beautifully written with lovely descriptive prose that is a joy to read.

"...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...." Read more

"...is a description of the short-lived era of pioneering, a wonderful depiction of the land and people’s relationship with it before it was fully tamed..." Read more

"A beautifully written saga of one man’s life and those people who shaped it. Fascinating. Picked by chance an immensely enjoyed." Read more

"...Very evocative and full of the problems of personal life in this situation. There is not much of a plot." Read more

30 customers mention ‘Readability’30 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable and enjoyable, with one customer highlighting it as one of the finest American novels.

"...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..." Read more

"...social order are all portrayed brilliantly, leaving a lasting impression on the reader’s mind – for this reader, more lasting than the lives of our..." Read more

"...The characters all ring true as well. Definitely worth reading. A good one for a book club." Read more

"...This is one of the finest American novels by one of America's greatest writers." Read more

17 customers mention ‘Storytelling’17 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's storytelling engaging and fascinating, with one customer highlighting its well-paced Nebraska settings and another noting its psychological complexity.

"...Fascinating. Picked by chance an immensely enjoyed." Read more

"...Very evocative and full of the problems of personal life in this situation. There is not much of a plot." Read more

"...The story revolves around 2 principal characters and is told in the first person (Jim Burden) who grows up with the Antonia of the title...." Read more

"I loved everything about this story. The style of writing, the narrative, the description of what life was like in that time. It gripped me," Read more

8 customers mention ‘Character development’8 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, with one customer noting how Antonia's character comes vividly to life on the page.

"...the canyons, from New York to 17th-century Quebec, her characters come to life so naturally that they become unforgettable...." Read more

"...The story revolves around 2 principal characters and is told in the first person (Jim Burden) who grows up with the Antonia of the title...." Read more

"...trilogy, which really brought the praire to life and had a wonderful heroine and an engaging story. '..." Read more

"...this book I really enjoyed it - really well written and some excellent characters." Read more

5 customers mention ‘Era’5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's era, describing it as a classic of its time, with one customer noting how evocative it is of a time long gone.

"...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..." Read more

"A throoughly modern book that could have been released over the last few years, My Antonia shows the struggles of Americans in an ever changing..." Read more

"...all novels were as well written as this - a joy to read, evocative of a time long gone but it gives clues as to the rural communities in America..." Read more

"...that I shall re-read it at some time in the future indicates its classic status." Read more

9 customers mention ‘Plot’4 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the plot of the book, with several noting there isn't much of one, while one customer describes it as a lovingly told story.

"...I’ll explain why for me it only rates as four stars – simply put, it has no plot, which unfortunately is one of the things most likely to make me..." Read more

"...between the two central characters is also one of the loveliest relationships in literature...." Read more

"...There is not much of a plot." Read more

"A heart warming story of life in Nebraska for new immigrants and how or not it worked for them. Beautifully told." Read more

Do not download this e -version of the book.
1 out of 5 stars
Do not download this e -version of the book.
This book is practically illegible in digital form. I have included a photo of a page from the book and if you read it you can see how frustrating it is to follow. Maybe there is a better digital version but I’m very disappointed with it as I was looking forward to reading it.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Paul Turner
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the loveliest books ever
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2013
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    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.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • FictionFan
    4.0 out of 5 stars A nation of immigrants…
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2022
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    One day in the late 19th century, two children arrive separately in Nebraska on the same train. Jim Burden is a ten-year-old boy, recently orphaned and coming to the prairie land to live with his grandparents. Ántonia Shimerda is a couple of years older, immigrating to America from Bohemia with her family. Although from different backgrounds and traditions, the children become friends, learning about the land and wildlife of their new home together as they explore it with some of the other children in the farming neighbourhood. Over the years their friendship will gradually fade as Jim goes off to university and later to live in New York, but he always remembers Ántonia, and now in middle-age has set out to write down his memories of her.

    To start, I’ll explain why for me it only rates as four stars – simply put, it has no plot, which unfortunately is one of the things most likely to make me grumpy about a book. Instead it is a description of the short-lived era of pioneering, a wonderful depiction of the land and people’s relationship with it before it was fully tamed, a foundational story of the creation of America, and a coming-of-age tale of Jim, primarily, but also of Ántonia and of the frontier itself.

    The writing is excellent, especially in the descriptions of the various settings. The vastness of the landscape, the strength and courage of the pioneers, the rapid development of towns and social order are all portrayed brilliantly, leaving a lasting impression on the reader’s mind – for this reader, more lasting than the lives of our major protagonists, I must admit, who largely felt as if they existed to tie together a rather disparate set of episodes illustrating facets of the frontier life. Ántonia herself disappears completely for large parts of the book and her story is often told at a distance, by some third party telling Jim the latest gossip about her. The introduction in my Oxford World’s Classics edition suggests a long-running debate between people who think the book is fundamentally Ántonia’s story, or Jim’s. I fall into the latter category – for me, this is very definitely Jim’s story, and through him largely Cather’s own. But mostly it feels like a part of America’s story, or of its myth-making of itself as a ‘nation of immigrants’ – that is not to denigrate the myth or to suggest it is untrue, simply to say that all nations form myths from their own history which reflect and influence how they feel about themselves and how they act as a society. And I feel this foundational myth-creation aspect may be why the book has earned its place in the hearts of so many Americans, and as a well-deserved American classic.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Bargelady
    5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2025
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    A beautifully written saga of one man’s life and those people who shaped it. Fascinating. Picked by chance an immensely enjoyed.
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  • Mary Lane
    3.0 out of 5 stars That the book is good enough to be rated as a classic
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2022
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    The story is se in the early days of white settlement in the United States in the west. Very evocative and full of the problems of personal life in this situation. There is not much of a plot.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Pedro el Malo
    5.0 out of 5 stars A straightforward and direct writing style that is a pleasure to read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2023
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    Willa Cather’s novel is primarily a tale of the American North-West in the early 20th century. It tells of the hardships of bitter winters as wagon trains carrying immigrant farmers, their families and belongings across the seemingly endless miles of the high plains. It is above all a tribute to human endurance and perseverance that is beautifully told in a straightforward and direct writing style.

    The only thing that made reading the novel a little tedious was the constant barrage of explanatory notes, with several on almost every page. Although some were useful and indeed interesting, many were superfluous and could have been omitted.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Book fiend
    4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful descriptions of the prairie/farmlands of Nebraska in the late 1800s.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2021
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    This particular edition of Cather's excellent novel has a hugely comprehensive and lengthy introduction as well as notes for the text. Read the book before you read the introduction as otherwise you can get a big bogged down with names and places that mean nothing. The story revolves around 2 principal characters and is told in the first person (Jim Burden) who grows up with the Antonia of the title. Although the teller of the tale is a man the story seems rather to be written as a woman might write it and, of course, it is not a modern novel so ideas and attitudes have changed enormously. The descriptions of life in Nebraska at that time are incredibly real and you can just imagine yourself in amongst the red grass of the prairie and sensing the hardships of that life. The characters all ring true as well. Definitely worth reading. A good one for a book club.
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  • professor tiki
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superb novel in a fine new edition
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 March 2024
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    Great to have Cather's early masterpiece available in a sound scholarly edition. This is one of the finest American novels by one of America's greatest writers.
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  • Vanya Jaiswal
    5.0 out of 5 stars A nostalgic look at bygone times written with eloquence
    Reviewed in India on 30 May 2020
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    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.
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  • David Fulmer
    5.0 out of 5 stars All-American Masterpiece
    Reviewed in the United States on 26 November 2019
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    In this novel Willa Cather takes the stuff of everyday life and transforms it into epic literature by way of the alchemy of her style, her tone, and her characters who are completely alive. She sets a tone of nostalgia right away with a frame that describes the chance encounter on a passenger train out west between Jim Burden and an acquaintance where they share their common memories of a spirited young Bohemian woman on the plains. Then we have the finest thing ever written in American Literature: “All the years that have passed have not dimmed my memory of that first glorious autumn.” And we’re off.

    The setting of Black Hawk, Nebraska at the end of the 1800s provides the background for the world of the small town growing up with a population of farmers and merchants, immigrants and itinerant cowboys. We witness throughout this largely plotless though riveting novel the joys and the heartbreaks in this world. The narrator, Jim Burden, is profoundly influenced by the community but he also is fated to depart for the East. A few subsequent visits to his hometown over the ensuing decades round out the stories of the characters who had such lively and eventful times growing up.

    I don’t want to diminish Cather’s powerful imagination but I think one of the things that’s so wonderful about this novel is the way that she used her own experiences to help her tell this story. Two of the bulls in the novel are named Gladstone and Brigham Young and this apparently was what her father called his own bulls on account of the stubborn disposition in one and the physical adequacy in the other. This kind of true life inspiration didn’t go unnoticed in Cather’s lifetime. According to the footnotes of the Willa Cather Scholarly Edition one local immigrant’s obituary made the claim about a passage in ‘My Antonia’ that “There is no doubt that the inspiration for this sketch came from her acquaintance with Mr. Hansen.”

    Cather quotes Virgil in saying “in the lives of mortals the best days are the first to flee” and this book is a profound exploration of this theme of the early formative influences of life and their effect on our characters and personalities. It can also be understood to show the way the character of a community or nation is formed by its past as well. Cather also wrote that “Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again” and I would say that this book, too, is a reality, and reading it is better than anything that can ever happen to one.
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  • alistairjohnston
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful writing!
    Reviewed in Canada on 6 February 2024
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    A beautifully written, sweet story. A little tedious, occasionally.
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  • Otto
    5.0 out of 5 stars Un classico che tutti dovrebbero leggere!
    Reviewed in Italy on 18 February 2021
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    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!
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    Otto
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Un classico che tutti dovrebbero leggere!

    Reviewed in Italy on 18 February 2021
    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!
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  • Marta
    5.0 out of 5 stars Igual que en la imágen
    Reviewed in Spain on 22 November 2018
    Verified Purchase
    No es tapa blanda, pero sí flexible. Es muy cómodo para leer y queda bien en la estantería.
    Hay que tener un nivel alto de inglés para adentrarse en la historia, pero es un libro que vale la pena leer.
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