My Antonia cover art

My Antonia

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My Antonia

By: Willa Cather
Narrated by: Jeff Cummings, Ken Burns (introduction)
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About this listen

Widely recognized as Willa Cather's finest book and one of the outstanding novels of American literature, My Antonia details of the life of early American pioneers in Nebraska.

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.

Infused with a gracious passion for the land, My Antonia is a deeply moving portrait of an entire community and its way of life.

©2012 Willa Cather Classics Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Antonia." (H. L. Mencken)
" My Antonia is packed with the feel of the country. A scant paragraph sets you out on the plains, and the breath of the wind that billows the long grass never leaves your face." ( Chicago Daily News)
"In Antonia, Willa Cather portrays one of the great women of literature: strong, capable, and honest. My Antonia is a book to read to children to show them what women can be, or to read and remind yourself." (Erica Bauermeister, 500 Great Books by Women)
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The poignancy of this story and the beauty of the prose is almost unbearable. A low key masterpiece.

A wonderful discovery. E pluribus, unum.

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Wonderfully evocative first hand account of the first settlers in Nebraska. I loved this book.

wonderful

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This was a very sweet book - wonderfully evocative of a time and place, but ultimately I found it unsatisfactory. I kept expecting there to be some sort of plot, but it was just a (beautifully-described) series of events. At the end it just seemed to tail off into nothing......

Sweet, but vaguely disappointing

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As I am unfamiliar with pioneering history and American literature in general, I was not sure if I'd like this; but the love of the land shone through from the beginning and had me hooked immediately. The author's knowledge of Nebraska and her changing seasons is as deep as Thomas Hardy's feeling for his native Wessex. The separate but intermingled tales of the immigrant families and their unequal struggle to settle the land; their later drift away from the land towards town; their homesickness; the struggle of the girls, whose work is never finished and who must yet not be seen to enjoy themselves, all conjure up an exquisite picture of small-town Nebraska and its social mores.

The narration jarred at first, the pace seeming a little fast, but I soon adjusted. I have listened to this book for a little over a week, and on finishing it feel saddened, as if waving goodbye to an old friend.

My own comparison of this work with Thomas Hardy's novels had made we wonder if this too would have a tragic ending. I'm pleased to observe that Cather's charcters were not similarly fated: hope survives, interspersed with tragedies great and small. All in all, a true classic, engaging as it does with the broad themes of journeying and returning; of the roles of love, memory, and landscape. Highly recommended.

Pioneering life, love and loss on the prairie

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A very moving story. The innocence of the characters and the powerful descriptions of the landscape are a loving combination. The narration is excellent but the x1 speed sounds as if it has been speeded up slightly. A slower pace would have suited the narrative voice better.

Wonderful description of pioneer struggles.

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