My Ántonia, the novel Willa Cather herself considered her best work, is a masterful story of primitive themes told with elegance and affection. Cather's recounting, based on her own life, unerringly depicts the violent yet inspiring existence of the foreign and native-born settlers to Nebraska in the early years of this century.
In a landscape "outside man's jurisdiction," a profound friendship develops between an immigrant girl, Ántonia, and the narrator, Jim Burden. Jim grows to know Ántonia and her Czech family and through their suffering, and the hardships of an unforgiving environment, he describes the indomitable spirit of these immigrants and the others like them, who tried to build a life in this country. This stirring and often harrowing story is populated by many whose strength and endurance enabled them to forge rich lives, and by some who failed. There is Lena and Anna, strong-willed immigrant girls like Ántonia, who take what pleasure life provides them, and grow to become admirable, independent women. And Otto and Jake, the Burden's hired hands, rough men who kneel to decorate the family Christmas tree with handmade ornaments. And finally Ántonia's father, whose homesickness drives him to a desperate act of violence.
My Ántonia, the most famous of Cather's four Nebraska novels, is also her most personal and revealing.
About the Author
Born in Virginia, Willa Cather (1873-1948) moved with her family to Nebraska before she was ten, which later provided the setting for her best-known novels. The books O Pioneers! and My Antonia, especially, with their focus on immigrant life on the prairie, established Cather as a major American novelist.
