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Cover of My Ántonia by Willa Cather

My Ántonia

  • 264 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1918
  • 832 editions
  • Free to read

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1 About this book

My Antonia, first published 1918, is one of Willa Cather's greatest works. It is the last novel in the Prairie trilogy, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. My Antonia 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 Antonia.

The book's narrator, Jim Burden, arrives in the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, on the same train as the Shimerdas, as he goes to live with his grandparents after his parents have died. Jim develops strong feelings for Antonia, something between a crush and a filial bond, and the reader views Antonia's life, including its attendant struggles and triumphs, through that lens.

Good for readers who want: a classic, a love story, friendship, and a book they can read free online.

  • Friendship
  • Women immigrants
  • Classics
  • Romance
  • Immigrants
  • Domestic fiction
  • Frontier and pioneer life
  • Married women

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3 About Willa Cather

1873–1947

Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I. Willa Cather and her family moved from Virginia to Webster County, Nebraska, when she was nine years old.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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