O Pioneers!

by Willa Cather

Overview

Set on the Nebraska prairie where Willa Cather (1873–1947) grew up, this powerful early novel tells the story of the young Alexandra Bergson, whose dying father leaves her in charge of the family and of the lands they have struggled to farm. In Alexandra's long flight to survive and succeed, O Pioneers! relates an important chapter in the history of the American frontier.
Evoking the harsh grandeur of the prairie, this landmark of American fiction unfurls a saga of love, greed, murder, failed dreams, and hard-won triumph. In the fateful interaction of her characters, Willa Cather compares with keen insight the experiences of Swedish, French, and Bohemian immigrants in the United States. And in her absorbing narrative, she displays the virtuoso storytelling skills that have made her one of the most admired masters of the American novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486277851
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	11/04/1993
Series:	Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels
Edition description:	Unabridged
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	11 - 18 Years

About the Author

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather (1873–1947) spent her formative years in Nebraska, which was at that time frontier territory. Her exposure to the region's dramatic environment and intrinsic hardships — along with its diverse population of European-Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants — shaped and informed much of her fiction.

Date of Birth:

December 7, 1873

Date of Death:

April 27, 1947

Place of Birth:

Winchester, Virginia

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Education:

B.A., University of Nebraska, 1895

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "O Pioneers!"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Willa Cather.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Part I The Wild Land 13

Part II Neighboring Fields 71

Part III Winter Memories 159

Part IV The White Mulberry Tree 179

Part V Alexandra 231

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"[Kate Reading] delivers the vivid narrative with dulcet tones and magnificent phrasing.... Listeners will enjoy the beauty of her delivery." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

The land belongs to the future... that's the way it seems to me....I might as well try to will the sunset over there to my brother's children. We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it -- for a little while."

O Pioneers! (1913) was Willa Cather's first great novel, and to many it remains her unchallenged masterpiece. No other work of fiction so faithfully conveys both the sharp physical realities and the mythic sweep of the transformation of the American frontier -- and the transformation of the people who settled it. Cather's heroine is Alexandra Bergson, who arrives on the wind-blasted prairie of Hanover, Nebraska, as a girl and grows up to make it a prosperous farm. But this archetypal success story is darkened by loss, and Alexandra's devotion to the land may come at the cost of love itself.

At once a sophisticated pastoral and a prototype for later feminist novels, O Pioneers! is a work in which triumph is inextricably enmeshed with tragedy, a story of people who do not claim a land so much as they submit to it and, in the process, become greater than they were.

From the Publisher

"The first of the Cather Scholarly Editions sets a high standard of quality. . . . Text and context reveal the splendor of O Pioneers! and enrich both the experience and study of Cather’s extraordinary prose."—Western American Literature

Western American Literature

"This beautifully produced book is a joy to read and demonstrates the real pleasures to be derived from meticulous attention to detail and the highest standards of scholarship."—American Literary Scholarship

American Literary Scholarship

This early novel is now held to be a very critical and pivotal one in the whole development of the novelist, and this new edition provides . . . a fine printing for readers.”—Choice

Choice

This famous novel portraying the lives of Swedish immigrants in turn-of-the-century Nebraska must have sorely challenged narrator Kate Reading. She nails the various accents of her characters and delivers the vivid narrative with dulcet tones and magnificent phrasing. Still, the narration is dull, almost plodding, the result of too much detachment. Whereas the author expresses a deeply intimate knowledge and concern for her folk and their doings, Reading simply doesn’t engage. Her voice is a godlike mask, too lofty to care about the plain, hardworking farmers that populate the book. So while listeners will enjoy the beauty of her delivery, they will have to concentrate a bit harder than usual to find Willa Cather underneath. Y.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MAY 2011 - AudioFile