My Ántonia

Willa Cather’s novel of the Nebraska prairie, told by Jim Burden, who recalls growing up there and his friendship with Ántonia Shimerda, the daughter of a family of Bohemian immigrants.

Start reading47 chapters, about 83,000 words

Famous quotes

• There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.

  Book I: The Shimerdas, Chapter IIn context

  • Nature

• I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.

  My Antonia (1918), Book I, Ch. 2In context

  • Happiness
  • Life & Death

• I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister⁠—anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.

  Book IV: The Pioneer Woman’s Story, Chapter IVIn context

  • Friendship
  • Love

• Ain’t it wonderful, Jim, how much people can mean to each other?

  Book IV: The Pioneer Woman’s Story, Chapter IVIn context

  • Friendship
  • Love

• In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.

  My Antonia (1918), Book V, Ch. 1In context

  • Age

Contents

1. Dedication
2. Introduction

Book I: The Shimerdas

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X
11. Chapter XI
12. Chapter XII
13. Chapter XIII
14. Chapter XIV
15. Chapter XV
16. Chapter XVI
17. Chapter XVII
18. Chapter XVIII
19. Chapter XIX

Book II: The Hired Girls

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X
11. Chapter XI
12. Chapter XII
13. Chapter XIII
14. Chapter XIV
15. Chapter XV

Book III: Lena Lingard

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV

Book IV: The Pioneer Woman’s Story

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV

Book V: Cuzak’s Boys

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III