My Ántonia (1918) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Jim (James) Quayle Burden: The book's narrator, who tells the story of his youth spent in Nebraska and the development of his friendship with Ántonia Shimerda.
• Ántonia (Tony) Shimerda: The focus of Jim's story. At the time of the story she is a teenage girl caring for her Bohemian family; modeled after Cather's real schoolmate, Annie Sadilek Pavelka
• Jimmy: Jim Burden, as called by his grand mother
• Mrs. Shimerda: Antonia's mother
• Jake Marpole: One of the farm hands on Jim's grandfather's farm, who travels with Jim to Nebraska.
• Otto Fuchs: A farm hand on Jim's grandfather's farm; formerly a cowboy, stage driver, bartender and miner
• Ambrosch Shimerda: Ántonia's oldest brother. His name is actually Ambrož, but Cather spells the name by its pronunciation.
• Nina Cuzak: One of Antonio's daughters
• Mr. Ordinsky: In Lincoln, a Polish gentleman smitten by Lena
• Mrs. Cutter: Angry wife of Wick Cutter
• Mrs. Burden aka Grandmother: Jim Burden's grandmother with whom he grew up
• Mrs. Gardener: Owner of the The Boy's Home hotel
• Jan, Lucie, Nina, Leo, Ambrosch, Charley, Rudolph: Other Cuzak children
• Ambrosch Shimerda: The Shimerda's oldest son; Antonio's brother
• Mrs. Thomas: Dressmaker who trained Lena
• Yulka (Julka) Shirmerda: Younger sister of Ambrosch and Antonio; her name is actually Julka.
• Martha: Antonio's eldest, married daughter; Larry Donovan's child
• Mr. Cuzak: Cousin of Anton Jelinek; Antonio's husband and father to all but one of her children
• Marek Shimerda: Ántonia's youngest brother, a mentally-challenged boy; ultimately institutionalized
• Widow Steavens: Leased the Burden farm when the family moved to Black Hawk
• Mary Dusak: One of the hired girls in Black Hawk, and Ántonia's friend.
• Peter Krajiek: The Shimerdas' miserly landlord.
• Marguerite: Main character of the play (The Count of Monte Cristo) that Jim and Lena go to see together while in Lincoln (Jim = student / Lena = started dress shop).
• Sally: Add a description of this character.
• Johnnie
• (Russian) Pavel: One of the two Russian brothers who live near Jim's grandfather.
• Samson
• (Russian) Peter: One of the two Russian brothers who live near Jim's grandfather.
• Wick Cutter: A merciless moneylender in Black Hawk; attacked Jim
• Anton Jelinek: Another Bohemian/Czech who helps the Shimerdas; Otto's replacement; proprietor of a respectful saloon
• Christian Harling: A grain merchant and cattle buyer; the Burdens' neighbor in Black Hawk. Away from home a lot but very strict when he is there.
• Mrs. Harling: Christian Harling's wife, a pleasant Norwegian woman.
• Charley Harling: The Harling's oldest son.
• Julia Harling: One of the Harling's daughters--the musical one
• Salley Harling: One of the Harlings' daughters--the tomboy
• Frances Harling: The oldest of the Harling children, who helps her father with all his business concerns.
• Nina Harling: The Harling's youngest daughter.
• Lena Lingard: One of the hired girls in Black Hawk, and Ántonia's friend and rival
• Chris Lingard: Lena's father, an unsuccessful farmer.
• Tiny Soderball: One of the hired girls in Black Hawk, and Ántonia's friend; became the most successful
• Mary Dusak: One of the three Marys; a hired girl in Black Hawk, and Ántonia's friend.
• Anna Hansen: One of the hired girls in Black Hawk, and Ántonia's friend. Called "Norwegian Anna" for most of the story.
• Larry Donovan: A train conductor who Jim isn't a fan of
• Gaston Cleric: Head of the Latin Department at Jim's Nebraska university; Jim's mentor
• Genevieve Whitley: Jim's trophy wife
• Ole Benson: Husband of 'Crazy Mary'; admirer of Lena
• Blind d'Arnault: Black piano impresario
• Old Colonel Raleigh: Lena's landlord in Lincoln.
• Anna Cuzak: Antonio's second eldest daughter

Quotes edit see section history

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• “When I closed my eyes I could hear them all laughing — the Danish laundry girls and the three Bohemian Marys. Lena had brought them all back to me. It came over me, as it had never done before, the relationship between girls like those and the poetry of Virgil. If there were no girls like them in the world, there would be no poetry. I understood that clearly, for the first time. This revelation seemed to me inestimably precious.”

• “During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood.”

• ““Why aren’t you always nice like this, Tony?”“How nice?”“Why, just like this; like yourself. Why do you all the time try to be like Ambrosch?”She put her arms under her head and lay back, looking up at the sky. “If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.””

• “She lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true. I had not been mistaken. She was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl; but she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one’s breath for a moment by a look or gesture that somehow revealed the meaning in common things.”

• “"At any rate, that is happiness,; to be dissolved into something complete and great."”

  Jim Burden

• “... the world of ideas; when one first enters that world everything else fades for a time, and all that went before is as if it had not been.”

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

  Jim Burden

• “I had a feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man's jurisdiction”

  Jim Burden

• “... I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the color of wine stains, or of certain sea weeds when they are first washed up.”

  Jim Burden

• “... I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping, galloping ...”

  Jim Burden

• “The light air about me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would be only sun and sky, and one would float off into them, like the tawny hawks which sailed over our heads making slow shadows on the grass.”

  Jim Burden

• “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. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.”

• “They kept him in their hole and fed him for the same reason that the prairies dogs and the brown owls house the rattle snakes - because they did not know how to get rid of him.”

  Jim Burden

• “There was only - spring itself; the throb of it, the light restlessness, the vital essence of it everywhere: in the sky, in the swift clouds, in the pale sunshine, and in the warm high wind - rising suddenly, sinking suddenly, impulsive and playful like a big puppy that pawed you and then lay down to be petted.”

  Jim Burden

• “It seemed as if we could hear the corn growing in the night; under the stars one caught a faint crackling in the dewy, heavy odoured cornfields where the feathered stalks stood so juicy and green.”

  Jim Burden

• “for me more than anything else,I felt motion in the landscape;in the fresh,easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself,as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide,and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping,galloping....”

  Jim Burden

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Black Hawk: The little town in Nebraska where Jim lives with his grandparents.
• Nebraska
• Virginia
• Omaha
• Chicago
• Denver
• Shimerdas
• New York
• Bohemia
• Vienna
• Kansas City
• Russia
• Lincoln: Where Jim goes to the university.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Windlass: A mechanical device used to pull in cable, chain or rope.
• Lariat: A lasso; a long noosed rope used to catch animals.
• Quirt: A weighted, short-handled whip made of braided rawhide or leather.
• Arroyo: A stream or brook; alternately, a dry water course.
• Quinsy: A painful pus-filled inflammation of the tonsils and surrounding tissues; usually a complication of tonsillitis.
• Bole: The trunk of a tree; the main structural member of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots.
• Lassitude: Languor: a feeling of lack of interest or energy.
• Pinafore: A sleeveless dress resembling an apron; worn over other clothing.
• Freshet: The occurrence of a water flow, resulting from sudden rain or melting snow.
• Creche: A representation of the Nativity scene.
• Dray: A low, heavy horse cart without sides, used for haulage.
• Schottische: Aa German round dance resembling a slow polka.
• Supine: Describe this term.
• Parsimonious

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Patterns of lost and recovery: Describe this theme.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Willa Cather (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3505.A87 M8 1994e
• Dewey: 823.91

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › Classics › Cather, Willa
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( C ) › Cather, Willa
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Wikipedia: Really nice overview & summary of the novel. Don't miss the visualization of all the characters in the novel—graphically rendered like they're on a social network.

More Books Like This edit see section history