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Title details for My Antonia, with eBook by Willa Cather - Available

My Antonia, with eBook

by Willa Cather
Patrick Lawlor
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
After the death of his parents, Jim Burden is sent to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska plains. By chance, on that same train is Ántonia, a bright-eyed girl who will become his neighbor and lifelong friend. Her family has emigrated from Bohemia to start a new life farming but soon lose their money and must work hard just to survive. Through it all, Ántonia retains her natural pride and free spirit.


Jim's grandparents have a large and tidy farm. They are kind to him, but conventional. Later, Jim becomes a scholar and Ántonia becomes a "hired girl" in town. She blossoms in the new freedom that town life offers. Jim can only taste this life vicariously through her recounting of town gossip and of the "dance tent." Ántonia's strong will, spirit, and honesty allow her to thrive in the midst of hardship.


In My Ántonia, Willa Cather paints a rich picture of life on the prairie at the beginning of the twentieth century and depicts some of the many cultures that came to compose the United States.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 21, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400128457
      • File size: 229002 KB
      • Duration: 07:57:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1010
    • Text Difficulty: 6-8

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 24, 2014
      This audio edition of Cather’s novel and final book in the author’s prairie trilogy is adequately narrated by Mondelli. Following the death of his parents, Jim Burden was sent to Black Hawk, Neb., to live with grandparents. It was in Black Hawk that he met the great and enduring love of his life, the bohemian Ántonia. Years later, lawyer Jim returns to Black Hawk, where he revisits the past and witnesses how both their lives have changed. Mondelli’s reading will likely fail to delight Cather fans. While his pacing, tone, and pronunciation are workmanlike, they do little to enliven the author’s text. Similarly, the voices he lends the book’s characters are distinct and sufficient, but nothing more. Overall, listeners will likely feel that the narrator could have done more to bring this classic novel to life.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Yarman's diction is very precise and measured. Both the pace and the articulate style make this version an excellent choice for ESL programs. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • School Library Journal

      March 1, 2004
      Gr 7 Up-In Jim Burden's accounting of his life with, and without, Antonia Shimerda, listeners are transported to the hardscrabble Nebraska prairie and the rural immigrant experience. When Jim first sees the Shimerda family, immigrants from Bohemia, disembarking from the same train that is taking him West to live with his grandparents, he has no idea the impact they will have on his life. Nostalgically, he remembers the good and bad times they had on their respective farms and creates his portrait of Antonia, an independent and tough survivor. The brief biography of author Willa Cather at the beginning of the CD explains how her life mirrors Antonia's life in many ways, helping listeners understand the context of the story. Patrick Lawlor's rich, fluid voice lends an air of sophistication to Burden, reinforcing the class structure inherent at the beginning of the 20th century. Lawlor's attempts to create voices for the characters often falls flat. Since the novel is Burden's reminiscence, it would have been better told in Burden's voice alone. Since My Antonia continues to be a staple in many English curriculums, this is a good audiobook for schools and public libraries to have available.-Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WA

      Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      My Antonia looks back at life on the Nebraska plains from the late 1800's to the turn of the century. The novel is perfect for audio--the narrative tone of reminiscence set when two life-long friends recall the adventures of their childhood. Grover Garner uses accents and dialect effectively for the voices of the European immigrants, who are an integral part of the story. The impersonal tone Gardner chooses for Jim Burden, the teller of the tale, is unfortunate. More inflection would enhance the presentation. Still, the pioneer spirit shines through, and this work should be a standard in a balanced audio collection. C.A.K. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      A Bohemian girl comes of age in a hardworking farming community on the Nebraska plains. Her longtime friend, Jim, relates her challenges with family and community, telling of hardship and sorrow as she matures into a wife and mother. In a pleasing, tranquil voice reader Joan Allen mesmerizes the listener and brings the small prairie community to life. Her enjoyable voice is evocative of a slower paced, moral, hardworking era. Grandma is exceptionally well vocalized as sprightly, warm, and caring, especially when Antonia's father kills himself. The listener will be sorry to hear MY ANTONIA end. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Guidall's relaxed and unassuming presentation allows the listener to forget the narrator and enjoy the narration. S.J.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Robert G. Slade narrates this classic with warmth and wit. He delivers the voices of Bohemians, Norwegians, and Russian immigrants with subtlety and captures the cadences of young and old. His storytelling manner gives a sense of reality to this immigrant story about foreign families settling in Nebraska, where their new lives require hard work and they sometimes receive a cool reception. Antonia is one of American literature's most striking heroines--strong, independent, spirited, and motherly, she survives and prevails. Seen through the admiring eyes of narrator Jim Burden, her story, his, and those of the other main characters are delivered with fine shading by Slade. Aside from a prejudiced portrait of a mulatto pianist, this paean to nineteenth-century prairie life remains fresh and worthy of one's time. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1010
  • Text Difficulty:6-8

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