O Pioneers! by As Byatt
'Cather allows a glimpse into the depths of emotion that lie beneath this deceptively simple surface' GUARDIAN 'She is undoubtedly one of the greatest American writers' OBSERVER 'This beautiful book . . . May it live forever' NEW YORKER Alexandra Bergson is the eldest child of a Swedish immigrant family newly arrived in the harsh untamed landscape of the American West. An original, determined child, she is driven by two forces: her fierce protective love for her younger brother and a deep love of the beautiful country she has come to regard as her own. When her father dies, it is she who becomes the head of the family and struggles to soften the wild overgrown soil that surrounds her, nurturing it until, finally, it rewards her with a richness beyond measure . . . 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.
Cather allows a glimpse into the depths of emotion that lie beneath this deceptively simple surface * Guardian *
This beautiful book - like a memory, almost, rather than a representation - just had its hundredth birthdayMay it live forever * New Yorker *
When we read the novel, what is indeed amazing is how absent the war, or any sense of external danger to the world she's writing about, is * Paris Review *
She is undoubtedly one of the greatest American writers * Observer *
She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers * OBSERVER *
Her voice, laconical and richly sensuous, sings out with a note of unequivocal love for the people she is setting down on the page * MARINA WARNER *
The most sensuous of writers, Willa Cather builds her imagined world almost as solidly as our five senses build the universe around us * REBECCA WEST *
Willa Cather's second novel is abundant with interwoven themes. In one respect Cather bears witness to the early 20th-century Pioneers. The farmer taming the wild Northern States of America, battling with the elements and an unforgiving land to create a * JON SMITH, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW *
This beautiful book - like a memory, almost, rather than a representation - just had its hundredth birthdayMay it live forever * New Yorker *
When we read the novel, what is indeed amazing is how absent the war, or any sense of external danger to the world she's writing about, is * Paris Review *
She is undoubtedly one of the greatest American writers * Observer *
She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers * OBSERVER *
Her voice, laconical and richly sensuous, sings out with a note of unequivocal love for the people she is setting down on the page * MARINA WARNER *
The most sensuous of writers, Willa Cather builds her imagined world almost as solidly as our five senses build the universe around us * REBECCA WEST *
Willa Cather's second novel is abundant with interwoven themes. In one respect Cather bears witness to the early 20th-century Pioneers. The farmer taming the wild Northern States of America, battling with the elements and an unforgiving land to create a * JON SMITH, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW *
Born in 1873 to a family who had farmed in Virginia for generations, Willa Cather moved to her father's new ranch in Nebraska when she was eight. The raw frontier territories and the pioneer life of the Old West were to awaken her imagination and furnish the atmosphere for much of her later work. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Willa Cather became a teacher and a journalist. In 1912 she abandoned journalism to write full time. Her first novel was Alexander's Bridge (1912) though she had already published a volume of poems and another of short stories. Her vivid novels cover a wide range: there are impassioned and thoughtful explorations of the ancient worlds of the Americas in The Professor's House (1925) and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) as well as sympathetic portrayals of conflicting values, or of the demands of art. These, along with her evocations of the pioneering West, soon established her reputation as one of America's foremost writers. Willa Cather died in New York in 1947.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781844083756 |
| ISBN 10 | 1844083756 |
| Title | O Pioneers! |
| Author | A S Byatt |
| Series | Virago Modern Classics |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Year published | 2006-09-07 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |