Literary O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

[sun surfer]

This is the MR Literary Club selection for October 2014. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time! Guests are also always welcome.


• Goodreads
• MR Library epub trilogy version uploaded by weatherwax
• MR Library kindle version uploaded by Madam Broshkina
• MR Library kindle version uploaded by crutledge

There are also other MR Library version formats.


So, what are your thoughts on it?

[crich70]

Do all three versions contain the whole trilogy or just the one submitted by Weatherwax? I'm just wondering because it makes sense to read the most complete version that you can find (IMO) as other less complete versions will have loose threads remaining after you finish them.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Here are some excellent resources for exploring more about Willa Cather's life and works. The archive at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln where she went to school looks like a treasure trove.
http://cather.unl.edu
http://www.willacather.org

The archive has published online scholarly editions of her works. The quality of these are fantastic. The illustrations and explanatory notes are a great supplement!
http://cather.unl.edu/index.wcse.html

[desertblues]

Thank you again, Bookworm_girl for these useful links!

I have the version from Bamtam Classics; might that be the 'good one' to read?
In any case, the book starts well as it is dedicated to:

"Sarah Orne Jewett
in whose beautiful and delicate work
there is the perfection
that endures"

Isn't that a coïncidence, as that is the writer I voted for. Well, on reading now...

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Here are some excellent resources for exploring more about Willa Cather's life and works. The archive at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln where she went to school looks like a treasure trove.
http://cather.unl.edu
http://www.willacather.org

The archive has published online scholarly editions of her works. The quality of these are fantastic. The illustrations and explanatory notes are a great supplement!
http://cather.unl.edu/index.wcse.html

[Billi]

Originally Posted by crich70

Do all three versions contain the whole trilogy or just the one submitted by Weatherwax? I'm just wondering because it makes sense to read the most complete version that you can find (IMO) as other less complete versions will have loose threads remaining after you finish them.

Only the version submitted by weatherwax contains the whole trilogy but as far as I've understood it these are three separate books.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Heads-up that the Amazon public domain version that I downloaded was missing the dedication and the quote and poetic epigraphs. So I downloaded the Signet Classics version from my e-library. The Bantam Classics version was also available from my library. You should be fine with reading that version, desertblues, and it has the added benefit of having a scholarly introduction that is missing from a regular public domain download.

The use of the word trilogy is not the same context as so many books series today. As I understand it, these 3 books are loosely grouped together as the Great Plains or Prairie Trilogy because of the common theme of frontier life. Each book features a different woman as the main character.

[Bookworm_Girl]

This is an amusing list, especially number 2 about her name. 10 things you probably didn't know about Willa Cather from the editors of The Selected Letters of Willa Cather.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...la-cather.html

[bfisher]

Not Swedish I am shocked, shocked, shocked (and dismayed).
(she must have been one of the Lees who moved back east)

She was the answer to a Jeopardy question last night - her BOOK_TITLE was not set on the prairie.

[Bookpossum]

Thanks once again for the great links you have found for us, Bookworm_Girl.

[desertblues]

I have read the book through and it has to sink in a bit, before I will talk about it further.

Some thoughts while reading:
To my surprise this book felt very familiar. I grew up reading this kind of books; not from American authors but Sandinavian. These were novels that were set in a rural environment, with people in a closely knit community. People who had values and standards and, though outwardly calm, a dramatic inner life. It was not done to speak about emotions and such.

I found myself thinking of the Norwegen writer Trygve Gulbranssen(1895-1962) who is know for the Bjorndal Trilogy. I remember ‘Beyond sing the woods’. The trilogy is translated in English as ‘The wind from the mountains’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trygve_Gulbranssen

And the people in the book remind me of the ones in the work of the famous Swedish film director, producer and writer Ernst Ingmar Bergman(1918-2007), who in his films give such an interesting view on the workings of the mind of his countrymen. His work/films, he wrote most of the scripts himself, often dealt with the existential themes of “O’Pioneers’, namely death, illness, betrayal and insanity, I think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman

[crich70]

Originally Posted by desertblues

I have read the book through and it has to sink in a bit, before I will talk about it further.

Some thoughts while reading:
To my surprise this book felt very familiar. I grew up reading this kind of books; not from American authors but Sandinavian. These were novels that were set in a rural environment, with people in a closely knit community. People who had values and standards and, though outwardly calm, a dramatic inner life. It was not done to speak about emotions and such.

I found myself thinking of the Norwegen writer Trygve Gulbranssen(1895-1962) who is know for the Bjorndal Trilogy. I remember ‘Beyond sing the woods’. The trilogy is translated in English as ‘The wind from the mountains’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trygve_Gulbranssen

And the people in the book remind me of the ones in the work of the famous Swedish film director, producer and writer Ernst Ingmar Bergman(1918-2007), who in his films give such an interesting view on the workings of the mind of his countrymen. His work/films, he wrote most of the scripts himself, often dealt with the existential themes of “O’Pioneers’, namely death, illness, betrayal and insanity, I think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman

I like his movie "The 7th Seal." I have seen it several times over the yrs and it is referenced in "The Last Action Hero" as well.

[Bookpossum]

That's an interesting comment desert blues. I hadn't thought of Bergman's films.

I have just finished reading the book and have to confess that I found it disappointing, as it didn't seem very deep to me. I didn't really feel that the characters were developing as they went through life.

Spoiler:

I also found Alexandra's sympathy for Frank a bit hard to believe, given how much she had treasured Emil. Would she really feel so much sympathy for him after he had killed Emil and Marie? And the ease with which all the blame was placed at Marie's door rather stuck in my throat! Of course, the book is of its time and I suppose reflects the attitudes about "fallen women".

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

That's an interesting comment desert blues. I hadn't thought of Bergman's films.

I have just finished reading the book and have to confess that I found it disappointing, as it didn't seem very deep to me. I didn't really feel that the characters were developing as they went through life.
(...)

I am rather a fan of arthouse films and watched quite a few of Bergman. Especially 'Wild Strawberries' I liked very much. Somehow these stories appeal to my (rather calvinistic) upbringing, I think....

Yes, Bookpossum, I can understand that reaction completely. I think this is one of the books that needs 'to sink in'.
Last year I had the same experience with the Good Earth Trilogy of Pearl Buck. Once the context and development of that genre becomes clear, it does make more sense.

I'll wait a bit till I have chewed on this book, digested it and so on.......

[hildea]

I liked Alexandra, but didn't feel I got very close to her -- maybe because of all the jumps in time. I really liked the descriptions of some of the minor characters, though, like Ivar and mrs Lee.

The old fashioned Norwegians and Swedes who like to walk barefoot, but are ashamed of it, remind me of a scene in one of the Little House books, where Ma talks with some scorn about neighbours who walk barefoot, or insists that civilized Americans wear shoes despite the heat, or something like that. (It's a long time since I read it, so I'm not all that sure of it...)