THE BOOK FAIR
READ AND FULFILL YOUR LIFE
Willa Cather
My Antonia
Author: Willa Cather
Published: 1918
Genre: Classic
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 250
Review:
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Willa Cather penned her novels on American frontier life. The author, born in Virginia, in 1873, died in New York, in 1947. Cather’s novel tells the story of friendship of James Burden, a young orphan, and Antonia Shimerda, the daughter of immigrants.
Cather described the hard working lifestyle for families on the American frontier, those difficulties compounded for immigrants already overwhelmed with issues of language and culture. The author details life on the farm, social mores and the economic trials which inevitable forced farmers to the city. Cather slowly develops and builds the ever changing friendship between Burden and Antonia.
Sapphira and the
Slave Girl
Author: Willa Cather
Published: 1940
Genre: Classic
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 295
In the 1850’s, Henry and Sapphira Colbert own a farm in pre-Civil War, Virginia,. Henry runs the mill; Sapphire runs the farm. Although slave owners, Henry and Sapphira held different views on slavery. Sapphira’s power came in owning slaves. Henry respected the people who worked on his farm, and constantly struggled as to whether or not he should release the slaves to freedom.
Sapphira, a bitter woman, wheelchair bound, operated her farm like a kingdom. Sapphira struggles in the relationships with her daughter and husband. Nancy, a young, light-skinned slave and source of contention between Sapphira and Henry becomes the focal point of the novel.
Cather’s artfully drawn characters sensitively portray love, anger, kindness and jealousy.