#26 My Ántonia by Willa Cather

(1918, Virago)

“Last summer, in a season of intense heat, Jim Burden and I happened to be crossing Iowa on the same train.”

When first published, My Ántonia, the final novel in Willa Cather’s “prairie trilogy”, was considered her masterpiece. Subsequent highly esteemed publications, including AB Death Comes for the Archbishop (coming up next!), redefined it as her first masterpiece.

Like Their Eyes Were Watching God, My Ántonia captures a pioneering spirit, though in an earlier time, with a focus on European immigrants farming in the American West. While this is a topic I knew very little about, it rings with truth, no doubt due to the autobiographical nature of the material, and Cather’s masterful, effortless and mostly unsentimental handling of it. The Bohemian Antonia was based on a real woman, and the stories that comprise the narratives were drawn from Cather’s childhood.

We wise women

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith muses that “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.”

By that logic, Virago, founded 40 years ago at a kitchen table and now the world’s foremost publisher of books by and about women, publishes the best books.

You see, when I was younger, I planned to change the world. I was going to discover dinosaurs and stars. I was going to wear pretty silver dresses and sing and dance for everyone. I was going to be President of All, with the panache and style of an ass-kicking princess.

Journey to the End of the World

If you knew the world was ending, what would you do? Climb a mountain? Fall in love? Run around  naked? Eat cupcakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I’d like to read the best books ever written.

Sad, I know, but I’m an unrepentant bookworm, and there’s few things I like better than travelling the earth and beyond without having to pack a bag or break in sensible shoes. According to the Mayans/Roland Emmerich, I have until Dec. 21 2012 to do so.

But what are the best books ever written?