This is an historical novel set in the Sante Fe area of New Mexico in the mid to late 1800s. It describes the experiences of two French priests (Father Latour - the bishop, and Father Vallaint - his vicar) sent there to establish a diocese. Most of their congregation are Mexicans who have previously been served by the Spanish catholic church, and Native American tribes - some of whom have embraced this new religion but many who have not. The plot line consists mainly of a series of vignettes describing the life of the two priests as they go about their work.

Willa Cather writes in a simple, but graceful style much like the personalities of her two priests. It is worth reading this novel just for her descriptions of the austere beauty of the American southwest. Many great authors have an uncanny ability to write beautiful prose with what appears to be very straightforward language, and Willa Cather certainly fits that category. Some have complained that her characters lacked depth in this novel, and though at times they seem to take a back seat to the setting, I found both men to be rich, real, and well-fleshed out characters. A recommended read.

If I could only have four volumes to read for the rest of my life they would be: Death Comes for the Archbishop, Joyce's Ulysses, a Shakespeare folio, and the Bible.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is a novel of striking beauty, profound debth, and deceiving simplicity. The language employed is the most clear and beautiful I have ever read in prose--it's closer to poetry. The philosophy Ms. Cather espouses is simple enough for the peasant to understand, and too complex for the wisest scholar.

This book just baffles me: it's not a novel, per se, nor is it a biography--it's more like an etching of time and place; of ideas and people who travel through the arid, beautiful dreamscape of New Mexico.

Ms. Cather wrote part of this novel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She got the idea of the novel from seeing a statue of Archbishop Lamy in front of St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, and meditating upon what his life must have been like from her balcony at La Fonda hotel that overlooked the Cathedral.

Ms. Cather spent months in New Mexico and the Southwest, and truly loved this land, which is reflected in her book; she was a woman of faith, which is also reflected in this book, and although not a book about religion, religion nevertheless permeates it. More, this is a book about the beauty of a life lived well, with hard work and faith, and the land which touches all who touch it.

Willa Cather's novels divide into three periods. Her early novels including O Pioneers and My Antonia focus on strong individuals, primarily women, who succeed, if only at great cost, in mastering the American midwest. Her middle period novels such as Luch Gayheart and A Lost Lady also take place on the Nebraska plains. They also feature women as main characters. They emphasize more than do the earlier books a sense of loss and disillusion and the need for the salvation of religion.

Cather's late style is exemplified in Death Comes for the Archbishop, written in 1927. The protagonists in this book are primarily men. This book is a historical novel and takes place in the American Southwest, with Santa Fe as the center beginning in the 1850's and continuing through the end of the 19th Century. The heros of the book are two Catholic priests, Father Jean Latour and Father Joseph Vailant who have been friends from their youth in the seminary in France. They are sent to New Mexico to bring Catholicism to the developing American territory. The novel is based on the letters of priests and missionaries in the area at the time together with Cather's own experiences and the work of her imagination.

The novel is full of descriptions of the landscape of the American southwest, its distances, bleakness, deserts, frost, wind, cold, and Pueblos. There are descriptions of the people in the area at time, particularly Mexicans and Indians. Kit Carson also has an important role in the book. We see a great deal of the two protagonists as they struggle externally to bring the teachings of the Church to life and internally with their own hearts and spiritual development.

The novel is static and episodic in character. It doesn't have much in the way of a continuous plot. Its theme is the development of America and the role of religion and the religious life in its development. In a letter to the Catholic magazine Commonweal written after the book's publication Cather emphasised her desire to write about of the importance of religion in America, particularly the development of the American Southwest. She believed that there was a tendency to focus too much on economic pressure as the moving factor in American expansion and focused on one of the religious traditions which shaped our country, and was a particular force in the Southwest.

Cather herself was not a Catholic but her book shows a great deal of sympathy and I think understanding of this particular faith. I think Cather properly focused on religion and its role in the United States and that today, as in her day, we tend, to our detriment, to shy away from considering religion in this manner.

The story of the inner lives of the priests, of their friendship, and of their contrasts to each other is poignantly and well told. This is a book that deserves its place as an American classic.

I would like to see if there is a character analysis on the character of Jim Burden. I have read My Antonia and would like to know everything about him if it is possible.

I thought My Antonia was an easy read. It was short, and although it could get a little boring at times and the ending wasn't as great as it could have been, it was entertaining. It's point was to give an account of nineteenth-century farm life while still being entertaining. It achieves both. It seems like man of the people critiquing this novel didn't actually read it.

I thought the book had a lot of charm. It showed how much strength mankind had to form this great land. The trusting and helpful ways to each other in order to survive. The strength and struggles for freedom: to have a piece of the American dream. The comforts we take so much for granted are driven home, how very spoiled and soft we have become. It also helped me to appreciate our farmers of today they must still face the same challenges while we just go to the store in our cars and get what we want.