![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I learned a lot, as it turned out, so I’m splitting the discussion into two (or more) posts. In the end I decided to write about some things I learned about the book while reading it and reading about it (which I’m allowed to do now that I’m freed from the reading-in-1918 strictures). The danger about writing about a recognized masterpiece is that you’ll end up sounding like you’re doing a high school homework assignment. For that reason, I struggled with how to write about it. Still, My Ántonia’s status as a classic is unquestioned. The Magnificent Ambersons made the cut, barely, at #100. The Magnificent Ambersons (which I wrote about here ) was an enjoyable novel, but Tarkington’s portrayal of its central character was as hollow as Cather’s of Ántonia was masterful.** And My Ántonia didn’t make the Modern Library’s much-discussed 1998 list of the 100 best novels of the 20 th century (although her 1927 novel Death Comes for the Archbishop did). If you haven’t read it, take my word for it: Cather was robbed. Not everyone thought (or thinks) so highly of My Ántonia, though. The Pulitzer Prize for that year (the second one ever for a novel) was awarded to Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons. ![]()
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