O Pioneers! (Annotated)

Willa Cather

Summary

This edition includes the following editor's introduction: Willa Cather, an analysis of the literature of a free and empowered woman

First published in 1913, "O Pioneers!” is a regional novel by American author Willa Cather. The novel was written while Cather was living in New York, but it was partially based on her childhood in Nebraska and it reflected the author’s belief in the primacy of spiritual and moral values over the purely material.
"O Pioneers!” is known for its vivid re-creation of the hardships of prairie life and of the struggle of immigrant pioneer women. The novel is also a celebration of American mythology, an analysis of the human spirit, and an exploration of the human relationship to self and nature.
The title is a reference to a poem by Walt Whitman entitled Pioneers! O Pioneers! from “Leaves of Grass” (1855).

“O Pioneers!” details the life of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish-American immigrants in the farm country near the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska, at the turn of the 20th century. The main character, the oldest child and only girl Alexandra Bergson, inherits the family farmland when her father dies, and she devotes her life to making the farm a viable enterprise at a time when many other immigrant families are giving up and leaving the prairie. Alexandra deals with her struggles in the same manner that she deals with all other events that occur: with strength that speaks to her pioneering spirit and resolve.
The novel is also concerned with two romantic relationships, one between Alexandra and family friend Carl Linstrum and the other between Alexandra's brother Emil and the married Marie Shabata.

Available since: 08/28/2022.

Contemporary Fiction

Other books that might interest you

Heartstring

Ana Ashley

Mik 
If I had a dollar for every mistake I made… But there’s only one mistake I regret. 
Breaking my promise to the only person who ever understood my need to get away from a future I didn’t want…Tyler. 
I’ve reached many hearts through my music, but the only one I’ve ever wanted might be lost to me forever. 
Tyler 
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… 
Mik broke a promise a long time ago. 
What he doesn’t know is that he also broke my heart. 
I won’t be fooled or charmed again because his promises aren’t worth the sheet music they’re written on. 
His all too-resourceful teenage daughter’s skills at matchmaking may be charming, but I’m not ready to forgive or forget. 
Heartstring is book 4 in Ana Ashley’s series, Dads of Stillwater. This story contains two older guys who were always destined for each other, a know-it-all teenager, and a Labrador with short-term memory loss. Plus the usual hearts and all the small town romance you’d expect from Ana Ashley.

Show book

Vsevelod Garshin - A Short Story...

Vsevelod Garshin

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin was born on 14th February 1855 in what is now Dnipro in the Ukraine, but then part of the Russian Empire.

After attending secondary school he studied at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute.

Wars between and on behalf of Empires were a regular feature of the decades then. Garshin volunteered to serve in the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877.

He began as a private in the Balkans campaign and was wounded in action. By the end of the war, in 1878, he had been promoted to officer rank.

By now Garshin, having previously published some articles and reviews in newspapers, wished to devote himself to a literary career. The decision made he resigned his army commission.

His time as a soldier provided rich experiences for his early stories. His first ‘Four Days’ was related as the interior monologue of a wounded soldier left for dead on the battlefield for four days, face to face with the corpse of a Turkish soldier he had killed, gained him early admiration as an author of note.

He wrote perhaps only 20 stories, but their influence was immense, although in these more modern times he is barely remembered and lives in the more prolific shadows of others. His characters are superbly worked into stories that come alive in the intensity and reality of his prose.

Garshin’s most well-known story is ‘The Red Flower’, also known as ‘Scarlet Blossom’ and is easily amongst the first rank of stories dealing with mental health issues.

Despite early literary success, he himself experienced periodical bouts of mental illness.

In one such bout Garshin attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself down the stone stairs leading into his apartment building. Although not immediately fatal, Vsevolod Garshin died as a result of his injuries in a St Petersburg hospital on 5th April 1888. He was 33.
1 - Vesvelod Garshin - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction
2 - A Red Flower by Vsevolod Garshin
3 - A Very Short Romance by Vsevolod Garshin
4 - Officer and Soldier-Servant by Vsevolod Garshin
5 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin
6 - Coward by Vsevolod Garshin

Show book

Heart of Night

Angelina J. Steffort

“I will find you. And if it takes a lifetime, I will find you.” 
Ayna has just escaped death, only to crash head first into a new curse. This one is made by men.  
Heart still bleeding, Ayna fights to keep strong. But how can she, when she is in the brutal hands of the very traitor who killed Myron? Especially when he is working with a man who has made it his mission to see her pay for her father’s crimes. 
With her magic gone, Ayna is trapped and shipped off to her childhood world, where she uncovers plans at work that eclipse even Ephegos’s revenge—and an enemy who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. 
If only Ayna knew that her king survived, she might cling to a brittle hope. But Myron is fighting his own battles in the search for his queen. Each one leads him a little closer to death’s door. 
As they both plan their escape, they must make unlikely alliances and heart-wrecking choices—because this time, neither of them can rely on their magic to save them. 
The curse on the Crows is broken, but all hope is lost. Will Ayna and Myron find each other and freedom, or will they end in a cage worse than death? 
Full of intrigue, secrets, and heartbreak, Heart of Night is the second book in the sizzling epic romantic fantasy series, Wings of Ink and is perfect for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses, From Blood and Ash, and Beauty and the Beast.

Show book

Honest Work - A Good Women Story

Halle Hill

Maudette works at the state fair. She hates her job, she hates what her mother does for a living, she hates the people in her town, especially one of her mother’s clients, a local deacon. Working the tilt-a-whirl one day, she begins to consider revengeHonest Work is a short story from Halle Hill’s Good Women, which delves into the lives of twelve Black women across the Appalachian South. Darkly funny and deeply human, Good Women observes how place, blood ties, generational trauma, obsession, and boundaries―or lack thereof―influence how we navigate our small worlds, and how those worlds so often collide in ways we don’t expect.

Show book

Ready to Burn

Mandy Michelle

Single mom and cocktail waitress Alison Walker doesn’t trust men. After the father of her six-month-old daughter disappears the night her daughter is conceived, no one blames Alison for her distrust. 
Local fireman Ronan McGuire is a charity calendar virgin. If he weren’t so determined to help raise money for the Children’s Hospital, he’d never have agreed to parade half naked around a local bar full of rowdy women. But when Mr. July meets Miss Independent, the heat between them sets off fire alarms. 
For Ronan, the countdown to midnight now means more than just a hot kiss with a beautiful woman. It’s his chance to prove that not all men are after a one-night stand. When more than sparks fly and a fire rages through the bar, Ronan will have more to worry about than saving Alison’s heart; he will have to save her life.

Show book

A Remarkable Rogue

Anna Harrington

As a lady and a baroness, Sydney Rowland has spent a lifetime keeping secrets?one of them being her young son. Now that the husband she despised is dead, she'll do anything to get her son back and protect him however she can. And that includes risking her life when she's coerced into working for a revolutionary group determined to overthrow the government. Captain Nathaniel Reed has heard of Sydney's involvement with Scepter. Though he quickly learns that Sydney is innocent, he's determined to keep the secretive widow at arm's length despite the attraction that burns between them. But when she turns to him for help, nothing will stop him from coming to her aid and showing her exactly what she means to him...

Show book