Death Comes for the Archbishop (Virago Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Willa Cather (Author), A. S. Byatt (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Virago Modern Classics | Publication Date: September 1, 2006

In 1851 Bishop Latour and his friend Father Valliant are despatched to New Mexico to reawaken its slumbering Catholicism. Moving along the endless prairies, Latour spreads his faith the only way he knows—gently, although he must contend with the unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Over nearly 40 years, they leave converts and enemies, crosses, and occasionally ecstasy in their wake. But it takes a death for them to make their mark on the landscape forever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Quite simply a masterpiece ... I am completely bowled over by it ... This will be a book which I go on rereading' A. N. Wilson, TELEGRAPH *A powerful piece of writing, rich with the essence of a poor, yet beautiful country and a simple yet dignified 'A powerful piece of writing, rich with the essence of a poor but beautiful country and a simple yet dignified people' Sunday Times 'Quite simply a masterpiece ... I am completely bowled over by it; by the power of its writing, by the vividness of its secne painting and by the stories it tells ... This will be a book which I go on rereading' A. N. Wilson, Telegraph 'A tremendous, ranging story, economical and distilled as poetry ... A lovely book' Jane Gardam

About the Author

Willa Cather (1873-1947) was born in Virginia where for generations her ancestors farmed land. She became a teacher and journalist and is one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Virago UK (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844083721
• ISBN-13: 978-1844083725
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tale of the Old Southwest and the Missionaries, November 19, 2007

By 

Strawgold (Wyoming) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Death Comes for the Archbishop (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)

To be honest, the title was not one that I would have picked up on my own, and the book was recommended to me several times before I decided to read it. (You can't tell a book by it's Title) Worthy of all of it's critical acclaim, I have read this novel over several times, not only for it's splendid story line, but for the sheer brilliance of it, each time marveling at it's beauty and style. Though it deals with religion, it does it tastefully, openly, and allows the reader to see the underside of the human element that powers it.

Though all men may be "created equal", their characters are not, and this story is powerful in that regard as it exposes men of the cloth that are there simply as users of others, as opposed to the devoted, the sincere who's life work has been striven to the good.

The novel is timeless. The story unfolds in France and Italy, is about two boyhood friends who study for the priesthood together and subsequently end up doing their life's work together in the wild, open country of the New Mexico and Arizona frontiers. This work spans their entire lives, and the adventures, trials and hardships are many. The artistry that Willa Cather employs as she takes her reader through the magnificent, lonely expanses of sage and cactus, to the Mexican people in remote areas; the lawless exiles who hope to disappear into it's wilderness, is all accomplished as though a painter is at work beside her, shaping her words into visuals, makes this work one of her best, in my view.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great American Novel, October 16, 2008

By 

Billyjack D'Urberville (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Comes for the Archbishop (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)

This book is on the short list of great novels published in this country, and is arguably Cather's masterpiece. Based on the historic Bishop Lamy of 19th century Santa Fe, Cather's Bishop Latour is called to civilize a land with a complex and tangled history. Cather presents him as a hero cowboy on horseback, facing off against various challenges natural and human from the day he is dispatched from Rome until his death years later.

The prose is stately, but rich and colored -- modern English clear, direct, and chiseled. Each chapter is a self-contained episode, directly modeled on Giotto's Life of Saint Francis panel circa 1300, wherein roughly a dozen separate pictures depict famous episodes of the saint's life. Cather rigorously studied classical art, music, and architecture, and was as artistically conscious as other pioneer artists of her generation -- Frank Lloyd Wright in architecture, Stieglitz in photography. Coming dead center between Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway, and sharing a preoccupation with both of them for the American West, this book richly resonates as an ever-fresh, peculiarly American piece of classic writing.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American Classic, November 4, 2007

By 

Edie A. Clark - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Death Comes for the Archbishop (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)

Cather, who is famous for the lyrical quality of her sensitive writing, does not disappoint in this spectacular novel. She creates a rich and sensitive tapestry of human experience, spinning a yarn of struggle, revelation, love, cruelty, adaptation, and ultimate triumph. She never yields to the temptations of fatuous romanticism or trite platitudes. This book is an experience that transports the reader into another time in another place, but then provides the most insightful among us with the material needed to extrapolate from this experience, and apply it to other places in other times. This is a uniquely American masterpiece that will resonate with those who may have grown out of spy thrillers and whodunits.