Shadows on the Rock (Vintage Classics) [Paperback]

Willa Cather (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1995

Set in seventeenth-century Canada, an evocation of North American origins highlights the men and women who struggled to adapt to the new world even as they clung to the one they left behind. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Willa Cather was born in 1873 on a small farm in the Back Creek valley near Winchester, Virginia. Her father was Charles Fectigue Cather (d. 1928), whose family had lived on land in the valley for six generations. Her mother was born Mary Virginia Boak (d. 1931). Mary had six more children after Willa: Roscoe, Douglass, Jessica, James, John, and Elsie.^[2] In 1883, Cather moved with her family to Catherton in Webster County, Nebraska. The following year the family relocated to Red Cloud, the county seat. Cather spent the rest of her childhood in the town which she later made famous by her writing career. When Willa Cather insisted on attending college, her family borrowed money for her to attend the University of Nebraska. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Willa Cather (1873-1947), one of America's finest writers, is the author of twelve novels. --This text refers to the Print on Demand (Paperback) edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (September 26, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679764046
• ISBN-13: 978-0679764045
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming and Moving, March 12, 2002

By 

Brian Libby "Gadfly" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shadows on the Rock (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

I can but echo the other favorable reviews already here: this book is one of the most magical and delightful I know of. The society and civilization of Quebec in 1697 are so remote from our own that this story might as well be classified as fantasy, and it makes us entirely absorbed in the life and times of the people in the city. The story is told in the 3rd person and the central character is Cecile Auclair, a girl of 12, who lives with her widowed father, the town pharmacist.

I can well understand why some younger readers do not like it. It does indeed use some "French words," and there is not a lot of "action." Older readers will not mind this.

I was given this book in 1967. It was the senior Religion prize at my Jesuit high school. Readers should be aware that some appreciation for the viewpoints and beliefs of the Catholic Church, as it was in 1700, will help in savoring this book.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magical excursion into a long lost world, March 8, 1999

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shadows on the Rock (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

Willa Cather was a lapsed Protestant who wrote two of the greatest novels of the twentieth century dealing with Roman Catholic characters: this novel and the even greater DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP. This book is many things at once: a magnificent historical novel, a wonderful depiction of an adolescent growing up, and a wonderful evocation of a world that none of us can visit any longer. I do not know what possessed this midwesterner to write a novel about 17th century Quebec, but I am delighted that she did. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgia for a past way of life, April 17, 1998

By 

M. A. Casey "In Quest of a Good Book" (Saint Marys, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shadows on the Rock (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

Auclair, Cecile, Mother Juschereau, Pierre Charron, Jacques, Jeanne Le Ber, Comte de Frontenac, Bishop Lacal-- Just to say these names is akin to the satisfaction one experiences crunching a potato chip or savoring a delectable morsel of chocolate. There is a connection here between the written word and one's senses that is rarely found these days and when one does find it one desires to cherish the moment. Reading Cather makes me wistful for the past. I want to see the rock of Quebec. I want to live in a town that is flanked by wilderness where the only connection to "civilized" Europe is by the arrival and departure of massive sailing ships. I also want to believe as the people in the novel believe, in the mystic wonders of a religion that extols the virtues of deceased missionaries and cloistered hermitess'. In short Cather has convinced me to travel-- back in time if I could-- to see what Cecile and Auclair see or even what Cather herself saw that so moved her to write such a beautiful history. I only wish I could read more. Each character she introduces could be the protagonist of their own novel. A wonderful, simple, novel that makes you want to get up off your seat and go!