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| Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Willa Cather
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $1.93
You Save: $10.02 (84%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (95 reviews)
Sales Rank: 26484
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0679728899
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780679728894
ASIN: 0679728899
Publication Date: June 16, 1990
Release Date: June 16, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Travels with the Archbishop January 6, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Having read this book many years ago, I was anxious to read it again on my visit to Santa Fe and environs in October 06. It was a pleasure to read Cathers prose and steep myself in the history of the places we were visiting. One became aware of the difficulties experienced by this fine French priest as he travelled the land by mule and his persistance in bringing Christianity to the people. Wonderful descriptions of the landscape and colorful characters. A great re read and I would recommend it to anyone - travelling or not.
Before there was television, there was charm October 30, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
To a twenty-first century reader, it's
almost unbelievable that this book would
have been once considered a classic of
American literature. The characters are
described in the most impersonal terms,
(we learn little of their internal life)
there is no conflict that leads to
a new resolution, the generalizations
about people would now be considered
racist and dramatic tension is completely
absent.
So what makes this book so appealing?
It's a question of charm. In the days
before the dramatic structure of television
ruled literature and people's leisure
time, a series of stories with a certain
moral center were enormously appealing.
The tradition is long-morality plays to
Horatio Alger.
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP is a
pre-television entertainment, a splendid
way of passing a pre-electronic hour
or two in the evening. What raises it
above mere pap (pre-television television)
is the the beguiling attention to the
surface texture of the land and the
society that it describes.
There is also something very comforting
about the moral certainty of the
characters. We moderns-or are we post-
moderns-can never be as sure of ourselves
as these characters are.
So for comfort and a sense of an earlier
way of storytelling, this is a wonder. For
its gracious way of describing a vanished life,
it's a gem.
Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the forthcoming novel, bang-BANG from Kunati Press
A spiritual novel of time and place. October 21, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a unique reading experience in that the plot is almost hidden from the reader and Cather uses both landscape and the passage of time to give the novel its underlying structure. I know this sounds odd but the novel is written in very direct language in chapters that are almost short stories with a common set of characters. Yet the strength of her descriptions of New Mexico between 1850 and 1900 and her careful and subtle ability to express the slow passage of time serve as the underlying template on which the novel is built.
There is very little 'page turner' tension and the characters undergo maturity but no great change in insights. In fact the two main characters, Bishop Letour and Father Vaillant, are guided by a set of moral principles and spiritual maturity with which they encounter every human interaction and natural (lost in the desert, snowstorms) challenge.
There were several chapters and incidents that illustrated the differences between the upper middle class and scholarly Bishop Letour and his life long friend, Father Vaillant, a French farmer's son who totally exemplifies the concept of faith into action.
Father Vaillant was always willing to undergo hardship to bring the comfort and challenge of Christianity to those in need. He goes into the Native Pueblos that had not seen a priets in many years. He goes into the new territory acquired by the US Government in southern New Mexico (the Gadsden Purchase) and wild west gold rush Denver.
Bishop Letour on the other hand is more contemplative and strategic. This is especially true of his handling of the Spanish priests that came under his supervision when he came to New Mexico in 1851. These priests had been unsupervised for so long that many had common law wives and children. Many had grown rich as cattle farmers, land owners, and merchants. Father Letour was in the position of having been given responsibility but he was thousands of miles from central authority in Rome. He had responsibility but little resources. He eventually brings these priets into line, but he is very strategic in the process, not trying to take them all on at once.
Kit Carson is a complex character in the story. At times he displays considerable refinement of character as the husband of a Native woman and a half-breed daughter. Then at others he takes on the role of the Indian Killer. The novel firmly falls on the side of the ill-treated and misused Native People of New Mexico.
I once heard that there were two approaches to character development in fiction. The first type is those novels who's characters are shaped by the incidents of the story so that the characters are not the same men/women they were at the beginning. The second is those novels who's characters are of such strong character that they undergo a range of incidents, hardships, and challenges and yet remain true to an inner strength and conviction. Death Comes for the Archbishop is certainly a fine example of the latter type of novel.
I also once heard there were only two real plot lines in novels. One is "a stranger comes to town" and the other is "someone goes on a trip". Death Comes for the Archbishop is actually a good mixture of both of these plot lines. The Bishop and the Vicar come together to New Mexico and must learn many lessons about the people, the tribes, the elements, and the landscape. Yet they must move from Santa Fe to address the spiritual needs of the New Mexicans and thus these many trips make up many of the chapters of the novel.
Since passage of time in a slowly moving landscape is the primary structure on which the story/incidents are integrated; I suggest reading this novel slowly, calmly, and reflectively - as it was probably intended to be read.
grace under fire June 7, 2006
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
I have a different kind of relationship with Willa Cather's novels. I read My Antonia for a class in college and loved it. It was one of the better books we read that semester and there were a few good ones. Later, on my own, I read O Pioneers! and it felt like I was dragging my feet through quicksand trying to get through the book. There was no connection, no spark. So, I didn't know what to expect from another Cather novel. When I picked up Death Comes for the Archbishop I had no real expectations except that it couldn't be as good as My Antonia.
It is.
It is a very simple story. In the mid 1800's the Catholic Church sends a young Bishop out into New Mexico to take over a diocese there which covers hundreds and hundreds of square miles. Perhaps thousands. The Church is moving the seat of power from hundreds of miles to the south in Mexico to Santa Fe. Bishop Jean Latour is sent from the Lake Ontario region and he travels across the country with his friend, the Vicar, Father Joseph Valliant to put together a parish and diocese in the still wild region of New Mexico. The span of the novel covers the next several decades as Latour and Father Joseph work together ministering to the local Mexicans and Native Indians. The novel is as much a collection of stories regarding Latour's time in the Southwest as it is a coherent novel. There is no "plot" as one would traditionally understand plot. But it is an examination of the grace and faith of Latour and his interactions with various personalities and confronting individual conflicts in a true Christian manner. If one was able to choose what sort of man would be a Bishop, Latour would be the first choice. He did good work and left a positive mark on everyone he came in contact with. There is no overarching conflict through this novel, but the conflict is the building up of the diocese and the small conflicts that any Bishop must face.
For such a character piece as Death Comes for the Archbishop, I have to say that I loved the novel. Published in 1927 and set in the mid to late 1800's the struggles felt contemporary even though they are specific to a region still being settled. The attitudes and viewpoints of the characters felt appropriate to the setting, though they might grate a little harsh to the modern ear. Even so, I felt more grace coming from this novel than I did the occasional harshness from an outdated viewpoint which fit the characters. In this novel we get to see the growth of Latour and his diocese which he runs with a very hands on and honest approach...as befits a man of the cloth. We do see the examples of what a bad priest would be like.
Overall, I think Death Comes for the Archbishop is an excellent book and now puts me two up on having read excellent Willa Cather novels.
-Joe Sherry
Profound questions, satisfying answers March 26, 2006
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
What motivated young, well-educated mid-19th century Frenchmen to leave their beloved country for the wilds of Lake Ontario and then the even wilder newly-annexed New Mexico territory? To toil there for decades amid the struggles -- often sanguinary -- between rival cultures? What caused them to choose to die there rather than a comfortable retirement back "home" in the old country? Cather answers with an exploration of religious faith, of the enchanting beauty of the desert, arroyos and mountains and of the indominable human spirit. I felt her questions were profound and her answers satisfying.
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