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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:
 Sparely written and moving April 1, 2005
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I read this slender volume on the plane ride home from a trip to Disneyland. It was a perfect antidote to the crowded modernity and garish consumerism of a theme park. I read an article in which the author claimed that Willa Cather is the greatest American writer, surpassing even Hemingway. I'm not sure about the truth of this statement, but I have loved everything that I have ever read that she wrote.
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a mature book by a mature author. It tells the story of the life of a Catholic bishop, who eventually becomes, as the title would suggest, an archbishop. Bishop LaTour arrives in the southwest in the 1800s, and lives out his life there. The prose is spare and lovely, with descriptions of the geography of the southwest that somehow convey, in a few well-chosen words, the immensity and grandeur of the landscape. Willa Cather is able to define for us the interior and the exterior life of the bishop, and conveys his faith and his adherence to that faith so beautifully.
The book takes the reader through forty years of Father LaTour's life in just a few hundred pages, beginning with the conversation (of which he is not a part) in Italy that results in his selection as the bishop. The main body of the book chronicles the first several years of his tenure as bishop, and contains rich anecdotes of his experiences with the Mexicans, Kit Carson, and other faithful residents of the Southwest. The end, when death does indeed come for the archbishop is quite simply heartbreakingly lovely.
Not Written Like Modern Novels March 26, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This remarkable story of faith in the wilderness of the American Southwest is remarkable, though not told in the format of our modern novels. Ms. Cather's work rather resembles a VCR in that she lets us see portions of the unfolding story before "fast forwarding" through resolutions and on into the rest of the story. At times this is a bit of a "let down," especially when the reader had been building interest only to have the following events passed over superficially. On the whole, however, this book is masterfully written.
The missionary priests seem so similar to the circuit-riding Methodist saddlebag preachers I've read about. The main difference is, of course, the nature of their religion. The privations and sacrifices associated with spreading their faith and fortifying it in the vast North American wilderness of the 1800s are the same regardless of specific beliefs.
Anyone giving this book a fair reading will become very familiar with the two French priests and will finish the book having gained an appreciation for the history of the Southwest and for the faith of those first immigrants that settled it.
Death Comes for the Archbishop July 10, 2004
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop is a deceptively simple but profound novel about two French missionaries in the Southwestern United States. These men are not terribly otherworldly and they are capable of enjoying good books, good wine, and good food. They are tough guys too, up to the task of traveling thousands of miles on horseback or facing down some bad guys. The religion they promote provides support and comfort to Mexicans, Indians, and some Anglo miners who need spiritual succor.The book presents us with several vignettes in the lives of these urbane priests, as well as some fables and Southwestern folklore. By living in harmony with God's law and the world he created, the men prosper. Eventually, they must part, and they must grow old and die. But death holds no horror for men like these who have spent their lives in service to others. Cather's writing is beautiful and direct. In the following passage, one of the priests and his friend spend several days traveling together: As Father Latour and Eusabio approached Albuquerque, they occasionally fell in with company; Indians going to and fro on the long winding trails across the plain, or up into the Sandia mountains. They had all of them the same quiet way of moving, whether their pace was swift or slow, and the same unobtrusive demeanor: an Indian wrapped in his bright blanket, seated upon his mule or walking beside it, moving through the pale new-budding sage-brush, winding among the sand waves, as if it were his business to pass unseen and unheard through a country awakening with spring. North of Laguna two Zuni runners sped by them, going somewhere east on "Indian business." They saluted Eusabio by gestures with the open palm, but did not stop. They coursed over the sand with the fleetness of young antelope, their bodies disappearing and reappearing among the sand dunes, like the shadows that eagles cast in their strong, unhurried flight. Her book also contains some beautiful ideas. In this passage, the two priests discuss Our Lady of Guadalupe: "Where there is great love there are always miracles," [Father Latour] said at length. "One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as you really are, Joseph; I see you through my affection for you. The Miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always." This book has it all: fine writing, adventure, and some lessons for living. Most highly recommended.
a great accomplishment to read March 11, 2004
2 out of 24 found this review helpful
I also read this book for the academic decathlon. It helped that I defined every word I didn't know ( A LOT OF WORDS) because it gave me a better understanding of what's going on. When I didn't use the dictionary though, it was very boring and confusing. It was very hard to read but in the end, I guess it was an accomplishment to read. The book was very hard to read. I emphasize VERY HARD to read. For those of you who is reading this book for some kind of project test blah blah blah blah blah, I suggest you underline every word you don't know (which would be a WHOLE lot) and start defining them before reading the book.
 The horror...the horror... February 22, 2004
0 out of 26 found this review helpful
I had to read this for academic decathlon and I must say it's one of the most boring, blandly-written things I've ever read, and I adore reading.
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