- Death Comes for the Archbishop
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Death Comes for the Archbishop 
first edition dust jacketAuthor(s) Willa Cather Country United States Language English Genre(s) Novel Publisher Alfred Knopf Publication date 1927 Media type Print (Hardback & Hardcover) Pages 303 pp ISBN NA Death Comes for the Archbishop is a 1927 novel by Willa Cather. It concerns the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in New Mexico Territory. It is understood by many scholars as a love story between the two men, as well.
The novel was included on Time's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 [1] and Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century [1], and was chosen by the Western Writers of America to be the 7th-best "Western Novel" of the 20th century[2].
Contents
Plot summary
The primary character is Bishop Jean Marie Latour, who travels with his friend and vicar Joseph Vaillant from Sandusky, Ohio to New Mexico to take charge of the newly established diocese of New Mexico, which has only just become a territory of the United States. The names given to the main proponents reflect their characters. Vaillant, valiant, is fearless in his promulgation of the faith, whereas Latour, the tower, is more intellectual and reserved than his comrade.
At the time of his departure, Cincinnati is the end of the railway line west, so Latour must travel by riverboat to the Gulf of Mexico, and thence overland to New Mexico, a journey which takes an entire year. He spends the rest of his life establishing the Roman Catholic church in New Mexico, where he dies in old age.
The novel is notable for its portrayal of two well-meaning and devout French priests who encounter a well-entrenched Spanish-Mexican clergy they are sent to supplant when the United States acquired New Mexico and the Vatican, in turn, remapped its dioceses.[3]
Several of these entrenched priests are depicted in classic manner as examples of greed, avarice and gluttony, while others live simple, abstemious lives among the Native Americans. Cather portrays the Hopi and Navajo sympathetically, and her characters express the near futility of overlaying their religion on a millennia-old native culture. Cather's vivid landscape descriptions are also memorable. A scene where a priest and his Native American guide take cover in an ancient cave during a blizzard is especially memorable for its superb portrayal of the combined forces of nature and culture.
Allusions to other works
- Literature is mentioned with James Fenimore Cooper, Blaise Pascal, Saint Augustine, and Mme de Sévigné.
- Music is mentioned with Giuseppe Verdi, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Stephen Foster.
- Painting is mentioned with El Greco, Raphael, Titian, Jean-Georges Vibert, and La Tour.
Allusions to actual history
- The novel is based on the life of Jean-Baptiste Lamy, and partially chronicles the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
- Historical figures such as Popé, the Penitentes, Pope Gregory XVI, John C. Frémont, Kit Carson, and Saint Paul are mentioned.
- Historical events such as the War in Italy, Bosque Redondo, and Pike's Peak Gold Rush are also mentioned.
- "The Padre of Isleta"[4], Anton Docher is identified as the character of Padre de Baca.[5]
References
- ^ "Time Magazine's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/.
- ^ "Best Westerns of the 20th Century". http://www.westernwriters.org/best_westerns.htm/.
- ^ "The Ideology of Cather's Catholic Progressivism: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Guy Reynolds, from Cather Studies, vol. 3 (1996)". http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishfacpubs/1/.
- ^ Keleher and Chant. The Padre of Isleta. Sunstone Press, 1940-2009,
- ^ Willa Cather. Death comes for the Archbishop. Alfred Knopf, 1927, p.425.note 88-89
Categories:- 1927 novels
- Novels by Willa Cather
- Alfred A. Knopf books
- Novels set in New Mexico
- Roman Catholic Church novels
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