stays there in her place, only to be surprised by Mr. Cutter returning to rape Ántonia, whom he expects will be alone and defenseless. Instead, Jim attacks the intruder, belatedly realizing that it is Mr. Cutter. Jim does well in school, the valedictorian of his high school class. He attends the new state university in Lincoln, where his mind is opened to a new intellectual life. In his second year, he finds one of the immigrant farm girls, Lena, is in Lincoln, too, with a successful dressmaking business. He takes her to plays, which they both enjoy. His teacher realizes that Jim is so distracted from his studies, that he suggests Jim come with him to finish his studies at Harvard in Boston. He does, where he then studies the law. He becomes an attorney for one of the western railroads. He keeps in touch with Ántonia, whose life takes a hard turn when the man she loves proposes marriage, but deceives her and leaves her with child. She moves back in with her mother. Years later, Jim visits Ántonia, meeting Anton Cuzak, her husband and father of ten more children, on their farm in Nebraska. He visits with them, getting to know her sons especially. They know all about him, as he features in the stories of their mother's childhood. She is happy with her brood and all the work of a farm wife. Jim makes plans to take her sons on a hunting trip next year. Reception and literary significance My Ántonia was enthusiastically received in 1918 when it was first published. It was considered a masterpiece and placed Cather in the forefront of novelists. Today, it is considered her first masterpiece. Cather was praised for bringing the American West to life and making it personally interesting. It brought place forward almost as if it were one of the characters, while at the same time playing upon the universality of the emotions, which in turn promoted regional American literature as a valid part of mainstream literature.<ref name="Heller">{{cite book |author=Heller, Terry |chapter=Cather's My Ántonia Promotes Regional Literature" |pages=1403–1406 |editor=Gorman, Robert F. |year=2007 |title=Great Events from History: The 20th Century: 1901–1940 – Volume 3 1915–1923 |publisher=Salem Press |location=Pasadena, California |isbn=978-1-58765-327-8}}</ref> "As Cather intended, there is no plot in the usual sense of the word. Instead, each book contains thematic contrasts." The novel was a departure from the focus on wealthy