BooksThe Professor's House
A lyrical and bittersweet novel of a middle-aged man losing control of his life that's a brilliant study in emotional dislocation and renewal—from one of the most highly acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. Professor Godfrey St. Peter is a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to his work, his wife, his garden, and his daughters, and achieved success with all of them. But when St. Peter is called on to move to a new, more comfortable house, something in him rebels. And although at first that rebellion consists of nothing more than mild resistance to his family's wishes, it imperceptibly comes to encompass the entire order of his life. The Professor's House combines a delightful grasp of the social and domestic rituals of a Midwestern university town in the 1920s with profound spiritual and psychological introspection.
A lyrical and bittersweet novel of a middle-aged man losing control of his life that's a brilliant study in emotional dislocation and renewal—from one of the most highly acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. Professor Godfrey St. Peter is a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to his work, his wife, his garden, and his daughters, and achieved success with all of them. But when St. Peter is called on to move to a new, more comfortable house, something in him rebels. And although at first that rebellion consists of nothing more than mild resistance to his family's wishes, it imperceptibly comes to encompass the entire order of his life. The Professor's House combines a delightful grasp of the social and domestic rituals of a Midwestern university town in the 1920s with profound spiritual and psychological introspection.
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Find The Professor's House Willa Cather in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Professor's House Willa Cather in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
4 books in catalog
Depictions of pioneer hardship and immigrant resilience on the Great Plains defined a distinctive body of American fiction, famously led by My Ántonia. Willa Cather brought the landscapes and diverse communities of the American frontier to life through clear, evocative prose that captured both the beauty and severity of prairie existence.
Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, in 1873, Cather moved with her family at age nine to rural Webster County, Nebraska, later settling in the town of Red Cloud. Her childhood among European immigrant homesteaders deeply shaped her perspective. She attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, graduating in 1895 after building early experience in journalism. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1896, she worked for publications such as Home Monthly and the Pittsburgh Leader, and taught high school English before publishing her first poetry collection, April Twilights, in 1903. In 1906, she relocated to New York City to join McClure's Magazine, becoming its managing editor by 1908. Following the 1912 publication of her debut novel, Alexander's Bridge, she resigned from editorial work to devote herself entirely to fiction, going on to earn the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.
Cather's narrative style is characterized by lyrical economy, psychological nuance, and vivid environmental detail. Rather than relying on sensational plot devices, she focused on the quiet inner lives of her characters, exploring themes of cultural displacement, memory, artistic devotion, and human endurance against expansive landscapes. Her fiction gave serious artistic weight to the experiences of frontier women and European immigrants, contrasting traditional agrarian values with the pressures of modern industrialization. This stylistic clarity allowed her to craft emotionally resonant narratives that bridged realistic historical detail with broader philosophical inquiries into identity and home.
4 books in catalog
Depictions of pioneer hardship and immigrant resilience on the Great Plains defined a distinctive body of American fiction, famously led by My Ántonia. Willa Cather brought the landscapes and diverse communities of the American frontier to life through clear, evocative prose that captured both the beauty and severity of prairie existence.
Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, in 1873, Cather moved with her family at age nine to rural Webster County, Nebraska, later settling in the town of Red Cloud. Her childhood among European immigrant homesteaders deeply shaped her perspective. She attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, graduating in 1895 after building early experience in journalism. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1896, she worked for publications such as Home Monthly and the Pittsburgh Leader, and taught high school English before publishing her first poetry collection, April Twilights, in 1903. In 1906, she relocated to New York City to join McClure's Magazine, becoming its managing editor by 1908. Following the 1912 publication of her debut novel, Alexander's Bridge, she resigned from editorial work to devote herself entirely to fiction, going on to earn the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.
Cather's narrative style is characterized by lyrical economy, psychological nuance, and vivid environmental detail. Rather than relying on sensational plot devices, she focused on the quiet inner lives of her characters, exploring themes of cultural displacement, memory, artistic devotion, and human endurance against expansive landscapes. Her fiction gave serious artistic weight to the experiences of frontier women and European immigrants, contrasting traditional agrarian values with the pressures of modern industrialization. This stylistic clarity allowed her to craft emotionally resonant narratives that bridged realistic historical detail with broader philosophical inquiries into identity and home.
