Later Novels: A Lost Lady / The Professor’s House / Death Comes for the Archbishop / Shadows on the Rock / Lucy Gayheart / Sapphira and the Slave Girl

by Willa Cather, Sharon O'Brien (Editor)

This Library of America volume collects six novels by Willa Cather, who is among the most accomplished American writers of the twentieth century. Their formal perfection and expansiveness of feeling are an expression of Cather’s dedication both to art and to the open spaces of America.

A Lost Lady (1923) exemplifies her principle of conciseness. It concerns a woman of uncommon loveliness and grace who lends an aura of sophistication to a frontier town, and explores the hidden passions and desires that confine those who idealize her. The recurrent conflict in Cather’s work between frontier culture and an encroaching commercialism is nowhere more powerfully articulated.

The Professor’s House (1925) encapsulates a story within a story. In the framing narrative, Professor St. Peter, a prizewinning historian of the early Spanish explorers, finds himself disillusioned with family, career, even the house that reflects his success. Within this story is another, of St. Peter’s friend Tom Outland, whose brief but adventurous life still shadows those he loved.

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) tells the story of the first bishop of New Mexico in a series of tableaux modeled on the medieval lives of the saints. Cather affectionately portrays the refined French Bishop Latour and his more earthy assistant within the harsh and beautiful landscape of the Southwest and among the Mexicans, Indians, and settlers they were sent to serve.

Shadows on the Rock (1931), though its setting and subject are unusual for Cather, expresses her fascination with the “curious endurance of a kind of culture, narrow but definite.” It is a re-creation of 17th-century Québec as it appears to the apothecary Auclaire and his daughter Cécile: the town’s narrow streets, the supply ships on its great river, its merchants, profligates, explorers, missionaries, and towering personalities like Frontenac and Laval, all parts of a colony struggling to survive.

Lucy Gayheart (1935) returns to the themes of Cather’s earlier writings, in a more somber key. Talented, spontaneous, and eager to explore the possibilities of life, Lucy leaves her prairie home to pursue a career in music. After a happy interval, her life takes an increasingly disastrous turn.

Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940) marks a triumphant conclusion to Cather’s career as a novelist. Set in Virginia five years before the Civil War, the story shows the effects of slaveholding on Sapphira Colbert, a woman of spirit and common sense who is frighteningly capricious in dealing with people she “owns,” and on her husband, who hates slavery even while he conforms to the social order that permits it. When through kindness he refuses to sell a slave, Sapphira’s jealous reaction precipitates a sequence of events that registers a conflict of cultural as well as personal values.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, American, 20th Century, Novels

976 pages, Hardcover

First published July 15, 1990

About the author

Wilella Sibert Cather was born in Back Creek Valley (Gore), Virginia, in December 7, 1873.

She grew up in Virginia and Nebraska. She then attended the University of Nebraska, initially planning to become a physician, but after writing an article for the Nebraska State Journal, she became a regular contributor to this journal. Because of this, she changed her major and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English.

After graduation in 1894, she worked in Pittsburgh as writer for various publications and as a school teacher for approximately 13 years, thereafter moving to New York City for the remainder of her life.

Her novels on frontier life brought her to national recognition. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, 'One of Ours' (1922), set during World War I. She travelled widely and often spent summers in New Brunswick, Canada. In later life, she experienced much negative criticism for her conservative politics and became reclusive, burning some of her letters and personal papers, including her last manuscript.

She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. In 1944, Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments.

She died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 73 in New York City.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cather's novels linger. You know it's a good book when you find yourself wondering, "I wonder what he is doing now?" about this or that character, after the book is finished. :) Cather elevates the mundane and "insignificant," lending dignity to hearth and home and revealing the complexities that reside within every person. Her voice is part of America, her landscapes part of our history. There are few authors who use setting to such a lasting advantage, actually creating almost another character out of the land itself. She has become synonymous with Nebraska, and the stretching vastness of the prairies that birthed some of the very character traits of the average American, living in many of us to this day. Her women are strong, sure, and attractive in qualities that go beyond the physical. She embraces those things that make us unique as individuals and as a nation: industry, passion, creativity, talent, imagination, independence, struggle, determination, and practicality. She makes us feel the effects of isolation and the ways in which we are affected (for good or ill... or both) by our environments.

All of these things are true, and worth noticing... but what makes her books truly "classics" are the stories themselves, and how beautiful they are, how they touch something in our souls. I simply enjoy reading about the people in her books. She makes me want to visit Nebraska -- now isn't THAT an accomplishment? :)

I think Cather's works should be read on their own, without delving into her recently published letters. They were published without her consent, she always wanted her works to stand on their own. And I think they do, entirely, without reservation. They are beautiful, each one unique, every character drawn fully and intelligently in their own place and time, whether that be French Canada, Nebraska, the prairies, or the Southwest. I admire Cather's ability to create such a unique variety of people from so many walks of life, who somehow also manage to represent us all so well.

[Guhnguh]

Read Shadows on the Rock

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Death Comes for the Archbishop before a trip to Albuquerque because I wanted to read about the history of New Mexico. Also, this is a book recommended to me more than 45 years ago by the town's librarian who had been my second-grade teacher. The descriptions of the land meant nothing to me, in my early teens, because I had only known the midwest of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. A recent hiking trip to Big Bend National Park opened my imagination to the image of Jean Marie Latour who

had lost his way, and was trying to get back to the trail, with only his compass and his sense of direction for guides. The difficulty was that the country in which he found himself was as featureless--or rather, that it was crowded with features, all exactly alike....He had been riding among them since early morning, and the look of the country had no more changed than if he had stood still.

As a teenager, I still preferred a novel with a strong narrative form that kept me turning pages at the end of every chapter; I was not yet prepared for the enjoyment of an episodic novel such as this.

I'm glad I gave it a second chance.

[Sylvie Vanhoozer · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Shadows on the Rock)

These coppers, big and little, these brooms and clouts and brushes, were tools; and with them one made, not shoes or cabinet work, but life itself. One made a climate within a climate; one made the days, - the complexion, the special flavour, the special happiness of each day as it passed; one made life. p.589

As Auclair was returning home after midnight, under the glitter of the hard bright northern stars, he felt for the first time wholly and completely cut off from France; a helpless exile in a strange land. Not without reason, he told himself bitterly as he looked up at those stars, had the Latin poets insisted that thrice and four times blessed were those to whom it befell to die in the land of their fathers. p.630

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read A Lost Lady, but I couldn't find an edition on GoodReads, so here we are. A Lost Lady is a bleak little novella about Marian Forrester, a woman who is married to a much-older wealthy man and living in an isolated community near the Black Hills in the later 19th century / early 2oth? It's told in limited third-person from the point of view of Niel, who grew up near their home and knew Mrs. Forrester from when he was a boy fishing on the Forrester property and takes a year off from university in the East to come back West to take care of the Forresters while Captain Forrester is dying. He learns that Marian is a more complicated person whose decisions he can't understand. It's an interesting portrait of two individual in this time and place.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to A Lost Lady. Ultimately sad, this book was just meh. There wasn't much redemptive about it, although I think it probably represented enough marriages made in the frontier days. The biggest lesson I took was that you can have an immensely good influence on those who would normally be course and unrefined judged by what the Captain was able to accomplish in his life and therefore the influence his wife had on the young men around her.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willa Cather is a very talented writer. In her novels she follows people through their lives. Though there is not a suspenseful plot to draw one in, they are stories that absorb you into them. Very glad I took the time to read these 6 novels after reading her early novels. She is definitely an early feminist.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read "Death Comes for the Archbishop," which was very atmospheric. That's all I'll say for it. This novel is impossibly dated in its condescension to Mexican and Indian folks and idolatry of priests. Too much water over that dam.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cather is one of my favorite authors, though her later output is a mixed bag.

A LOST LADY: ***. This one seemed to retread a number of her previous devices: the central love plot echoed O PIONEERS!'s, while the narrative frame strongly resembled MY ANTONIA's. A fine work and not one I'm mad to have read, but I keep feeling like I missed something with this one. Read 9/15.

THE PROFESSOR'S HOUSE: ****. Structurally daring, this one thrives in its engrossing middle section which prints the "found' manuscript of the titular professor's prized student Tom Outlander's discovery of an ancient cave-dwellers' village; the surrounding frame is pure Cather, enraged at the modern world and its opportunists and consumers. Read 2/15.

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP: *****. This one is just perfect. Read 8/11.

SHADOWS ON THE ROCK: *****. As is this one. This and her previous novel both excel in their detailed depictions of bygone times; her best trick is to trace the changing times so slowly that you don't realize how different everything is until those final pages, when she plunges the knife into your heart. Read 9/14.

LUCY GAYHEART: **. This one pales in comparison to earlier works like THE SONG OF THE LARK, which has a similar "girl leaves home to become an artist" plot, or any of her other tragic romances, and is largely just not great - both in comparison and on its own. Read 12/14.

SAPPHIRA AND THE SLAVE GIRL: **1/2. There's a lot that grabbed me in this one: Cather's ability to isolate and articulate the complex lives and psychologies of her characters is on full display here, and the personal nature - based in her own family's history - is compelling. But it reflects so much which was unfortunate about U.S. attitudes about race from that time (and now) that it largely fails in a contemporary reading: the centralizing of white characters as Nancy's liberators and the suggestion that Nancy was fine with (and even grateful for) her enslavement until her (sexual) bodily autonomy was threatened is difficult to engage with in the 21st century. Read 12/16.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death Comes for the Archbishop *** – This is a beautifully written, beautifully unfolding tale. It’s almost enough to make one believe in god. Almost. The book, like Bishop Latour, has a strong sense of place. It is stoically about eternity and mortality – the ancient landscape and man’s small role in it. The world shrugs at our futile efforts to tame it and each other. Yet there is a beauty to man and his/her endless struggles.

All the characters are presented sympathetically – women, Indians, Mexicans, Americans – even those less virtuous. And while there is a good bit of nostalgia for a more natural, less cultured time, there is a bleakness to the stories. The hardships are not ignored. But there is a wistfulness for a bygone era that permeates the novel. It feels like it’s told by an ancient looking back on his or her days of youth.

However, like Dicken’s Esther Summerson, Latour is impossibly perfect. Generous, civil, fair minded, dedicated (beyond reason) – it’s hard for the reader not to admire or even love Latour. He has no faults but occasional selfishness for wanted companionship and friendship. (Terrible!) Who doesn’t read this and feel terrible about the selfish choices they made in life?

What’s missing from the book is Latour’s relationship to Catholicism. It’s treated as a given. But the religion Latour seems to practice (other than the standard ritual/dogma) is pretty much just a faith in fate – a sense of purpose (though what that purpose is isn’t clear). Change a few titles and rituals and he could be a priest for any religion – Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim, etc. In this simplicity is the book’s beauty, but also its ultimate weakness. The Catholic church is not that benign, and human motivation is not that simple.

Overall, though, a very good book. If you enjoy historical fiction – particularly about the southwest U.S. – this is a must read. (11/16)

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

SHADOWS ON THE ROCK is the fourth in this compilation of Willa Cather's later novels. This book is historical fiction. It is also deeply Catholic. It takes place in Quebec, Canada, of which I know nothing. But, Cather's depiction of Quebec City and its position on a high hill, along with the severe weather there and the images of toasty indoor fireplaces, make me want to get on the bus and go there. An apothecary and his daughter are the characters with whom we become friends in Cather's careful attention to detail of their lives, their faith and their home. Also, their charity. Again, I find Cather meticulous in her renditions of the atmosphere of a place and the people who inhabit her made-up locations. Even I know that Quebec is a French outpost in a very English country and the isolation of that odd juxtapostion of cultures is very clear in this work. There are many French phrases and passages that I had to skip over but that did not detract from the work. In fact, I was impressed with Cather's apparent command of the language. There are also character and place studies of the French trapper and trader which I found absolutely fabulous-- full of romance, hardship and valor. Cather's spare and eloquent style persists although I found this one a little slow going at times.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even as late as earlier today, I planned to give this a "3". In this collection of six novels, I'd only previously read "Death Comes for the Archbishop" and I loved it. As I'd read each story, I'd find myself involved in the plot and characters, then I'd read the end, be disappointed, and think "That's a terrible way to end it!" Then I'd put the book aside to read something else before going on to the next story. And each time, the previously read story would kind of hang around in my mind, almost demanding that I come to terms with it and like it. The final story, "Sapphira and the Slave Girl" was the exception--I didn't like it most of the way through, then finished it earlier today and liked it better because of the ending. Weird. Anyway, I read Cather for her characterizations and her sense of place--I first fell in love with her writing about the Nebraska prairie. Even though these stories take place in as diverse areas as Virginia, the Southwest, and Old Quebec, Cather can still write about place like few others. And it says something that in an age now where I read current novels and often forget the plot and stop thinking about the book in a matter of days, these stories were finely crafted enough to hang around in my head until I found place for them.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "Death Comes for the Archbishop" for the adult summer reading program at my local library. Willa Cather is a Nebraska author. Like most Cather books, not much happens. It was interesting to read a bit about the history of New Mexico/Santa Fe, but I would have liked to have more of a story to go along with the history. Basically, the novel is about two Catholic priests who are missionaries in New Mexico after the area is annexed by the United States. It is a short read, and I don't know that I would recommend it.

[Moira Downey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just as a point of clarification, of these novels, I tackled only Death Comes For the Archbishop as a book club entry, which I found beautiful in places and oddly unfulfilling in others. However, I feel as though my fairly tortured relationship with Catholicism (and notably its particularly complicated historical role in the American West) had no small part to play in what I found lacking about the book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title I'm Reviewing: Death Comes For the Archbishop. Took a class on this book and it was a most pleasurable re-read from long-ago high school years. Also love the beautiful Library of America editions.


Lost Lady: I read for another class. I really enjoy stepping back in time and place in
Cather's novels. She does such a wonderful job of making one feel they are truly there.
(Jan. 2024)

[Maure · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willa Cather is a Master Writer. The one not mentioned here and the one she received the PP for is My Antonia, a must read for anyone and everyone. Sapphira and the Slave girl speaks to the soul of those who know the longing for deserved respect. Lucy Gayheart, I read in grade school, an eon ago, and just remember enjoying it.
Any time spent with a Cather novel is basking in word art.

[Hester Furey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read most of these a long time ago. Read Death Comes for the Archbishop for faculty reading group a year and a half back and regard it as a must-read for scholars of American literature. Excellent writing, combines all the virtues of historical fiction, place-based writing, and the modernist era of its composition.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting; I really adored "Shadows on the Rock," but by the time I got to the rest of the stories, I really wasn't in a Cather mood. I liked "A Lost Lady" a low (which reminded me of "My Antonia," in a way) and "Lucy Gayheart" was good. The others I wasn't as into as much.

[Martin Bihl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Lost Lady - finished 11.20.12

The Professor's House - finished 05.30.13

(Death Comes to the Archbishop - finished 06.13.05)

Shadows on the Rock - finished 02.28.16

Lucy Gayheart - finished 02.27.17

Sapphira and the Slave Girl - finished 03.03.18

[Amy Krohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially love *A Lost Lady* and *Lucy Gayheart.* What characterization! The female heroines for both novels are both a cut above the rest of the world, but they both also have their character flaws which make them tragic.

[Ann-marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

With in this tomb is my favorite Cather novel, "Shadows on the Rock". An engrossing novel that takes place over the course of one year in Quebec in the late 1600.

[Lori Simonson · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED IT!

[Darlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read A Lost Lady quickly - I was interested in the characters enough to continue reading. I felt quite a bit of disjointedness and unnecessary information for the plot of the story.

[Kelly Paprocki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only read Death Comes for the Archbishop. Was beautifully depicted albeit slow.
Great mini history of New Mexico and to a far lesser extent, Colorado/Arizona.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for A Lost Lady and The Professor's House - the other novels I liked not quite as well.

[Elizabeth (Betty) Thomsen]

Death comes for the archbishop / by Willa Cather

[Jenny Shamess · Rating 5 out of 5]

good collection of her best