Shadows on the Rock

by Willa Cather

Set in 17th century Canada. A year in the life of a widow and his young daughter and the trappers, missionaries, craftsmen, friends and others who come to their house and shop, it highlights the men and women who struggled to adapt to the "new world" and make a new life for themselves even as they clung to the one they had left behind.

 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Canada, Historical, American, Book Club

202 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1931

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

[Jaline · Rating 5 out of 5]

With her signature descriptive powers and the ability to generate ambience and evoke vibrant visuals, Willa Cather delivers a story of early Québec (as named and spelled by the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain), from the Algonquin word kébec which meant “where the river narrows”. Although the province is now three times the size of France or the State of Texas, back then it was a small settlement perched along a set of cliffs and bluffs above the Saint Lawrence River in Canada.

This story is about a particular point in time that saw the confluence of several historical figures in “New France” Quebec: Count de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France; (now Saint) Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, the first Bishop of Quebec; and Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Bishop Laval’s successor. Although Bishop Laval himself had chosen Bishop Saint-Vallier to succeed him, he lived to regret the choice as Saint-Vallier appeared more interested in spending time in the French court of King Louis XIV than he was in saving souls in the wilderness across the Atlantic.

Willa Cather cleverly sets her two main fictional characters close to all three historical figures. Euclide Auclair’s own father and grandfather served as physician and apothecary to Count de Frontenac in France. On his second return as Governor to New France, Count de Frontenac brought Euclide, his wife, and his 4-year-old daughter Cécile with him.

When this novel opens, it is October of the year 1697, eight years after his arrival with his family and from the top of the cliff called Cap Diamant, he watches the last of the summer ships depart for France. We are immediately drawn in to his thoughts and feelings as it will be many months (the following July) before they see another ship arrive.

Cécile is now 12 years old and since the death of her mother, she has taken over the domestic duties of the household. She has also followed her mother’s example and takes compassionate interest and care for an older man whose previous bone disease had so badly disfigured his face that people avoid him. Cécile also takes Jacques under her wing – a little boy of six whose mother is a notorious ‘lady of the night’. Cécile teaches him cleanliness, manners, and plays games and reads to him whenever she can. When she needs help with issues of conscience, she turns to Bishop l’Ancien (basically, former Bishop – although in practice Bishop Laval performed most of the duties since his successor spent so much time in France).

I loved meeting the characters in this novel who effectively generate and maintain the plot of this novel. There are contrasts in lifestyles, in ideologies, and clashes between the three historical figures whose visions are identical, yet their determination of how to accomplish them appear irrevocably separated.

As with other Willa Cather novels, I found myself caught up in the story she weaves and did not want to quit reading even when it was so late my eyes no longer wanted to stay open. Although in many ways, this novel is quiet and soothing, it is also compellingly fascinating.

[Jean-Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

What might be called a 'stop and smell the roses' sort of book. Like an aninated Disney film, somewhere between The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast--I kept expecting someone to suddenly burst into song.

In literary terms it is a mix of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Cadfael Chronicles and Cranford. It is something read for the characters and descriptions of Canadian winters and life in Quebec 300 years ago rather than for the plot, which is episodic, without an antagonist--the closest you're going to get is a materialistic Bishop--in sight. Were I to recite the plot it would sound like one of the books Judi Dench's character summarizes in the movie Philomena.

[Father Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being the third of the books I've read by Cather, I've come to expect a certain ecstatic experience from her work, and Shadows is no exception. In fact, compared to the other two, the utter simplicity and straightforwardness of the characters and emotions depicted has made this by far the most enjoyable of what I've read (the other two being My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop). There is a rhythm to her composition, in which characters are introduced, back story is discovered, an intensely rich interaction is recounted, and they recede to the background, to be recalled later in an aside. It's a lot like life, actually, if you think about it!

Interspersed within the events of a plot that could not be described as anything but slow, Cather's own wonder at simple folk and the way they "make the common fine" glows with true warmth. The little happenings in the life of a 12-year old Canadian girl and her colonial friends and family are small matters indeed, but Cather managed to infuse them with such grace that one cannot help but be drawn in to the heartfelt joys and sorrows that are the stuff of every human life--and in particular, constitute the life of a civilized colonist on a barren rock in the New World.

It is hard not to let one's heart expand with Cecile's as she hauls her little friend behind her on his sled up the hill and rejoices in her contentment even as she wonders at the possibility of being moved back to France. "Would not her heart break for just this? For this rock and this winter, this feeling of being in one's own place, for the soft content of pulling Jacques up Holy Family Hill into paler and paler levels of blue air, like a diver coming up from the deep sea."

Cather's style is always understated, a feature of what I consider to be a particularly romantic style--one that finds in the plodding rhythm of life carved out of the land all the wonder and contentment that any soul could want. Coupled with the French sensibilities of her characters, there is something quite venerable about even the least significant of them. Of course, in this sort of "romanticism" there is very little sentimentality here, and while there is much that is charming, in the end it is the simple matter-of-fact expectation that you, dear reader, will of course be charmed by it all as well that proved to be what I found most enjoyable.

If you are a "plot" person, stay away from this book, because very little happens. If you are willing to spend a little time in a world that has come and gone but nonetheless abides in each human heart--for now, but a shadow on the rock--then give this one a try.

[Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though their primary home was in New York City, Willa Cather and her friend and housemate Edith Lewis also customarily spent part of the year at Cather's summer home in New Brunswick, Canada. In 1928, while in route to the latter destination, Lewis fell ill with the flu, forcing the ladies to lay over in Quebec for several days. Cather was greatly intrigued and impressed by the French culture of the city, the architecture of the old city and the many 17th-century public and religious buildings still in use (a number of which she personally visited) and by the history of the area. A few years later (1931), this experience bore fruit in her novel Shadows on the Rock.

The chronological setting here is 1697-98, with a short Epilogue set 15 years later, in 1713. Our main viewpoint character is Cecile Auclair, 12 years old when the book opens; her widowered father Euclide, an apothecary (what would today be called a pharmacist) is also at times a viewpoint character. (Despite Cecile's age, this is adult rather than YA or children's fiction --it has no bad language or sexual content, but neither of those were seen as hallmarks of "adult" fiction in 1931. Cecile is a highly responsible 12-year-old who largely handles the housekeeping for her dad, the author's concerns and themes are those that interest adults, and the text is at an adult reading level and presupposes adult psychological understanding.) Cather's style is in the Realist tradition. Both viewpoint characters are very realistically drawn and well realized, as are other important characters, such as the colony's governor, Count Frontenac, now-retired Bishop Laval and his successor, Bishop Saint-Vallier, Mother Superior Juchereau (all four of these were actual persons, and are apparently depicted as the sort of people that extant sources indicate they actually were). neglected little Jacques Gaux, born out of wedlock and in poverty, fur trader Pierre Charron, and others.

Indeed, this is much more a novel of character than of plot. There's honestly little of the latter, as such; the story is mostly an immersion in the daily lives of the Auclairs --and through them of the colonists as a whole-- as they live through the rhythms of the years, shaped by the annual arrival of supply ships from France in the early summer, the departure of the same ships in late fall, before the freezing of the St. Lawrence River cuts off all communication with Europe, and the very cold Canadian winters. The Quebec of that day has less than 2,000 people. Cather gives us an in-depth look at the household routines, diet, religious life, mores and customs, celebrations, medicine, etc. in this frontier community, with great appreciation of the natural beauty of the area and vivid descriptions of the city's geography and buildings. (Even if I hadn't found confirmation that Cather had personally visited Quebec before writing this, I'd have inferred that fact from the detailed nature of her treatment.) A subtle message here is the author's appreciation of the positives of life in a small, insular, homogenous and relatively close-knit community, in which change is slow and social and cultural continuity is a much more prominent reality. But there's also the subtle story of a generational shift, between Euclide's generation that sees France as home and Cecile's that sees Quebec as home and are on their way to becoming Canadians, rather than transplanted French.

If the immersive recreation of the historical setting is the book's greatest strength, one of its weaknesses is the converse of that; plotting is correspondingly weak, and over-arching conflict relatively absent. (What there is of the latter is the question of whether Euclide will return to France with his patron, the Count if the latter is released from his governorship --a return Cecile definitely would rather not see take place.) I could appreciate the book for what it is; but I admit that I prefer more of a story arc in my fiction reading. A feature of Cather's style here that's also irritating is that there's a fair number of lines of untranslated French dialogue in places (at one point a whole paragraph, where Cecile is reading from a book!). Of course, educated Americans in the 30s could often read French, since high schools of that day typically taught it. But they no longer do, and for me (and most other contemporary American readers) these lines might as well be in Choctaw. That causes our understanding of the dialogue to lose a lot in these places.

One final point is worth making. While Cather herself was not a Roman Catholic (she joined the Episcopal Church as an adult, in 1922), some Catholic literary scholars point to her as, nevertheless, a writer whose work is Catholic-friendly. She definitely doesn't demonize Catholics, as many Protestants in her generation did. (True, Catholics in that era often tended to likewise demonize Protestants.) The title character (whom the narrator and the author much admire) of My Antonia and her family are Catholics; in O Pioneers Alexandra and her youngest brother have close Catholic friends, and sometimes attend the local Catholic church and/or its social gatherings. Death Comes for the Archbishop (which I haven't read) revolves around the career of a Catholic prelate. This novel fits into that background; but unlike the first two novels I mentioned, ALL of the characters here are Catholic, and their community is self-consciously Catholic. Distinctively denominational Catholic spirituality is much more prominent here than it is in other Cather works I've read. Prayer is addressed to the Virgin Mary (rather than to God) as the normal first resort, self-torturing asceticism in the form of hairshirts, perpetual fasting, isolation as a hermit, etc. is much admired, and angelic visitations and apparitions of departed souls spouting uniquely Catholic theological ideas are recounted as factual. I don't know if these specific stories are invented by Cather or were actually reported in the 1600s as having happened. If they were the latter, I don't necessarily dismiss them as lies; indeed, I think some may be genuine, or in other cases plausibly explicable as dreams. But in general, it's fair to say that for Protestant readers (and even more so for non-Christian readers) some of the spiritual milieu here will have an alien quality to it.

Overall, I did like this novel. But I didn't rate it as highly as the other two Cather novels I've read, and I would recommend either of those as a first introduction to her work rather than this one.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cather left her familiar settings behind for 17th century Canada when she wrote Shadows On The Rock. This book, set on the rock of Quebec, features Euclide Auclair and his daughter, Cecile. Euclide is a skilled apothecary who came, with his wife and child, to Canada, with his patron, the Count de Frontenac. His wife has died but his daughter is flourishing as this begins. The story of this novel is the story of this small group as well as the many others who inhabit this outpost in the new world; the upper and lower towns, life on the river, eking out life in a new land with contact from the home country but once a year.

As I read, I wondered what knowledge Cather had of Quebec and its origins. She has written about immigrants before and knows that separation. I enjoyed reading Shadows On The Rock. The slow pace was for reasons unrelated to the book. Now I’m another step further along the road of reading all of her books.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadows on the Rock is a book of historical fiction drawing the French colonization of Canada and life in Quebec City at the end of the 1600s. We follow one year in the life of an apothecary and his daughter, starting in October 1697. Euclide Auclair is the father and a widower. The young daughter has taken on the running of their house after the death of her beloved mother, two years previously. She is twelve. Euclide and his family, wife and daughter, had come to Quebec eight years earlier under the employ of the Governor General, as his physician.

Around the above two fictional characters, and a smattering of others, is woven a story about life in the new French colony and real-life historical figures. Much is said about the following three:
*Louis de Buade, a.k.a. Comte de Frontenac, was a French soldier and the Governor General of New France from 1672-1682 and from 1689 -1698, his death. He established forts, fought the English and the Iroquois.
* Bishop Saint Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval. He was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec, came to the post at the young age of thirty-six and was dearly loved by his parishioners.
* Bishop Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrière de Saint Vallier. Known as the Second Bishop of Quebec, he is young, arrogant and extravagant, prone to make foolish decisions. The very opposite of Quebec’s old and beloved Bishop Laval.

There is a lot of history, facts and details packed into this tale. Clothing worn, food eaten, customs followed, celebrations and religious practices are detailed. French expressions and accurate descriptions of Quebec’s, squares, streets and buildings give readers a genuine feel for the place. An ambiance is created through Cather’s remarkable ability to depict places and people. Having visited Quebec herself and having been struck by the beauty of the special crimson afterglow in its evening skies, she lyrically conveys her observations to readers. This is a mere one example of many. Cather has a knack for seeing and drawing nature.

The book is not to be read for plot. It is instead a description of time and place and people. By the end, I had come to care for two characters. Not Cécile, not her friend Jacques, six years her junior, but instead Cécile’s father and Comte de Frontenac, the Governor General. Their friendship and the bond that existed between them came to feel very real to me. When the Comte dies, I felt the devastation and loss that Euclide must have felt.

It is through numerous stories that we learn of the characters’ pasts. These flashbacks do at times disrupt the flow of the story.

There is a short epilogue, set fifteen years later, in 1713. Here we learn what happens to the characters in the intervening years.

Ann Marie Lee narrates the audiobook. I like how she reads, but at times she mumbles the French and it becomes difficult to hear the name of the character spoken of. French cannot be the narrator’s native tongue, but you can usually decipher what she is saying. The speed is perfect, and it is quite simply nice listening to her voice. The narration I have given three stars.

If you are going to read this book, you must be interested in learning about the French colonization of Quebec. It is interesting to observe how in leaving one country for a new, individuals hold on to what they have left.

**********************

*My Ántonia 5 stars
*Death Comes for the Archbishop 4 stars
*One of Ours 4 stars
*The Song of the Lark 4 stars
*Lucy Gayheart 3 stars
*O Pioneers! 3 stars
*Shadows on the Rock 3 stars
*Sapphira and the Slave Girl 2 stars
*A Lost Lady 2 stars
*The Professor's House 2 stars

*Alexander's Bridge TBR
*My Mortal Enemy TBR

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars
This is the first work I have read by Willa Cather and it is a historical novel set in Quebec in 1687-8. It is told from the point of view of 12 year old Cecile Auclair and her father Euclid, an apothecary. It covers one year in the life of the city with an epilogue set 15 years later to tie up loose ends. Cecile’s mother has died two years previously and she now looks assists her father and keeps house. Euclid serves the aging Count and has followed him to Canada. The Catholic Church dominates the story and the structure of the year with a plethora of nuns, priests, bishops and stories of saints and martyrdom. There is no real plotline and the novel drifts along gently. The descriptive passages about the weather and the changing of the seasons are well written and easy to read.
Willa Cather herself is a bit of an enigma; she seems very conservative and traditional, in politics and writing; influenced by James, Dickens, Balzac, Flaubert, Thackeray et al and appearing to be somewhat critical of women writers. Yet all her significant relationships (apart from her brothers) were with women and she lived with the editor Edith Lewis from 1908 until her death in 1947. There has been debate about her sexual identity and sexuality with opposing scholarly camps seeing her work with entirely different lens.
The novel has some interesting points. Cather wrote this not long after the death of the father and the centre of the novel is the relationship between Cecile and her father, which is one of great respect. For an seventeenth century father Euclid is rather enlightened; tolerant of his daughter’s religious thoughts and expressions, adding a mildly sceptical note and pushing her to ask questions. Another theme is the idea of the civilising effect of the Catholic Church (this is not so long after the excesses of the Inquisition) and the Native American tribes are portrayed as savage and in need of the civilising influence of the Church.
In the midst of this there are also some strong female characters, especially some of the nuns who are far more formidable that most of the male characters and it is possible that Cather is seeing the Catholic Church as a female entity and there is a bringing of old gods to new places. Thrown into the mix is the character of the trapper Pierre Charron. It is certainly no coincidence that he shares a name with the sixteenth century French philosopher and friend of Montaigne. This Charron comes from a humanist and sceptical tradition.
If this review feels a little contradictory, it is because that is how I feel about the book. The writing and description is good and the portrayal of the everyday life of ordinary people is very perceptive, especially in relation to the minutiae. Yet there is a complete acceptance that Catholic culture should be the dominant culture and is a civilising culture; even if there is an a gentle questioning of that culture. I think I need to read more Cather and this may not have been a good place to start.

[Duane Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willa Cather is known for her classic novels set in the 18th century American prairie, but in this one she moves to 17th century, French Colonial Quebec. But what remains the same is Cather's beautiful writing and her exceptional ability to create memorable characters, and craft stories that is historical fiction at it's finest. Reading this, one gets the sense of life the French settlers experienced in this lonely Canadian outpost, and the influence of the French culture that still lives in Quebec today.

[Gretchen Rubin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful, peaceful evocation of a distant time and place. Reminded me of Sarah Orne Jewett's THE COUNTRY OF POINTED FIRS. If you're a Willa Cather fan, like me, don't overlook this novel.

[Daniel Chaikin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 9th novel by Willa Cather that I've read as I work through her novels with a group on Litsy. I find it a little fascinating to watch her themes and style evolve. The classic Prairie trilogy in the 1910's evolving into bitter social criticisms in the early 1920's, turning to a place far away in time in the mystical Death Comes for the Archbishop. With Shadows on the Rock she goes even farther away. The novel takes place over the course of 1697 and 1698 in Quebec city - the old city still somewhat intact today, and now a World Heritage sight.

The novel explores the city, creating something of a mural of this time and little place. She traces the year though a 13 year old girl, Cécile, a happy child without a mother. Her father is an apothecary working in an almost feudal fashion for the ruling French count, Comte de Frontenac. It's a peaceful stable household. From there Cécile observes, taking in the various characters, organizations and events that make up the city and its surrounding frontier. Her direct experiences are limited, influenced by the heavily religious community, but the stories that come to her way vary over a wide range of old and new world problems, each with some striking aspect.

It's a nice story, wrapped up in some beautiful prose, sometimes palpable. "...the tarnished gold of the elms, with a little brown in it, a little bronze, a little blue even—a blue like amethyst, which made them melt into the azure haze with a kind of happiness, a harmony of mood that filled the air with content.

But there is limited bite in this one. Her city, despite her magnificent prose, is simplified, idealized. Her ideas subdued. She creates a frontiersman, Pierre Charon, maybe the most colorful character in book because of his irreverence and passion and general goodness. He's named after historical characters of the time, after the mythical ferryman Charron, but most importantly, after a 16th century philosopher and follower of Montaigne. The philosopher focused on the limitations of human knowledge and his ideas come down to, roughly, living responsibly. The city itself, carved out of the wilderness, a small fortress of culture amidst the frontier chaos, can be viewed as a real life representation of his ideas. I can't take this nearly as far as Cather would like. But the bottom line is it's subtle, subdued. Whatever societal criticism or anger she had in previous novels is pretty much washed out, this from an author who had always made a point of fierce integrity. Her 17th-century Quebec City is both historically accurate and also impossibly sanitized - a mythical bastion of culture and consideration.

It worth noting that in real life Cather was having serious personal trouble, including declining parents. She also, interestingly enough, began to be viewed in the 1930's as conservative and detached from contemporary realities, and she was heavily criticized by younger, more liberal critics.

I have come to adore Cather and I enjoyed this perspective on this historical place, especially her wonderful prose. But, also, it‘s the 1st time she hasn‘t wowed me.

-----------------------------------------------

40. Shadows on the Rock]by Willa Cather
published: 1931
format: 280-page 1971 Vintage Books paperback
acquired: 2009 (from in-laws)
read: Jul 9 – Aug 2
time reading: 7 hr 21 min, 1.6 min/page
rating: 4
locations:1697-98 Quebec City
about the author born near Winchester, VA, later raised in Red Cloud, NE. December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was specifically looking for a historical novel set in Quebec City . . . very surprised to find that Willa Cather (who I associate with the Midwest prairie or possibly New Mexico) had written this 1931 bestseller, covering a year in the life of the city of Kebec.

It begins in October, 1697, with immigrant apothecary, Euclide Auclair, and his 12 year old daughter, Cecile, watching the ships sail down the St. Lawrence River, back to France, isolating the little colony until their return the next July. Auclair has been in New France since Cecile was a very small child and while he longs to return to Paris, she thinks of Canada as home.

The story of the year is told very simply and we understand there will be no extraordinary drama or conflict. The sky and sunlight in the fall is golden, winter is very cold, the snow beautiful, the return of the swallows in the spring much anticipated . . . the city and its landscape and characters are described beautifully. All is straight forward, too, the characters are as they seem. Some are historical, such as the governor, Count de Frontenac whom the apothecary serves, and the two Bishops but Euclide and Cecile are fictional. The Catholic faith, as it is being practiced and proselytized in Kebec, is an important part of the lives of all the New France inhabitants. A short epilogue, set 15 years after the year described, ties up the loose ends of the characters' lives.

I enjoyed this book; it was a slow and peaceful read. An online review said that book fits in with Cather's lifelong interest with the immigrant experience and how home was defined and established. I could definitely see those themes in this book with even the older adult Euclide's gradual acceptance of home as being Quebec. .

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From 1931
Historical fiction about Quebec in the late 1600s. Pretty interesting living in “New France.” Auclair is the apothecary, Cecile is his daughter. The natives are called Savages. It is a huge deal when the boat comes from Europe.

[Marie Saville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Corre el año 1697 cuando conocemos a Auclide Auclair, un sabio y respetado boticario, y a su pequeña hija, Cécile. Ocho años han transcurrido desde el día en que ambos dejaron París y se instalaron en Quebec, aprovechando la protección de su patrón y gobernador de la colonia, el Conde de Frontenac. Durante todo este tiempo padre y hija han sido capaces de construir un pequeño hogar y de granjearse el cariño de sus conciudadanos. Pero el aislamiento, los contratiempos y los peligros de una tierra todavía indómita provocan en Auclide el deseo de volver a la vida tranquila y civilizada de las orillas del Sena.

Pero si para el boticario esta aventura solo debe ser temporal, la pequeña Cécile no imagina tener que decir adiós al lugar donde ha crecido y al que ya considera su hogar.

—•—

"Sombras en la roca" es una novela llena de sentimientos encontrados; nostálgica y pausada en lo que concierne a Auclide, y viva y alegre desde la óptica de Cecile. Sus páginas reflejan a la perfección el conjunto de emociones que trae consigo la experiencia de la emigración: nostalgia por el país que se deja atrás, tristeza, esperanza, entusiasmo, energía… estados de ánimo que Willa ya había infundido en los personajes de otras de sus historias como "Pioneros" o "Mi Ántonia", y que en "Sombras bajo la roca" vuelven a cobrar todo el protagonismo.

Qué puedo deciros, Willa me desarma con su maestría, con su extraordinaria capacidad para describir personalidades y localizaciones, para reconstruir un retazo de historia y hacerla vivir ante nuestros ojos. Escribir novela histórica, o al menos una buena novela histórica no es fácil. No basta con vestir a tus personajes con ropa de época, subirles a un caballo y construirles una vivienda adecuada a los cánones. La historia debe nutrirse y descansar hasta en los más mínimos detalles: olores, sonidos, comidas y costumbres deben sustentar sus páginas; y eso es lo que consigue precisamente Willa.
—•—
Con puntual precisión no solo introduce episodios y personajes históricos que dotan de rigor su trama: como la fascinante aventura de "les filles du roi", los tejemanejes de la lejana corte del gran Luis XIV o la propia historia del Conde de Frontenac, uno de los protagonistas de la novela, sino que centra su atención en la vida cotidiana de la colonia: en los días de mercado, en el trabajo de botica con sus ungüentos y remedios, en las preparaciones para el largo invierno, cuando los habitantes de Quebec se proveen de leña y víveres suficientes hasta la llegada de la primavera; y como no en ese momento de octubre en el que se escriben apresuradamente las cartas que zarparán en el último barco que sale hacia Francia. Un barco que no volvería con nuevas noticias hasta bien entrado el mes de julio.
La ciudad vive al ritmo de la vida de sus personajes y es un personaje en si misma; y es que en las novelas de Willa Cather el paisaje, la tierra que habitan sus protagonistas lo es todo. Ella forja su carácter y decide sus destinos.

Así ocurre con Auclide Auclair y el Conde de Frontenac, figuras nostálgicas que viven casi como desterradas en ese reducto aislado al otro lado del Atlántico. Un destino muy distinto al de Cécile, quien ha aprendido a amar su nueva tierra, y al de Pierre Charon, personaje que encarna la imagen romántica del trampero libre de los grandes bosques, el aventurero que forja su propio destino. Ellos encarnan a los europeos del nuevo mundo, frente a la generación anterior apegada a sus raíces, y serán ellos los encargados de construir otras realidades, lejos de sus países de origen. "Sombras en la roca" es un libro pausado y descriptivo, forjado al ritmo de las distintas estaciones y sus respectivos ritos. Una lectura que confirma el respeto y la admiración que siento por la escritura de Willa Cather. Un coup de cœur en toda regla.

[Terris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Willa Cather satisfied! I had not read anything by her for a long time. I knew I had loved what I read by her before in college, but kind of forgot why -- and now I remember! Her writing style and descriptions are somehow soothing. I just enjoy her so much.

This one was set in about 1700 in Canada. It involved the French coming to "conquer" parts of Canada and North America. The main characters were the apothecary and his daughter who came to Canada with the Count who went to Canada to fight the Iroquois, and whomever else the King wanted him to fight! That didn't sound very interesting to me at first, but Willa Cather's descriptions of the father and the daughter, the priests, the explorers of the frontier, etc., etc. were so compelling that I fell in love with it.
So, if you're interested in Willa Cather at all, I highly recommend this one!

[Tabuyo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me da mucha rabia que este libro de Willa Cather no me haya gustado porque es uno de los que estaba más orgullosa.
Trata sobre un padre farmacéutico y una hija que están en Quebec a las ordenes de un conde venido a menos. La historia sobre ellos me gustó lo que no me hizo mucha gracia fueron las pequeñas historias religiosas que pululan por la novela. Rompían la ambientación y no me aportaron nada.

Reseña: https://contandoteunlibro.blogspot.co...

[Schmacko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess it’s no secret by now that I adore Willa Cather. Shadows on the Rock (1931) is one of her late novels, and I loved every minute of it. It’s an account of people living in colonial Quebec. There’s not much of a plot; this is all about character and place. In it, Cather fully shows her power of description and her awesome talent in presenting the spirit of a land.

This genius is no surprise; Cather captured life on the Nebraska plain in My Àntonia, O Pioneers, and My Mortal Enemy. She explores the roughness and beauty of New Mexico in Death Comes for the Archbishop. She’s an author – as a UCF lit professor reminded me last night – who really delves into the soul of place as well as she does character.

In Shadows on the Rock, a poor widows pharmacist and his daughter are living in Quebec (“Kebec” throughout the novel.) They are under the patronage of the France-appointed governor, an old man. When the pharmacist and his wife moved here, they didn’t know the wife would die soon after birthing the daughter. Together the pharmacist and the daughter try to hold on to the civility of their hometown Paris while appreciating the rough beauty of their colonial home Kebec. The novel takes several years, as children grow, and as plans to go back to Paris are made. We also meet other locals – a deformed man chased out of Paris, a prostitute and her sweet little boy, a local trapper, and several Catholic religious figures who provide support and guidance to the pioneers.

I’m going to post a couple posts I already put on Facebook as examples of Cather’s beautiful writing. In the first, she explains why stories of miracles are important to the pioneers.

“The people have loved miracles for so many hundred years, not as proof or evidence, but because they are the actual flowering of desire. In them the vague worship and devotion of the simple-hearted assumes a form. From being a shapeless longing, it becomes a beautiful image; a dumb rapture becomes a melody that can be remembered and repeated; and the experience of a moment, which might have been a lost ecstasy, is made an actual possession and can be bequeathed to another.”

In another passage, a traveling priest meets with his best friend (the pharmacist) after having not seen him for years. The priest spends most of his time in the wilderness ministering to the local natives:

“...there was a cordial moisture in the priest's eyes as he as he embraced his old friend and kissed him on both cheeks.

‘How many times on my way from Ville-Marie I have enjoyed this moment in anticipation, Euclide,’ he declared. ‘Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile friends are everything.’”

Ah, it kills me that more people don’t know of Cather or appreciate her. It saddens me that the only exposure most people get is in eighth grade - they’re too young to understand My Àntonia – and they’re unable to grasp her literary power or understand her themes of pioneerism, suicide, illegitimate childhood, and attempted rape. Sure, you have to accept that her language is slightly antiquated, but so is Shakespeare, Austen, and every other great writer from the past. The UCF lit professor I spoke with also mentioned that Cather is quiet and even somewhat pastoral, qualities that aren’t currently in fashion (as if our reading should merely be based on literary fad.)

Shadows on the Rock caught me at times by its simple beauty. There were times that my eyes got that “cordial moisture” she mentions; I welled up because of her gorgeous, clean writing. This book goes onto my “Favorites” list with several other Cather novels.

[Katie Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fellas, this here is my favorite novel of all time.

I mean that. It's beautiful. It's phenomenal. It's a masterpiece . . . and it's something everybody should read at least once in their lives. (In my humble opinion, at any rate.)

What makes it so good? EVERYTHING.

Okay, I'll try to get a little more specific. First-off, the characters are amazingly well-drawn. They truly are real, live, flesh-and-blood people . . . and they walk straight off the page and into your heart. It's not that they're flawless and perfect, 'cause they're not. Some of them are very far from perfect, in fact. But I just can't help loving them, in spite of all that. They're REAL. And they're my friends. I love Cecile, and I love her father (even though he drives me nuts at times), and I love Pierre, and I love the good old Bishop . . . and as for poor little Jacques, I just want to pick him up and give him a big hug. He deserves one. I LOVE THAT KID. He's my baby, okay?

Second, the way that Willa Cather was able to make the setting (late 1600s Quebec) so very, very vivid--despite the fact that it's completely unfamiliar to most readers, and certainly to me--is an astonishing achievement. You know how people will often say, "This book is like a trip to such-and-such a place"? And usually it sounds like a cliché . . . but with "Shadows on the Rock," it's literally true. Reading this book, you truly DO feel like you're being transported to another time and place. And I love it. I love the fact that I can read through one of Cather's descriptions of the frozen snow, or the glowing red sunset, or the bustling harbor, or even just Cecile's little kitchen--and then I just close my eyes and I literally SEE it all in my mind. And it's a beautiful sight, folks, let me tell you.

Don't believe me?

Well, grab a copy of this book and see for yourself. It's something you don't want to miss.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willa Cather is easily one of my favorite authors. Here she takes us to Quebec in about the year 1700. These brave souls left civilization behind - all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Ships would arrive only during the summer months. And that assumes they made it safely across the ocean.

She tells the tale of lives lived in the settlement. Typical Cather - not much happens. But she digs deep into the characters.

Really great book.

[Steve Haywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shadows on the Rock is a historical fiction novel by the great American novelist Willa Cather. It is perhaps quite unusual both because it was written as historical fiction, when she generally wrote relatively contemporaneous fiction, and because it was sent in Canada rather than her native USA. It is set in Quebec City in the late 1690s, when the town (and colony) were in its infancy.

The book mainly concerns widower Euclide Auclair, the town's apothecary, and his twelve year old daughter Cecile, who basically runs the house and does the cooking after her mother died. Euclide is the apothecary to the colony's elderly governor, Count Frontenac, but wants to go back to his native France. Cecile barely remembers France, and to her Quebec is the only home she's ever known. The book is a character study, partly about Euclide, partly Cecile, but I'd argue that the main 'character' is Quebec City itself. It has beautiful descriptions of the landscape, culture and peoples of this early colony. This is the main feature of the book, and something that Cather always does really well, mostly notably in her Great Plains trilogy. I knew almost nothing about Quebec before this book, and was fascinated with this first glimpse at the place.

If you are after a book with a good plot, this book isn't it as it barely has any. Even as a character study, it is alright but not great, possibly because it has multiple viewpoint characters and you never get too close to any of them. But Cather has written a beautiful book about old Quebec, and if you want a book to take you to that distant time and place, you won't be disappointed. While I didn't like it as much as her other books I've read (O Pioneers, My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop), it was still a really good book that I'd recommend.

[Marica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un blocco verde scuro compatto e impenetrabile
Ho scoperto Willa Cather leggendo un libro di Truman Capote che la conobbe da ragazzo e che amava molto la sua scrittura. Il libro mi ha attratto perchè racconta la vita degli abitanti della città di Quebec nel XVII secolo e, come sempre, non so resistere alle vite che non sono la mia.
L'autrice è molto brava a dare rilievo al carattere dei vari personaggi, lo fa con grande naturalezza. I protagonisti sono un farmacista e la figlia adolescente, trasferiti da Parigi a Quebec al seguito del Governatore quando lei aveva quattro anni. I giovani genitori ricostruiscono uno stile di vita cittadino simile al precedente, con tutte le stoffe inamidate e i merletti del caso; poi il farmacista rimane vedovo, la bimba cresce, hanno frequentazioni più trasversali e avventurose, dato che i coloni francesi in Canada erano legati al commercio di pellicce e all'agricoltura locale. Il padre rimane cittadino fino all'osso, pensa al nuovo mondo fuori dalla città come un blocco verde scuro compatto e impenetrabile, attraversato da insetti e serpenti e sigillato col muschio; vive l'inverno in attesa delle navi che nella tarda primavera torneranno dalla Francia, acclamate e festeggiate dall'intera popolazione. Al contrario, la ragazza non è tanto sicura di voler tornare in Francia, abbandonando tutto quello che conosce. Il suo mondo è vario, dall'arcivescovo alla madre superiora, dal bimbo figlio di una prostituta che cerca di educare al meglio al giovane aitante che vive buona parte dell'anno nell'entroterra canadese, a contatto con la popolazione locale per il commercio di pellicce.
Il racconto è piacevole e vivace, soffre un po' della traduzione un po' datata (1942) ma soddisfa pienamente le aspettative.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my fourth Willa Cather and it has the exquisite, sacramental detail I have come to love in her writing. This is the quietest Cather so far (out of Death Comes for the Archbishop, The Song of the Lark, and My Antonia). It is set in 17th century Quebec or New France in a hilly town on the St. Lawrence river that is a center for political and diocesan activity. Our hero and heroine are a father/daughter, Euclide Auclair and his 12-year-old daughter Cecile. Auclair is an apothecary who spent his first 40 years in France. He journeyed to Quebec with his wife and infant daughter under the protection of Count Frontenac, the King’s Governor in New France and Auclair’s patron.

When the story opens, Cecile is the mistress of the house because her mother has recently died. She is in the liminal space between childhood and adulthood and has a wonderful combination in herself of childlikeness and womanliness. As a child still, she has an openness to miracles, to the Saints, and to wonder that is occasionally in slight opposition to her father’s mild world weariness (perhaps a side effect of adulthood?). The main, though subtle, tension in the story is between Auclair and Cecile. Auclair wants to return to France the following summer with Count Frontenac. Cecile has grown to young womanhood in the New World and wants to stay. Despite these differences between them, they have a wonderful, tender relationship.

The tension between Cecile and her father—Old World v. New World—is played out on a larger scale (though still subtly) in the novel as well. The novel opens as the last ships from France sail away so that the colonists in New France are completely cut off from Old World news and supplies until the following summer. It is a brilliant way of setting up the dependence of the former on the latter…for the time being at least. In three of the four Cather novels I’ve read, Old World v. New World has been a major theme. I love that she can keep returning to this theme but in ways that provoke new thoughts and new wondering for the reader.

There are some lovely characters in this novel: little Jacques, Pierre Charron, Blinker, Bishop Laval, the Count, etc. Cather does such a good job of weaving these characters and their stories into the bigger narrative in a way that feels seamless. The point of connection, of grounding between them all is Auclair’s house and shop. Through the whole story is also the Catholic faith of the colony and the stories of their saints and their rituals. Beneath this, there is the hum of the seasons and the long winter that distinguishes the New World from the old.

There are French phrases and occasional paragraphs in the text. I found it super helpful to keep Google Translate up on my phone to type in the French. If only I had studied French in school! The French in the text is a good reminder of how much the early colonists considered themselves citizens of France still. I also looked up the location in Google Maps because it was completely new to me. I didn’t realize it was so far east, almost to the Maritimes. As I was reading this, I was also reading A Canadian Heroine, which is set just up the St. Lawrence river in Cacouna. So funny to be reading two novels in the same part of the world (new to me) at the same time.

Without a doubt, I know I’ll reread this novel in the future. The gentleness of the story is a lovely respite despite the harshness of the Canadian wilderness around. Even in a wild, untamed land, civilization has a toehold. And even in that is much food for thought.

[Márcio · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

This sweet story takes place around the years 1697 and 1698 in the city of Quebec, Canada, and happens around a French family, the Auclairs, in the service of Count de Frontenac, being Euclid Auclair his physician and apothecary, having his small pharmacy/home in Mountain Hill (Côte de la Montagne). Madame Auclair had died a couple of years before, having their young daughter Cécile taken the household chores to her own. She is 12 when the story begins.

From this point on, the story develops in six chapters and an epilogue, as if we are shown flashes of their lives along these two years, most of them telling us the stories of Cécile's wanderings around the city, sometimes together with her father, paying visits to the Reverend Mother Juschereauthe at l'hôtel-Dieu de Québec; other times around the city with her little friend, Jacques Gaux, 6 years-old, son of a prostitute who lives close to the harbor; in short trips with the family friend, hunter and fur trader Pierre Charron; sometimes on her own.

Besides these fictional characters, some very real ones are part of the narrative, being them le monseigneur l'ancien, Bishop Laval; Bishop Saint-Vallier; the already mentioned Count de Frontenac, all of them being here and there part of Cécile wanderings around Quebec. We are also presented to the story of Jeanne Le Ber, the religious recluse, as in the narrative she was betrothed to Pierre Charron when they were both young.

The epilogue takes place 15 years after the death of Count de Frontenac, when the too proud Bishop Saint-Vallier is back in Quebec after 13 years away in France, 5 of these years having been held captive by the English. But I refrain to give more information about it to avoid spoilers.

It is said that Willa Cather, in a visit to Quebec, fell in love with the city and decided she would write a story about it. It is very clear how she admired it, her descriptions of the old city are very lively, one has the sense of taking a walk with Cécile and Jacques, following their footsteps.

All in all, I had this feeling I was reading a less childish version of Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna, a book I had to read in my years of elementary school. Nevertheless, I must admit I was very fond of Willa's book, a chance to have a look at the history of the Canadian province of Quebec.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! Willa Cather never disappoints a reader. This was one of her lesser known novels but it is still excellent. Shadows on the Rock is a tale of Quebec City during the final days of the royal governor Louis Frontenac and colonial New France. It is not a long book but the characters are many and varied and thoughtfully drawn. Of course, Cather's brilliance, at least to me, remains in the way she creates a sense of time and place with her rich and poetic depictions of landscape, weather and geography. She made me "sense" the frozen landscape of the St. Lawrence River, its surrounding hills and forests, and the great Upper and Lower Towns of Quebec. I was also impressed how respectfully and almost reverently she described French Catholicism and the deep and profound impact in had maintaining the colonials. It was enriching when the fields were stark and gentle when the future was uncertain. A theme that seemed to run through the novel is how far and alien Canada was from the colonial's home in France was and how faith kept them connected as a people. I will think further about how "organized religion" seemed to play a similar role in this book as did "organized art" did in "Song of the Lark". I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

[Trina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a lovely, modest book, like so much of Cather. I found it in the library and decided to give it a try -- it's a portrait of the town of Kebec, currently known as Quebec City to anglophones, in the late 17th century. Lots of it is based on the truth, but the characters are so fully drawn, and the descriptions of the St. Lawrence River and the Rock, aka Kebec, are so beautiful, it's a poetically inspired historical novel. I have never known much about the settlement of New France in the time of Louis XIV, and this was an inspiring snapshot. Makes me want to go to Quebec in all seasons of the year!

[Mary Durrant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very different to her other novels.
I found it hard to get into but once I did I enjoyed this tale of long ago.
Not the best to start with, I would recommend My Antonia and Lucy Gayheart.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Novel Of Old Quebec

Willa Cather wrote "Shadows on the Rock"(1931) late in her novelistic career following her more famous book, "Death Comes for the Archbishop."(1927). As is the earlier book, "Shadows on the Rock" is influenced heavily by Cather's fascination with Catholicism (a religion she did not practice), her love of French civilization, and her interest in frontier places.

Cather's novel is set in the remote world of "New France", in French Quebec of 1697. The story tells of the early French settlers and of the reasons which impelled them to leave France in search of a new life in a difficult, harsh land. Located on a forbidding cliff on the St. Lawrence River, Quebec was inaccessible to incoming ships from France or elsewhere for all but the summer months.

The main characters in the novel are Cecile Aubade, a girl of twelve, and her father Euclide, an apothecary who came to Quebec together with its governor, Frontenac. Euclide's wife had died in Quebec two years before the story begins in 1697 and Cecile is showing as caring for her father, preparing his meals, cleaning the house, and tending the apothecary in has absence. The book is a coming-of-age story for Cecile, but it differs from the usual form of coming-of-age books in its quiet flow, stress on the ordinary world of everyday, and domesticity.

Cather gives the reader a picture of the life of old Quebec through the interactions of its people with Cecile and Euclide. We meet Frontenac and two rival bishops, the pious aged Bishop Laval, the much more worldy Bishop Saint-Vallier, and a host of clergy and nuns, some devoted to mysticism and solitude. Cather also shows the reader the more secular side of Quebec in many humble people, sellers at outdoor markets, sailors, refugees from France, and fur trappers, especially a man named Pierre Charron, whose heart was broken when his sweetheart took up the life of the cloister and rigorous spirituality. Cecile befriends a seven-year old boy named Jacques, the son of a prostitute. The friendship between Jacques and Cecile receives much attention in the book. Jacques is invited to the family's Christmas celebration and places a toy beaver, made for him by a sailor, in the family creche, symbolizing the coming of Christianity to the New World.

With the exception of a short epilogue, the book is told over the course of one year of Cecile's life in Quebec. This timeframe affords Cather the opportunity of describing Quebec and its environs in beautiful detail throughout the course of the year and to watch the maturation of Cecile and her increased devotion to Quebec. The story celebrates place, rootedness, religion, domesticity, and the value of living life in the everyday. Events in Quebec are contrasted with life in France with its wars and corruption. The even flow of Cather's book tends to mask some of the instances of torture and death practiced in the Old Regime that she describes.

This novel has always been recognized as static and unexciting. But Cather's recent biographer, Janis Stout, aptly describes the book as "luminous and significant." "Shadows on the Rock" was a best-seller when it appeared, even though the book received a poor critical reception. The critics found the book showed a tendency towards escapism from the modern world and its difficulties and an attitude of sentimentality and romanticism. The book has an underlying tone of irony. The world of old Quebec is portrayed with an aura of stability and permanence while the reader knows, as Cather knows, that fifty years after the time that the book ends, France will lose Quebec forever together with its possessions in the New World.

Although this book does not rank with Cather's best work, I was moved by it and found the criticisms overdone. In its emphasis on contentment, finding joy in the everyday, and the virtues of family life, "Shadows on the Rock" has something to teach today's world.

Robin Friedman

[Justin Pickett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is about a way of life, illustrated via the experiences of a 17th century family living in the French colony of Quebec, surrounded by the Canadian wilderness. In it, Cécile Auclair, a sweet, dutiful 12-year-old girl, lives with (and takes care of) her father, Euclide Auclair, a fifty-year-old widowered and medically-rebellious apothecary (e.g., he opposes the popular treatment of bleeding, as well as the eating of grounded human bones). They are both good people—altruistic, charitable, and deeply religious—who help a troubled man, Blinker, who is an ex-torturer, as well as an impoverished young boy, Jacques, who is the son of a neglectful and loose woman.

“His clothes had always belonged to somebody else before they were made over for him; he slept wherever there was room for him, sometimes with his mother, sometimes on a bench.” (p. 70)

The part of the story that centers on the interactions and relationships between Cécile, Euclide, Blinker, and Jacques is great. There are also some rugged parts of the story that are interesting and quite revealing of life during the time period. They probably should have received more page space.

“There is a big vein spouting blood, and I catch it and tie it with a deer-gut string I had in my pocket.” (p. 113)

But there are several problematic aspects of the novel. One is that the overall depiction of Native Americans (e.g., as “dirty savages”) is offensive. True, there is a Native American character who saves people: “But by the mercy of God we met an Indian” (p. 116). However, with that one exception, all other mentions of Native Americans are demeaning and degrading. Second, the religious components of the novel, especially the depictions of the missions, churches, clergy, and recluses, are unrealistic in that all the characters involved in religion are essentially sinless. They only do good things, and they never act selfishly. Third, there is a profound preference for the European way of life, which leads to it being depicted in the novel as the best way of life.

“When an adventurer carries his gods with him into a remote and savage country, the colony he found will, from the beginning, have graces, traditions, riches of the mind, and spirit.” (p. 79)

Now, that doesn’t mean that the European way of life is depicted as flawless. Willa Cather does point out some of the problems in European society. Specifically, she focuses on the European justice system, and repeatedly outlines how it is capricious, unjust, and cruel. I appreciated this discerning dimension of the story, illustrated via the character Blinker.

“Torture and cruel punishments increased as the people became poorer and more desperate. The horrible mill at the Châtelet ground on day after day.” (p. 26)

[Julie]

7/10

I came away with one quote, and some random thoughts, enough to crib a partial review for now, which I'll come back to later.

The people have loved miracles for many hundreds of years, not as proof or evidence, but because they are the actual flowering of desire. In them the vague worship and devotion of the simple-hearted assumes a form. From being a shapeless longing, it becomes a beautiful image; a dumb rapture becomes a melody that can be remembered and repeated; and the experience of a moment, which might have been a lost ecstasy, is made an actual possession and can be bequeathed to another.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cather writes, "When an adventurer carries his gods with him into a remote and savage country, the colony he founds will, from the beginning, have graces, traditions, richs of the mind and spirit. Its history will shine with bright incidents, slight, perhaps, but precious, as in life itself, where the great matters are often as worthless as astronomical distances, and the trifles dear as the heart’s blood.”

This is how she makes such a quiet novel, one with minimal plotting, so compelling, even riveting at times, by making "the trifles dear as the heart's blood."

This is my 6th Cather novel, and though any objective evaluation (if such a thing exists)would not rank it with The Professor's House and Death Comes for the Archbishop, in terms of personal reading pleasure (what else is there?), I would give it 5 stars, so let's split the difference and settle on 4 1/2 stars.

Now I'm off to read more of Francis Parkman's Gibbonesque History of France and England in North America, one of her sources, to see how Cather transforms grand historical figures like Count Frontenac and Bishop Laval into such rich fictional characters. Her portrayal of Laval, in particular, I found moving. Here he is, as perceived by Cecile: “She always felt a kind of majesty in his grimness and poverty. Seventy-four years of age and much crippled by his infirmities, going about in a rusty old cassock, he yet commanded one’s admiration in a way that the new Bishop, with all his personal elegance, did not. One believed in his consecration, in some special authority won from fasting and penances and prayer; it was in his face, in his shoulders, it was he.” That last bit -- "It was he." -- gives me chills, far more than any rote recitation of liturgy I've yawned my way through in my haphazzard spiritual life.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so taken with this book. It quietly unfolds, going about its business of singing humanity's epic song.
Willa Cather is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.