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Paul's Case and Other Stories
Increasingly regarded as a major 20th-century writer, Willa Cather celebrated American pioneers and the land they worked. Her strong female characters and the elegiac quality of her writing have combined to earn her high standing with critics and the public alike. According to Maxwell Geismar, she was "an aristocrat in an equalitarian order, an agrarian writer in an industrial order, a defender of the spiritual graces in the midst of an increasingly materialistic culture.
Her talents are amply displayed in this collection, which features the touching title story about a young boy locally regarded as a delinquent and social misfit, and "A Wagner Matinée" (both revised by Cather for publication in Youth and the Bright Medusa, 1920); as well as "Lou, the Prophet" (1892), a haunting tale of failure, spiritual rebirth and legendary fame; "Eric Hermannson's Soul" (1900), an intriguing account of a man who, after years of dissolute living, is lured into the fold of a fanatical sect; and "The Enchanted Bluff" (1909), bittersweet recollections of life in a pioneer river town.
Presented in this attractive, inexpensive edition, these timeless tales offer a provocative glimpse into the work of Willa Cather.
Her talents are amply displayed in this collection, which features the touching title story about a young boy locally regarded as a delinquent and social misfit, and "A Wagner Matinée" (both revised by Cather for publication in Youth and the Bright Medusa, 1920); as well as "Lou, the Prophet" (1892), a haunting tale of failure, spiritual rebirth and legendary fame; "Eric Hermannson's Soul" (1900), an intriguing account of a man who, after years of dissolute living, is lured into the fold of a fanatical sect; and "The Enchanted Bluff" (1909), bittersweet recollections of life in a pioneer river town.
Presented in this attractive, inexpensive edition, these timeless tales offer a provocative glimpse into the work of Willa Cather.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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69 people want to read
About the author
Willa Cather
879 books2,772 followersWilella 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 15, 2022
This is one of many American short story collections that I read in college, when I was too young and drunk to appreciate literary naturalism in any sort of meaningful way. I'm older and less drunk now, so they resonate more-- particularly the stories about lonely Scandinavians on the American frontier. I know "Paul's Case" is Willa Cather's most famous story from this volume, but my favorite was "Eric Hermannson's Soul", a sad little tale about a brawny farmer who falls in love with a city girl on a magical night of forbidden dancing in a barn, only to watch her leave forever the next morning. "A Wagner Matinee" is a heart-breaking story about a woman whose brief burst of sadness reveals that she sacrificed her greatest love for a dumb guy and a miserably isolated life on the prairie. "The Enchanted Bluff" is also a great look at lost childhood nostalgia. They're all great, really. As a whole, the collection provides a glimpse into the many ways in which people felt trapped and limited by their surroundings and their various upbringings around the turn of the century.
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May 27, 2024Reread 2024 / Top 1 things a person must read to Know Me
________
The most spotless writing you will ever encounter in your life. Contains the perfect sentence: "Paul started up from the seat where he had lain curled in uneasy slumber, rubbed the breath-misted window glass with his hand, and peered out".
________
The most spotless writing you will ever encounter in your life. Contains the perfect sentence: "Paul started up from the seat where he had lain curled in uneasy slumber, rubbed the breath-misted window glass with his hand, and peered out".
July 22, 2023
Cather commands the frontier in this collection and shows she has held it from her university days onward. “Eric Hermansson’s Soul” is the highlight of this collection, cut from the same cloth as My Antonia and written at a similar time frame, it’s a riveting short epic. “Wagner’s Matinee” and “Paul’s Case” were interesting to see her writing in a setting that wasn’t the prairie and how she is just at home with industrial splendour as she is with rugged beauty.
September 25, 2013
In this collection Willa Cather explores themes that she observed in her life on the prairies of mid-America. The short stories are arranged chronologically. In two stories, she details the impact of religion on those who looked for solace in their faith, sometimes with unfortunate results. Many readers view "Paul's Case," as one of her best. Yes, I liked it as well as her poignant tale about an elderly woman who hears a Wagner performance in Boston where she once had a promising musical career. Cather is a favorite author for me and whenever I encounter a work I haven't read I just cannot pass it. Choose this read for quick look at Cather's unique talent for characterization!
October 27, 2020
4.5 stars, really, because man, does this lady know how to write a beautiful description.
I found the last two - Paul’s Case and A Wagner Matinée - particularly beautiful. Both really spoke to me as a musician and theatre lover. She really made you feel the theatre & hear the music, even just in a few pages.
The other stories spoke less to me particularly, but are of course not badly written or anything. You can tell, though, that they were written earlier.
I found the last two - Paul’s Case and A Wagner Matinée - particularly beautiful. Both really spoke to me as a musician and theatre lover. She really made you feel the theatre & hear the music, even just in a few pages.
The other stories spoke less to me particularly, but are of course not badly written or anything. You can tell, though, that they were written earlier.
July 2, 2022
Life-altering fiction
Willa Cather never disappoints. Her prose carries the reader away to distant lands and into the hearts and minds of her characters. Her descriptions of place and person allow the reader to create detailed, movie-like images in his/her mind thereby completely overtaking your soul and spirit. A divine escape! And the meaning behind her stories will linger with you for days!
Willa Cather never disappoints. Her prose carries the reader away to distant lands and into the hearts and minds of her characters. Her descriptions of place and person allow the reader to create detailed, movie-like images in his/her mind thereby completely overtaking your soul and spirit. A divine escape! And the meaning behind her stories will linger with you for days!
October 24, 2021
I visited this slim selection of stories now and then over 3 months. It took me awhile to appreciate her writing, although I know she is accomplished. The stories are much more about reflection that events, and tend to be negative or wrestle with angst, especially religious angst. However, there is delectable writing there, and I cam to admire her prowess.
November 4, 2022
Strong, quirky characters and poignant descriptive writing. Willa Cather never ceases to amaze.
July 30, 2023
The bleakness of life on the Nebraska plains. Men and women both are worn down by it. The titular Paul is in some ways a male Anna Karenina. Bring a hanky.
March 27, 2024
There is no more common genre of short story collection than The Mixed Bag, and this little 60-page book is of that ilk. Of the two longer pieces, "Eric Hermannson's Soul" has some merit but--like the other tale here involving religion, "Lou, the Prophet"--it seems unlikely to linger in one's memory. The other long story, "Paul's Case," is unusual and truly disturbing (undoubtedly laced with some cultural trickle-down from that cad Joris-Karl Huysmans). The prose and technique on display here, and in the remaining stories, is often superb. "A Wagner Matinee," achieves a great deal in its few pages and provides a balance, in its high view of aesthetic experience, to the embryonic-art-life detonation witnessed in "Paul's Case." But the clear stand-out of the collection is "The Enchanted Bluff," with its solid, measured voice giving us a tale of nostalgia (as good as the best Bradbury in this vein) and imagination that leaves the reader jealous, wishing to find in his or her own past something so perfectly vivid and always-retrievable.
[Note: in the aftermath... on reflection... I found elements of "Paul's Case" comparable to Flannery O'Connor's work.]
[Note: in the aftermath... on reflection... I found elements of "Paul's Case" comparable to Flannery O'Connor's work.]
August 24, 2017
Initially published in McClure’s Magazine in 1905, the subject of Paul’s Case is a suspended schoolboy – named, unsurprisingly, Paul – who was ‘to appear before the faculty of the Pittsburgh High School to account for his various misdemeanours’. He becomes frustrated with his relatively privileged lifestyle, and decides to flee Pennsylvania for New York City.
Cather’s descriptions were my favourite part of the story, particularly those of Paul himself: ‘His eyes were remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy and he continually used them in a conscious, theatrical sort of way, peculiarly offensive in a boy’.
The tale is rather a depressing one, but it does hold the interest throughout. The whole is engaging and intelligent, but there is a curious distancing to the whole – perhaps due to the third person perspective which Cather has used. Whilst I enjoyed reading Paul’s Case, it has not quite made me want to rush to read any more of Cather’s work.
Cather’s descriptions were my favourite part of the story, particularly those of Paul himself: ‘His eyes were remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy and he continually used them in a conscious, theatrical sort of way, peculiarly offensive in a boy’.
The tale is rather a depressing one, but it does hold the interest throughout. The whole is engaging and intelligent, but there is a curious distancing to the whole – perhaps due to the third person perspective which Cather has used. Whilst I enjoyed reading Paul’s Case, it has not quite made me want to rush to read any more of Cather’s work.
May 31, 2019
Willa Cather is excellent at fleshing out characters in a few lines. I really loved the first three stories, they were extraordinary. I didn't enjoy the last two as much, but it's just because they weren't set in Nebraska.
May 13, 2015
Several wonderful stories of Nebraska settlers.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews