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Coming, Aphrodite! and Other Stories
A unique compilation of short fiction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather
Best known for the distinctive portraits of the people and land of the American West in her prairie novels, Willa Cather is one of the greatest American writers of this century. The fourteen short stories in this richly diverse collection, along with an exemplary introduction by author Cynthia Griffin Wolff, allow for a more complex view of Cather. As a writer she was intrigued by nature's ruthlessness and mankind's limitless potential for brutality and had a passion for the beauty of art. Ranging from the simplicity of Cather's first published story, "Peter" (1892), to the extraordinary eroticism of "Coming, Aphrodite!" (1920), this Twentieth-Century Classics collection is an engaging and triumphant testament to the genius of an American literary icon.
Best known for the distinctive portraits of the people and land of the American West in her prairie novels, Willa Cather is one of the greatest American writers of this century. The fourteen short stories in this richly diverse collection, along with an exemplary introduction by author Cynthia Griffin Wolff, allow for a more complex view of Cather. As a writer she was intrigued by nature's ruthlessness and mankind's limitless potential for brutality and had a passion for the beauty of art. Ranging from the simplicity of Cather's first published story, "Peter" (1892), to the extraordinary eroticism of "Coming, Aphrodite!" (1920), this Twentieth-Century Classics collection is an engaging and triumphant testament to the genius of an American literary icon.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
12 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
About the author
Willa Cather
876 books2,770 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 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 2, 2016
I think this is one of Willa Cather's best stories. It's short, a novella or long short story, and you get the sense that she projected herself into these characters. Don Hedger and Eden Bower, both aspiring young artists, a painter and an opera singer, both wanting to be the best they can be, but for vastly different reasons. Those differences are the at the heart of the story and determine the fate of these young lovers.
March 21, 2015
A great novella (1920) about the price of artistic goals, hopes, dreams by the great American writer Willa Cather, found in many Cather collections like "Youth and the Bright Medusa." The price of success, which in America only equals money, honey, herein gets a stab through the heart. We constantly hear, X or Y is "successful," which means money, money without guilt.
Young artist Don Hedger, age 26, lives in a rooming house in Greenwich Village - (the only w.c. is at the top of the stairs) - and a new nabe, Eden Bower, age 20, has set her goal on being an opera singer -- whatever it takes, whatever the cost. Damn the physical, emotional, sexual. This is the story of their friendship, and, maybe, love over a short period. It's the best thing I've ever read about "artistic achievement." I can't find anything similar in international fiction. Only Willa Cather could produce it.
Cather's finale - devastating - line : "A big career takes its toll, even with the best of luck."
Young artist Don Hedger, age 26, lives in a rooming house in Greenwich Village - (the only w.c. is at the top of the stairs) - and a new nabe, Eden Bower, age 20, has set her goal on being an opera singer -- whatever it takes, whatever the cost. Damn the physical, emotional, sexual. This is the story of their friendship, and, maybe, love over a short period. It's the best thing I've ever read about "artistic achievement." I can't find anything similar in international fiction. Only Willa Cather could produce it.
Cather's finale - devastating - line : "A big career takes its toll, even with the best of luck."
May 15, 2013
I would rather eat a mound of pencil shavings than read this novella again.
June 5, 2022
This short story reminds me a lot of La La Land. Two artists, Don Hedger (a painter) and Eden Bower (a singer) meet and quickly go from friends to lovers. They both want to be successful, but they want to get there different ways. This causes conflict pretty fast. In the end, they're both successful in the way that they wanted. Except that they lost each other getting there. Or maybe it was just Don's ego that ruined everything. A more likely story. I think the hardest hitting part of the story is the very end. Eden finds someone she can ask about Don. She wants to know if he's successful-- not in a superficial way, but is he an inspiration to future generations of painters like he wanted? She will not go into his gallery. She won't even stay to chat about it. Just a yes or no. The ending provokes the question, did the two end up truly happy after achieving the ambitious goals they set for their careers? Was it worth it?
November 18, 2020
What a delightful little book, only 127 pages of charming short stories by some of America’s most master storytellers. Seven short stories by the likes of Willa Cather (the cover story “Coming, Aphrodite!”), John Steinbeck, Theodore Dresser and a crafty who-done-it mystery entitled “The Dance” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I particularly enjoyed “Every Other Thursday,” the story of Helmi, a young girl immigrant from Helsinki by Edna Ferber. She looks forward to her day off and adventures in Little Finland.
February 24, 2017
Okay. I want to write like Willa Cather.
June 14, 2020
Willa Cather writes beautifully. She creates people who are so real. As in all her stuff not a lot happens and what does happen is perfect.
January 22, 2021
No one writes like Willa Cather. It’s old fashioned and beautiful. It’s never a speed-read; it’s to be savored. Her complex characters are described quite simply. With that said, I think I should have spaced these stories out. They are too cerebral and quite slow. I’m dying to read a story w action. I’m sure I would have enjoyed them more if I had taken a break and come back to them.
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May 11, 2021Hmm. Random library fan. But I tried it and then my attention span ran away. I feel bad, because the first story is fine. But I couldn't get back into reading.
Hmm. I should give this a second chance in the future. But for now, I'll take a break.
Hmm. I should give this a second chance in the future. But for now, I'll take a break.
March 5, 2019
Loved the way this was written! Loved how carefully hand picked the words were... I felt like that aspect really carried a lot of the essence of the beauty of this story.
May 24, 2025
I found the stories collected here from Youth and the Bright Medusa a bit monotonous on first reading, with their repeated emphasis on the potential for art to enable the artist (or the spectator/listener/consumer) to escape from a stifled existence. You can feel Cather wrestling with the paradox of her formative years in Nebraska, which provided the genesis for half a dozen novels (even though she only lived there for 11 years) as well as the determination to leave it behind.
"A Wagner Matinee" makes it very plain. The narrator's Aunt Georgiana visits Boston from Nebraska briefly and he takes her to a symphony, knowing that she had been a music teacher at Boston Conservatory decades ago, before eloping to the frontier. He condescendingly wonders if the music is getting through to her, but it turns out that it is rupturing her:
The revelation in this collection is "Peter," Cather's very first published story, which enacts the brutality of life on the plains that Aunt Georgiana can't bear. Published in 1892, it's a nicely compressed bit of proto-Hemingway. Peter is the drunk and miserable father of a Bohemian immigrant family homesteading in "the dreariest part of Southwestern Nebraska" whose violin is his prized possession—"he had been a second violinist in the great theatre at Prague." His oldest son Antone is sober and hardworking. In a desperate act of protest Peter shoots himself, but not before smashing his violin so his son cannot make a profit off of it. The kicker: "Before the funeral Antone carried to town the fiddle-bow which Peter had forgotten to break. Antone was very thrifty, and a better man than his father had been."
Absolutely brutal!
"A Wagner Matinee" makes it very plain. The narrator's Aunt Georgiana visits Boston from Nebraska briefly and he takes her to a symphony, knowing that she had been a music teacher at Boston Conservatory decades ago, before eloping to the frontier. He condescendingly wonders if the music is getting through to her, but it turns out that it is rupturing her:
She burst into tears and sobbed pleadingly. "I don't want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!"
I understood. For her, just outside the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards, naked as a tower; the crooked-backed ash seedlings where the dish-cloths hung to dry; the gaunt, moulting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door.
The revelation in this collection is "Peter," Cather's very first published story, which enacts the brutality of life on the plains that Aunt Georgiana can't bear. Published in 1892, it's a nicely compressed bit of proto-Hemingway. Peter is the drunk and miserable father of a Bohemian immigrant family homesteading in "the dreariest part of Southwestern Nebraska" whose violin is his prized possession—"he had been a second violinist in the great theatre at Prague." His oldest son Antone is sober and hardworking. In a desperate act of protest Peter shoots himself, but not before smashing his violin so his son cannot make a profit off of it. The kicker: "Before the funeral Antone carried to town the fiddle-bow which Peter had forgotten to break. Antone was very thrifty, and a better man than his father had been."
Absolutely brutal!
January 19, 2015
Of this collection of stories, "Paul's Case" and "Coming, Aphrodite!" were my favorites. A look into New York through young men with just the right balance of earnestness and ruggedness.
"Paul's Case" gives the perspective of a Holden Caulfield-esque high school rebel (though Cather published this story long before Salinger). Paul is a teen frank in his apathy about the routines of lower/middle class life. After school, he works as an usher at Carnegie Hall:
"When the symphony began, Paul sank into one of the rear seats, with a long sigh of relief...the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him...When the soprano soloist came on, Paul half closed his eyes, and gave himself up to the peculiar stimulus such personages always had for him...
After a concert ...he had the feeling of not being able to let down, of its being impossible to give up this delicious excitement which was the only thing that could be called living at all."
She writes this story with small actions which read as subtle and important.
"Paul's Case" gives the perspective of a Holden Caulfield-esque high school rebel (though Cather published this story long before Salinger). Paul is a teen frank in his apathy about the routines of lower/middle class life. After school, he works as an usher at Carnegie Hall:
"When the symphony began, Paul sank into one of the rear seats, with a long sigh of relief...the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him...When the soprano soloist came on, Paul half closed his eyes, and gave himself up to the peculiar stimulus such personages always had for him...
After a concert ...he had the feeling of not being able to let down, of its being impossible to give up this delicious excitement which was the only thing that could be called living at all."
She writes this story with small actions which read as subtle and important.
May 7, 2023
Заинтересовал рассказ из-за статьи о том, как Трумэн Капоте якобы позаимствовал сюжет для Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories. Недавно прочитанная книга The Plot во мне всколыхнула множество мыслей о том, существует ли вообще такое понятие, как кража сюжета? Определённо, сходство есть - в конфликте между героями, тогда как сами герои обладают индивидуальностью.
Странно, что довольно глубокая мысль привела Кэсер к рассказу, а Капоте - к повести, вместо того, чтобы написать по роману каждый.
Странно, что довольно глубокая мысль привела Кэсер к рассказу, а Капоте - к повести, вместо того, чтобы написать по роману каждый.
August 27, 2007
cather is a brilliant writer - i loved this collection of short stories. she definitely had a deep appreciation for the fine arts/music - there are many references throughout the majority of the stories in this collection which i enjoyed. each story it quite different from the next - but i'd say a common theme connecting the collection is that nearly every character portrayed here was quite forlorn and melancholy (even if from all outward appearances, all would seem to be peachy-keen)...a lot of really lonely characters searching for some kind of fulfillment, be it in the human form, or other.
February 27, 2020
It's a beautifully written story and I have translated it into Russian. The characters are not grass roots, but talented young people. She has an anamazing singing voice and is going to become a lady of the world. He is an artis with a revelation from Above and is not interested in worldly success - only in new discoveries in his art. Their ways are different and yet for this one summer in New York they are tenants of the same house and become lovers. What happens to them after many years? It's in store for the reader to learn at the end of the story. But no matter how far from each other their lives have gone each of them remains gloriously themselves.
February 5, 2017
Благодаря на Капоти, че ми препоръча авторката на тази книга, а и лично срещна с нея в един- два параграфа из неговата "Музика за хамелеони" ..... гениална в хрумвания и сравнения.. елегантна.. чиста линия.. красив ненатрапчив изказ.. несравнимо описание на пейзажи в няколко реда, изтриващи като че с гумичка настояще и обкръжение, енергично нанасящи своите ясни вълнуващи щрихи отгоре, непреднамерено, без претенции на излишество, простичък в съвършенството си нов свят, в сцена на който, изненадан, се оказваш, все още неосъзнал се, непосредствен участник..
November 11, 2013
I can't believe people call this boring! I had to read it for a class, and it is definitely a highlight. I guess it's not very action-packed, which so many now-a-days seem to require. It is, however, beautifully written. I wish I could write like Cather. Maybe some people think this story is just some weird romance, I guess. But its not that shallow. It's a story about loneliness, versions of success, and discovering sexuality.
October 22, 2020
As I have seen in other reviews, people either love this short story by Willa Cather or hate it. In my case, I would like to place my opinion in the middle. I enjoyed the love story between the two main characters but atq times it was a heavy reading. The ending was no so bad either thought I must confess I was expecting a reunion between them.
September 3, 2023
Have never really been into short stories but picked up a beat up copy of 'The Secret Self', a collection of stories by women, that included 'Coming, Aphrodite!' by Willa Cather.
Connected instantly to the characters Eden and Hedger...something about a women who desires only to be great & admired by all. I fear one of my children will have eden incorporated in their naming.....
Connected instantly to the characters Eden and Hedger...something about a women who desires only to be great & admired by all. I fear one of my children will have eden incorporated in their naming.....
March 27, 2013
This is actually painful to read! It is so boring.
I cannot get into this. I had to read it for a class, and I found myself skipping over things because I could not take it. And the it is not even that long.
I cannot get into this. I had to read it for a class, and I found myself skipping over things because I could not take it. And the it is not even that long.
October 14, 2019
A whole other Cather. No "pioneers." No women who give birth and seem lost. No Nebraska.
It is lovely, though. She shows that she can almost out-Henry James Henry James when she wants to.
It is lovely, though. She shows that she can almost out-Henry James Henry James when she wants to.
June 22, 2020
A compelling short by Cather. A portrait of two artists exploring the differences in artistic achievement, sexuality, and a little love and loss along the way.
December 26, 2024
It was okay
September 8, 2017
Willa Cather is a superb writer who captures everyday life in these stories.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews