The Professor's House, by Willa Cather

Willa Cather displays her talent for storytelling, and creating believable characters and situations in this novel.  It is set up a bit differently from other books of hers I have read, as we have the main story line about the professor, his family, and his impending retirement, and a second one told in flashback about Tom Outland, his most celebrated student (and his daughter's fiance)--an inventor and adventurer whose promising life was cut short in World War I.

The two storylines invite comparison, as the first one features the professor's quiet, comfortable everyday life, preoccupied with moving into a new house, and the second one is prompted by the professor's coming across Tom's diary among the things in his study while preparing for the move, and reading through it.

Tom's life before coming to the university was everything the professor's isn't--chaotic, impoverished, adventurous, with lots of time spent exploring the ruins of the pueblo Indians' cave dwellings in New Mexico.  The professor, having completed and been recognized for his masterwork on Spanish history, feels that there is nothing left in life to look forward to.  His daughters are both married and on their own; they don't seem to need him as much as they used to.  The elder especially, who has inherited Tom's estate, is developing some personality traits he doesn't care for.  The new house is more his wife's project than his.  There is no place in it comparable to his old attic study, where so much of his work was done and which holds many memories.  He stays in it long after the rest of the house has been vacated, to the point of renting the old house for some extra months.

It's the perfect picture of a man who is reluctant to move on to a new phase of life (which looks drab and uninteresting from his present point of view), and tries to hang on to the old life for as long as possible.

Shadows on the Rock

I learned about the existence of this novel (not one of Willa Cather's better known ones) while reading this article by Patricia Snow on First Things Magazine.  It is a historical novel covering a year in the life of Cecile Auclair, the twelve year old daughter of an apothecary in Quebec City in the 17th century.  Cecile and her family are originally from Paris, emigrating to Quebec when their aristocratic neighbor and patron, the Count de Frontenac, was appointed governor general by the king.  While Cecile and her family are fictional characters, the Count, the two bishops, and other persons of rank in the story are real, as are the events that are remembered and talked about so this is a believable picture of what everyday life might have been like on "the Rock" during French colonial times, when the Church had a strong influence on culture and lifestyle and when one had to depend on the infrequent visits of transatlantic ships from France to get word from home and much needed commodities not available in Canada.  Those who are familiar with Quebec City will recognize the landscape and architecture of the Upper and Lower Town, the Hotel-Dieu hospital, the church of Notre Dame des Victoires, and other historical landmarks.

Willa Cather has a great talent for creating realistic characters and environments, so it was easy to get engrossed in the story.