Willa Cather Short Story Reminder
Our story this month is “The Joy of Nelly Deane.” It was first published in the Century magazine in October 1911.
You can read “The Joy of Nelly Deane” for free (and without ads) on the Willa Cather Archive: https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss014
“The Joy of Nelly Deane” is the story of two high school friends, Nelly and Peggy. Nelly is the prettiest and gayest girl in town, full of laughter and song. The girls have a sleep over and Nelly shares her dreams. Then there are some jumps in time. Peggy is the narrator and we find out about Nelly’s future through her.
In her Introduction to Willa Cather’s Collected Short Fiction, Mildred R. Bennett points out that Nelly has characteristics of two future characters Cather would create (xl). These are Marie Tovesky (Shabata) in O Pioneers! (1913) and Lucy of Lucy Gayheart (1935). The connections are in the characters’ joy in life and their sparkling yellow-brown eyes.
There may be other connections, but those might be spoilers.
What’s next?
Read “The Joy of Nelly Deane” sometime this month then come back to discuss it on the response post I’ll share on December 27th. Or, feel free to read it now and comment here if you can’t wait until then!
New to this blog? Learn more about the Willa Cather Short Story Project here. In a nutshell, we read one Cather short story a month. I remind everyone of what story we’re reading on the second Wednesday of the month and then share a response on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Jump in anytime!