The Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge
I’d love to see more people reading and talking about Willa Cather’s novels which is why I turned my personal plan of reading all twelve of Cather’s novels in 2012 into a public reading challenge.
Cather published 12 novels which makes this a perfect year-long reading challenge. Jump in anytime, read the novels in any order. There are no rules, just the pleasure of reading novels from this American master.
The novels in chronological order:
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Alexander’s Bridge (1912)
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O Pioneers! (1913)
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The Song of the Lark (1915)
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My Ántonia (1918)
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One of Ours (1922)
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A Lost Lady (1923)
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The Professor’s House (1925)
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My Mortal Enemy (1926)
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Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
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Shadows on the Rock (1931)
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Lucy Gayheart (1935)
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)
The links below are the posts I wrote for the Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge in 2012. There is two posts for each novel: An “introductory” post to the novel and then a “thoughts & comments” post. (I’ll eventually remove the dates to make this feel more evergreen.)
Sadly, not all of the comments survived when I transferred my blog from Blogger to WordPress, but some did. Please feel free to add your comments. I’d love to keep the conversation going!
- Take the Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge
- Alexander’s Bridge: Book #1 Introduction
- Alexander’s Bridge: Thoughts & Comments
- O Pioneers!: Book #2 Introduction
- O Pioneers!: Thoughts & Comment
- The Song of the Lark: Book #3 Introduction
- The Song of the Lark: Thoughts & Comments
- My Antonia: Book #4 Introduction
- My Antonia: Thoughts & Comments
- One of Ours: Book #5 Introduction
- One of Ours: Thoughts & Comments
- A Lost Lady: Book #6 Introduction
- A Lost Lady: Thoughts & Comments
- The Professor’s House: Book #7 Introduction
- The Professor’s House: Thoughts & Comments
- My Mortal Enemy: Book #8 Introduction
- My Mortal Enemy: Thoughts & Comments
- Death Comes for the Archbishop: Book #9 Introduction
- Death Comes for the Archbishop: Thoughts & Comments
- Shadows on the Rock: Book #10 Introduction
- Shadows on the Rock: Thoughts & Comments
- Lucy Gayheart: Book #11 Introduction
- Lucy Gayheart: Thoughts & Comments
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl: Book #12 Introduction
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl: Thoughts & Comments
- Wrap-up Post
I’d love some thoughts about Coming Aphrodite.
Hi Carol. That’s one of my favorites of Cather’s short stories. I like the city setting and glimpse into artists’ lives back then. At a recent Cather conference, I believe it was the top short story when they polled participants. I wrote a post about the story a few years ago when we read it as part of the Willa Cather Short Story Project — https://chriswolak.com/2019/05/22/response-to-coming-aphrodite-the-willa-cather-short-story-project/ I’d love to hear your thoughts on the story.