10 h 58 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 58 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when the pull of the open plains meets a hunger for art?
In A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays, Willa Cather moves between frontier farms, small towns and cities. Her short fiction treats the plains as more than scenery. Elsewhere, people long for music, theatre, painting or books, while the towns they live in leave that hunger unsatisfied.
The reviews and essays bring you close to Cather’s thinking. Her criticism of plays, concerts and books speaks plainly and judges sharply. In The Novel Démeublé, she argues for a novel like a room cleared of heavy furniture. Together, these pieces reveal a storyteller asking what art should keep—and what it should leave out.
What you’ll discover
- The plains beyond scenery Enter frontier stories where the open land matters as much as the people.
- A hunger for art Meet people who crave music, theatre, painting and books beyond their small towns.
- A critic speaking plainly Follow Cather’s sharp eye as she weighs plays, concerts and books without holding back.
- A room cleared out Explore The Novel Démeublé and its image of fiction stripped of heavy furniture.
- One writer, three roles Discover how Cather’s stories, reviews and essays bring her plain, exact voice into focus.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love prairie stories, quiet portraits of ordinary lives, sharp opinions about famous writers, or a gifted author finding her voice.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Nebraska plains press hard on exiles
- Faith and music fight for one young man
- A marriage mends through shared memories
- A dead boy lives on in a garden
- Boys on a sandbar promise to climb a bluff
- One bright girl is loved by a whole town
- Nils Ericson comes home to a farm family
- New York stories show cold bargains and ghosts
- A young critic judges other writers with passion
- Norris, Crane and the call to simplify
Who’s who
- Peter SadelackAn old Bohemian violinist, once of the Prague theater, who guards his fiddle and memories on his son's Nebraska homestead.
- Canute CanutesonA seven-foot Norwegian farmer who drinks alone near Rattlesnake Creek and wants Lena Yensen for his wife.
- Eric HermannsonA giant young Norwegian fiddler who is pulled between the Free Gospellers and his love of music and beauty.
- Nils EricsonA wandering, easygoing son who returns to the family farm after twelve years and wants Clara to leave with him.
- Clara VavrikaA sharp-eyed, restless Bohemian woman who married rich Olaf Ericson and wonders whether she can ever leave the neighborhood.
- Nelly DeaneRiverbend's prettiest and liveliest girl, who sings in the Baptist choir and dreams of Chicago.
- Percy BixbyA careful bookkeeper who borrows from his firm without permission in order to marry the lovely Stella Brown.
- Ardessa DevineA vain private secretary who lives on her editor's habits and trains the young copyist who may replace her.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Una raccolta di racconti, recensioni e saggi
by Willa Cather
A Nebraska giant carries his bride through a blizzard while a young critic calls Mark Twain a clown.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
What would push a man to carry a woman through a blizzard, or a young fiddler to smash his violin across his knee? Willa Cather answers with prairie farmers, a runaway wife, a dying lawyer and a sculptor haunted by a dead uncle.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The Nebraska plains press hard on exiles
The book opens on the Nebraska plains, where settlers from Europe farm land that gives little back. In Peter, Peter Sadelack, an old Bohemian who once played second violin in a theater in Prague, lives on a homestead ruled by his son Antone. Antone wants to sell the old man's fiddle for cash. Peter clings to it and to his memories of a French actress.
Antone's corn is the best tended in the county, so the neighbors call him a promising young man. Peter drinks when he can and dreams of music, so they call him worthless. The tale quietly asks who counts as good when only work is counted.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 7 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Cather, Willa. A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-collection-of-stories-reviews-and-essays.
Cather, W. (2026). A collection of stories, reviews and essays. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-collection-of-stories-reviews-and-essays
Cather, Willa. A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-collection-of-stories-reviews-and-essays.
@book{cather2026collection,
author = {Cather, Willa},
title = {A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-collection-of-stories-reviews-and-essays}
}
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What is A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays by Willa Cather about?
It gathers twelve early stories, most about Nebraska settlers, runaway lovers and city workers, with reviews and essays on writers such as Poe, Twain, Norris and Crane, showing how Cather shaped her ideas about fiction.
Which stories appear in this Willa Cather collection?
Part one holds Peter, On the Divide, Eric Hermannson's Soul, The Sentimentality of William Tavener, The Namesake, The Enchanted Bluff, The Joy of Nelly Deane, The Bohemian Girl, Consequences, The Bookkeeper's Wife, Ardessa and Her Boss.
When did Willa Cather write these pieces?
The reviews and essays begin in the 1890s and extend into later years, alongside early work for newspapers in Nebraska and Pittsburgh. The stories appeared in magazines early in her career, with some published in 1916, 1918 and 1919.
The author
Willa Cather
1873–1947 · American novelist
Willa Cather was an American novelist celebrated for her portraits of prairie life on the Great Plains. My Ántonia, her 1918 story of a Bohemian immigrant girl in Nebraska, remains one of the most beloved American novels of its era.
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