Willa Cather's 1915 novel follows Thea Kronborg, a talented young woman from a small Colorado town who pursues her dreams of becoming an opera singer. This coming-of-age fiction explores the sacrifices and determination required for artistic achievement in early 20th-century America.
Dr. Howard Archie had just come up from a game of pool with the Jewish clothier and two traveling men who happened to be staying overnight in Moonstone. His offices were in the Duke Block, over the drug store. Larry, the doctor’s man, had lit the overhead light in the waiting-room and the double student’s lamp on the desk in the study. The isinglass sides of the hard-coal burner were aglow, and the air in the study was so hot that as he came in the doctor opened the door into his little operating-room, where there was no stove. The waiting room was carpeted and stiffly furnished, something like a country parlor. The study had worn, unpainted floors, but there was a look of winter comfort about it. The doctor’s flat-top desk was large and well made; the papers were in orderly piles, under glass weights. Behind the stove a wide bookcase, with double glass doors, reached from the floor to t…Continue reading →
Born in 1873, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist captured the pioneering spirit of the American frontier with unparalleled authenticity. Drawing from her Nebraska childhood, she crafted masterworks like My Ántonia and O Pioneers! that celebrated immigrant resilience and the harsh beauty of prairie life, establishing her as one of America's greatest chroniclers of the West. All works by Willa Cather →
Browse all Fiction · 20th Century works