The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)
A lyrical and bittersweet novel of a middle-aged man losing control of his life that's a brilliant study in emotional dislocation and renewal—from one of the most highly acclaimed authors of the twentieth century.
Professor Godfrey St. Peter is a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to his work, his wife, his garden, and his daughters, and achieved success with all of them. But when St. Peter is called on to move to a new, more comfortable house, something in him rebels. And although at first that rebellion consists of nothing more than mild resistance to his family's wishes, it imperceptibly comes to encompass the entire order of his life. The Professor's House combines a delightful grasp of the social and domestic rituals of a Midwestern university town in the 1920s with profound spiritual and psychological introspection.
Professor Godfrey St. Peter is a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to his work, his wife, his garden, and his daughters, and achieved success with all of them. But when St. Peter is called on to move to a new, more comfortable house, something in him rebels. And although at first that rebellion consists of nothing more than mild resistance to his family's wishes, it imperceptibly comes to encompass the entire order of his life. The Professor's House combines a delightful grasp of the social and domestic rituals of a Midwestern university town in the 1920s with profound spiritual and psychological introspection.
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Community Reviews
This was my first Willa Cather book, and while I enjoyed her skillful writing, the story didn't finish well in my opinion. The professor of the title is named St. Peter (last name), and at mid-life he has finally earned some renown and financial security as a result of a multi-volume history he has written. This success has enabled him and his wife to buy a new house, but St. Peter has no interest in leaving his old one, in particular, the drafty upstairs office has has long shared with the family's seamstress.
There are two storylines here; the first of St. Peter and his involvement with his work and reluctance to "move up," and the other about a favorite student of his, Tom Outland. By the time this story takes place, Outland has perished during WWI, but in the brief time he and St. Peter knew one another at the university, Outland managed to come up with a fabulously marketable form of gas (its particular use is never explained). Tom had been engaged to one of St. Peter's daughters, and willed his estate to her, not knowing at the time of his death the extent of the riches that would fall to her.
Rosamond has since married, and she and her husband are seemingly millionaires due to Outland's legacy. St. Peter finds the materialistic trappings of his daughter and son-in-law distasteful, and Rosamond as a character exudes no warmth. The reader has a hard time seeing what Tom saw in her.
The problem with this book is that after about two-thirds of the way through, Cather introduces a brief Book 2, narrated entirely by Tom Outland, and focusing in minute depth about his previous explorations of the Southwest and in particular, of an old settlement of Indian houses up on a mesa. I found this tedious, and not knowing how it would connect back to the saga of St. Peter and his family was distracting. This was Cather's way of showing how and why St. Peter was so enamored of Tom, but it hardly explains why his seeming passion for the long gone Indian community and its excavations would have led to his sudden brilliance in developing a marketing gas.
When Cather picks up the story again with St. Peter, he is becoming more and more distant from his family, and deciding never to move from the old house to the new. Yet he claims to love his wife, so this sort of separation doesn't make sense emotionally.
I would try another Cather novel, but this one didn't really deliver in the way I had hoped.
There are two storylines here; the first of St. Peter and his involvement with his work and reluctance to "move up," and the other about a favorite student of his, Tom Outland. By the time this story takes place, Outland has perished during WWI, but in the brief time he and St. Peter knew one another at the university, Outland managed to come up with a fabulously marketable form of gas (its particular use is never explained). Tom had been engaged to one of St. Peter's daughters, and willed his estate to her, not knowing at the time of his death the extent of the riches that would fall to her.
Rosamond has since married, and she and her husband are seemingly millionaires due to Outland's legacy. St. Peter finds the materialistic trappings of his daughter and son-in-law distasteful, and Rosamond as a character exudes no warmth. The reader has a hard time seeing what Tom saw in her.
The problem with this book is that after about two-thirds of the way through, Cather introduces a brief Book 2, narrated entirely by Tom Outland, and focusing in minute depth about his previous explorations of the Southwest and in particular, of an old settlement of Indian houses up on a mesa. I found this tedious, and not knowing how it would connect back to the saga of St. Peter and his family was distracting. This was Cather's way of showing how and why St. Peter was so enamored of Tom, but it hardly explains why his seeming passion for the long gone Indian community and its excavations would have led to his sudden brilliance in developing a marketing gas.
When Cather picks up the story again with St. Peter, he is becoming more and more distant from his family, and deciding never to move from the old house to the new. Yet he claims to love his wife, so this sort of separation doesn't make sense emotionally.
I would try another Cather novel, but this one didn't really deliver in the way I had hoped.
The book club overall really enjoyed this book, recognising Cather as an excellent writer with evocative imagery and insight into human beings complexity. We did feel there was some significant '' unfinished '' business when done , but almost all of us agreed we would read more of this American legends works.
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