My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather
My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather
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My Mortal Enemy

Author: Willa Cather

Narrator: Natasha Soudek

Unabridged: 2 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/18/2016

Synopsis

First published in 1926, this book is Willa Cather's sparest and most dramatic novel, a dark and prescient portrait of a marriage that subverts our oldest notions about the nature of domestic happiness.

As a young woman, Myra Henshawe gave up a fortune to marry for love--a boldly romantic gesture that became a legend in her family. But this worldly, sarcastic, and perhaps even wicked woman may have been made for something greater than love. In her portrait of Myra and in her exquisitely nuanced depiction of her marriage, Cather shows the evolution of a human spirit as it comes to bridle against the constraints of ordinary happiness and seek an otherwordly fulfillment. My Mortal Enemy is a work whose drama and intensely moral imagination make it unforgettable.

About The Author

Willa Cather was born near Winchester, Virginia, in 1873. When she was ten years old, her family moved to the prairies of Nebraska, later the setting for a number of her novels. At the age of twenty-one, she graduated from the University of Nebraska, and she spent the next few years doing newspaper work and teaching high school in Pittsburgh. In 1903, her first book, April Twilights, a collection of poems, was published, and two years later The Troll Garden, a collection of stories, appeared in print. After the publication of her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge, in 1912, Cather devoted herself full time to writing, and over the years she completed eleven more novels (including O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, The Professor’s House, and Death Comes for the Archbishop), four collections of short stories, and two volumes of essays. Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Oursin 1923. She died in 1947.

Reviews

Goodreads review by mark on April 07, 2018

oh Mother, oh Father! I sorta get you now, thanks to My Mortal Enemy. such a short little piece but such a powerful punch. I'd give this 5 stars for personal impact, but the impact was so painful and intense, I could never consider this a favorite. once upon a time, Myra and Oswald eloped. they were,......more

Goodreads review by Ilenia on March 27, 2018

PAZZESCA. Una tragedia che vi renderà inconsolabili, scritta con l'eleganza e la squisitezza di una donna capace di rievocare lo spirito, la materia (e tutta la sontuosa compagnia danzante) degli anni 20. Ricchissimi che diventano poverissimi, innamorati matti che diventano nemici mortali come in Fi......more

Goodreads review by JimZ on December 31, 2020

Hmmm. This was more of a novella than a novel. It was just okay. 2.5 stars The narrator is a young woman, Nellie Birdseye. She has an aunt who knows Myra Henshawe and her husband Oswald. When she first met Mrs. Henshawe, she was 15 years old and the Henshawes were in their 40s and comfortably well of......more

Goodreads review by Dhanaraj on August 23, 2016

An excellent book. This is a story about Love. This is a story about marriage. This is a story about redemption. This is a story about forgiveness. The story is really short. The prose is economical. The impact, I got, was tremendous. The story is about a rich girl deserting her riches for the love of he......more

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