'She is undoubtedly one of the greatest American writers' OBSERVER

'My Mortal Enemy shows Miss Cather's power at its most concentrated . . . It is a fine piece of art' ETHEL WALLACE HAWKINS, ATLANTIC

'But Cather is not just a good writer - she is unique, and great' A. S. BYATT, GUARDIAN

'People can be lovers and enemies at the same time. We were . . . '

Through the eyes of a young girl, Nellie, we view the life of Myra, a legend in the Southern town where both were born. Myra has romantically abandoned the luxury she was born into to elope with the impoverished Oswald Henshawe.

Twenty-five years later, Nellie is dazzled when she meets them living in the elegant poverty of an apartment frequented by singers, actors and poets in the heart of the artistic community of old New York. But this shabby gentility gives way to real poverty in a jerrybuilt West Coast hotel and the high purpose of Myra's life - love itself - is revealed to be the enemy within.

A finely-wrought study of the great rewards and punishments love brings, My Mortal Enemy is an exquisite example of Willa Cather's art.

About the Author
Born in 1873 to a family who had farmed in Virginia for generations, Willa Cather moved to her father's new ranch in Nebraska when she was eight. The raw frontier territories and the pioneer life of the Old West were to awaken her imagination and furnish the atmosphere for much of her later work. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Willa Cather became a teacher and a journalist. In 1912 she abandoned journalism to write full time. Her first novel was Alexander's Bridge (1912) though she had already published a volume of poems and another of short stories. Her vivid novels cover a wide range: there are impassioned and thoughtful explorations of the ancient worlds of the Americas in The Professor's House (1925) and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) as well as sympathetic portrayals of conflicting values, or of the demands of art. These, along with her evocations of the pioneering West, soon established her reputation as one of America's foremost writers. Willa Cather died in New York in 1947.

Reviews
She is undoubtedly one of the greatest American writers * Observer *
Willa Cather makes a world which is burningly alive, sometimes lovely, often tragic -- Helen Dunmore
My Mortal Enemy shows Miss Cather's power at its most concentrated, and has passages of a clear, etched beauty . . . It is a fine piece of art -- Ethel Wallace Hawkins * Atlantic *
But Cather is not just a good writer - she is unique, and great -- A. S. Byatt * Guardian *



Book Information
ISBN 9781844084487
Author Willa Cather
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 108g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 5mm