Willa Cather

The Professor's House Willa Cather

The Professor's House is a novel by American novelist Willa Cather, first published in 1925, in post-war America. The Professor's House was written over the course of several years. Cather first wrote the centerpiece, "Tom Outland's Story," and then later wrote the two framing chapters "The Family" and "The Professor." The novel tells the story of Professor Godfrey St. Peter, a fifty-two-year-old man of mixed descent - "Canadian French on one side, and American farmers on the other," and described by his wife as growing "better-looking and more intolerant all the time." The novel explores many contrasting ideas. Indeed in many respects, the novel deals in opposites, variously conceived: Marsellus vs. Outland, Kitty vs. Rosamond, the quixotic vs. the pragmatic, the old vs. the new, the idea of the Professor as a scholar vs. his family relations, Indian tribes vs. the contemporary world of the 20s, and the opposing social poles of the Professor vs. Lillian. Those opposites are not always clear-cut.