Book Review: "The Professor's House" by Willa Cather

You guys know how I love a good deal on Kindle books, don't you? Well, on Christmas Day I managed to snag this one for about 50p and I am not sorry about it. Willa Cather is a novelist that I definitely need to read more and I am planning to do a deep-dive into her work soon. I've read a few of her novels and so far, she hasn't let me down. When it comes to The Professor's House I definitely see her writing style come alive, I see her characters become three dimensional and I see her world begin to change. An atmosphere you can breathe in and characters you can reach out and touch, Willa Cather's masterly writing creates a three-dimensional immersive world in which we live for some 250 pages. It is fantastic.

The novel begins with Godfrey St Peter, a history professor at a Midwestern university, who has achieved professional success through his multi-volume work on Spanish explorers in America. Despite his accolades, St Peter is deeply dissatisfied. He is in the process of moving from the old, cluttered house where he has lived for decades into a new, modern home designed by his wife, Lillian. The move symbolises the transition between different phases of his life, which he resists. I love how this book starts. What we get is this deep and intense description of this man: how he likes everything just so, how handsome he is, how he has the body of a swimmer. It is an extremely descriptive opening and so, I was sold right away.

St Peter’s family consists of his wife, Lillian, and their two daughters, Rosamond and Kathleen. The family dynamics are fraught with rivalry and unspoken grievances. Rosamond, the elder daughter, is married to Louie Marsellus, a wealthy and flamboyant businessman who has financed the lavish new home. Kathleen, the younger daughter, is more intellectual and artistic, and disapproves of her sister’s materialism. The professor feels increasingly alienated from his family, particularly as they embrace a life of wealth and superficial comfort that clashes with his values. The two sisters become more interesting as well as we find they reflect aspects of their parents. Kathleen is like her father whereas Rosamond is like her mother. Yet, both of them are also at odd with their parents.

Tom Outland, a former student and protégé of St Peter, becomes a central figure in the narrative. Though deceased, Tom’s memory looms large over the professor’s life and the dynamics of the family. Tom was an idealistic young man with a passion for discovery and a sense of integrity that deeply impressed St Peter. Before his untimely death in World War I, Tom had discovered ancient cliff dwellings in the American Southwest, which he hoped to preserve. Rosamond inherited Tom’s financial legacy after he patented an invention, leading to her wealth and marriage to Louie. This causes tension within the family and between St Peter and Louie, as the professor feels the money corrupts Tom’s memory. Now we have another character thrown into the mix who is also at odds with this family, especially considering the fact that the reader is set to find him more fascinating than many of the family members. It is almost like the family members are now fighting for the attention of the reader and not getting it.

In the novel’s second part, “Tom Outland’s Story,” Tom narrates his experiences in the Southwest, where he discovered an ancient Native American civilisation in the Mesa Verde region. Tom’s story is a celebration of discovery, purity, and the enduring value of cultural heritage. He describes the beauty and spiritual resonance of the ruins, which represent a way of life untainted by greed or modernity. However, when Tom entrusts artefacts from the ruins to a friend, only to have them sold for profit, he feels a deep betrayal. There are certain characters like Rosamond who represent materialism and this keeps coming back in small symbols and nudges to the reader. One of these ways is when the artefacts are sold. It represents this nudge into materialism that we are reminded of - it ruins people and relationships.

In conclusion, as the novel progresses, we find that our main character in Godfrey St Peter is constantly challenged to confront his old-world values, yet he is also confirmed in his beliefs that materialism is not the way to go. With certain characters complicating his world view and certain characters unable to be any other way - what we have is a story of the material world revolving around a man who has no idea what to do with it.