Cather's first book of fiction and the capstone of her early career. As different and individually distinguished as the seven stories may be, they share as their subject the role and status of the artist in American society. The passions, ambitions, and pretensions, the cant and the pathos of the art world, artists, pseudo-artists, aficionados, and dilettantes—all are amply represented here in the midst of their foibles, grand affairs, and failures, drawn with great style and subtlety by a writer gathering her formidable powers.

Contents:

• Flavia and Her Artists
• The Sculptor's Funeral
• The Garden Lodge
• "A Death in the Desert"
• The Marriage of Phaedra
• A Wagner Matinee
• Paul's Case