All Formats & Editions

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.

Myra Driscoll had it all -- dresses, jewels, a riding horse, and a Steinway piano -- until she met and fell in love with Oswald Henshawe, a man her uncle, John Driscoll, hated. Despite the threat of disinheritance by Driscoll, Myra married Oswald. Nellie Birdseye, Myra's niece,... Read Full Overview

The story revolves around Myra and her husband Oswald, who return to their home in Illinois to visit their relatives. Myra was an outgoing ambitious woman, who didn't obey her uncle and eloped with her boyfriend, and then ran away with him to New York City. In eloping, Myra gave... Read Full Overview

Willa Cather's darkest and most dramatic work, My Mortal Enemy is an agonisingly honest examination of marriage, love, and the evolution of a single person's life.

This 1926 novella depicts a life set for fortune that ultimately results in spite and bitterness... Read Full Overview

Myra and her husband Oswald return to their fictional hometown of Parthia, Illinois, to visit their relatives. Nellie and Aunt Lydia then leave to spend the Christmas holiday in New York City with them. They live on Madison Square. They dine with Ewan Gray, a friend who has... Read Full Overview

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. With an Introduction by Marcus Klein. 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... Read Full Overview

"Sometimes, when I have watched the bright beginning of a love story, when I have seen a common feeling exalted into beauty by imagination, generosity, and the flaming courage of youth, I have heard again that strange complaint breathed by a dying woman into the stillness... Read Full Overview

"Sometimes, when I have watched the bright beginning of a love story, when I have seen a common feeling exalted into beauty by imagination, generosity, and the flaming courage of youth, I have heard again that strange complaint breathed by a dying woman into the stillness... Read Full Overview

Willa Cather's My Mortal Enemy is a poignant character study of an extraordinary woman of commanding personality named Myra who gives up a fortune to marry for love. But was it the right choice? In her portrait of Myra and in her exquisitely nuanced depiction of her marriage,... Read Full Overview

My Mortal Enemy is the eighth novel by American author Willa Cather. 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... Read Full Overview

My Mortal Enemy is the eighth novel American author Willa Cather. It was first published in 1926. Wikipedia

I first met Myra Henshawe when I was fifteen, but I had known about her ever since I could remember anything at all. She and her runaway marriage were the theme of the most interesting, indeed the only interesting, stories that were told in our family, on holidays or at family... Read Full Overview

I first met Myra Henshawe when I was fifteen, but I had known about her ever since I could remember anything at all. She and her runaway marriage were the theme of the most interesting, indeed the only interesting, stories that were told in our family, on holidays or at family... Read Full Overview