Not Under Forty
Essays on the Unfurnished Novel, Artistic Discipline, Literary Inheritance, and the Enduring Truth of MemoryBy Willa Cather
Length2h 58m
About this audiobook
Published in 1936, Not Under Forty gathers Willa Cather's reflections on literature, art, memory, travel, and the conditions of creative life. Combining personal essay, literary criticism, memoir, and cultural commentary, the volume is notably conversational yet rigorously shaped: Cather moves from appreciations of Sarah Orne Jewett and other artistic predecessors to meditations on the novel, the writer's craft, and the changing modern world. Its title signals both a generational position and an aesthetic credo, expressing her resistance to explanations imposed by readers who have not reached the experiences she considers essential. The book belongs to the tradition of the literary miscellany, while its lucid, compressed prose and intimate authority make it unmistakably Cather's own. Cather (1873–1947), one of the major American novelists of the early twentieth century, had already established her reputation through works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and Death Comes for the Archbishop. Her Nebraska upbringing, journalism, travels, friendships with artists, and sustained engagement with European and American traditions informed her understanding of art as an act of selection, discipline, and emotional truth. Written after decades of public recognition, these essays also register her increasing impatience with reductive criticism and with the pressures of literary publicity. Not Under Forty is especially rewarding for readers who wish to encounter Cather not only as a novelist but as a subtle thinker about artistic independence and cultural memory. It offers valuable insight into her aesthetic principles while remaining pleasurable as prose: elegant, candid, occasionally provocative, and rich in historical atmosphere. Students of American modernism, literary criticism, and women's writing will find it indispensable, while general readers will appreciate its intelligent invitation to read, remember, and judge art on deeper terms.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (377)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreLiterary Classics
Length2 hrs 58 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 4, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Fifty Famous People: A Book of Short Stories (Annotated)
5MISS JEWETT[2]
2A CHANCE MEETING
6“JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS”
3THE NOVEL DÉMEUBLÉ
7KATHERINE MANSFIELD
4148 CHARLES STREET
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