Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
My Mortal Enemy

My Mortal Enemy

Cather, Willa

Paperback

Classic FictionGeneral FictionLiterary Fiction

ISBN10: 1025483383
ISBN13: 9781025483382
Publisher: Tradd Street Press
Published: Feb 14 2026
Pages: 126
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.27 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
My Mortal Enemy is a poignant and starkly realistic novella by Willa Cather that explores the complexities of human emotion and the consequences of life-altering choices. The narrative follows Myra Henshawe, a woman who famously abandoned her family's vast wealth to elope for love, an act of romantic defiance that becomes the central pivot of her eventual undoing. Seen through the eyes of the young narrator, Nellie Birdseye, the story tracks Myra's transition from a vibrant, charismatic socialite to a bitter and spiritually conflicted woman facing decline in a modest apartment.

Cather's prose masterfully dissects the illusions of romanticism, revealing the harsh realities of poverty and the internal resentment that can fester within a marriage born of sacrifice. As Myra reflects on her life and her husband, Oswald, she grapples with the concept of her mortal enemy-an ambiguous force that may be her circumstances, her spouse, or her own pride. A masterpiece of American Modernism, My Mortal Enemy is a haunting character study that examines the intersection of love, money, and religious redemption. It remains one of Cather's most experimental and emotionally resonant works, offering a brief but powerful meditation on the human condition.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

12 different editions

Also available

Also from

Cather, Willa

View All

Also in

Literary Fiction

View All