Shadows on the rock

In the cameo worlds of Willa Cather's fiction, one always senses the looming presence of a larger world just at the perimeter. The larger world in Shadows on the Rock is France, and this new scholarly edition of the novel depicts how French history and customs shaped life in the intimate circle of colonial Quebec. In a letter to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Cather herself remarked that "every detail in the lives of her characters in this novel had been taken from old books and letters." The edition's "Historical Apparatus" upholds Cather's claim. It includes a historical essay; an unused fragment from the original manuscript about Cecile, the novel's main character; photographs of historical figures who appeared in the book and of maps, letters, and architecture in France and Quebec pertinent to the novel; and explanatory notes on the novel itself. The "Textual Apparatus" section--which includes necessary and valuable information about word division, emendations, and a table of rejected substantives--will be valuable to more advanced readers and students of the text. Devotees of this novelistic treasure almost lost in Cather's vast oeuvre will surely herald Link's new scholarly edition. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. J. A. Dompkowski Canisius College

Cather's historical novel, set in Quebec, gets the scholarly treatment. In addition to a corrected text, this edition sports photos and illustrations, textual notes, and historical essays. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.