Death Comes for the Archbishop (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Willa Cather
- First Published: 1927
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: 1848-1889
- Setting: The American Southwest
- Principal Characters: Father Jean Marie Latour, Father Joseph Vaillant, Padre Antonio José Martinez, Eusabio, Jacinto, Manuel Lujon, Doña Isabella Olivares, Magdalena, Sada
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction, Character study
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Missions or missionaries, Religion, Southwest, Catholics or Catholic Church, Mexico or Mexicans, Clergy, Priests, Deserts, Frontier or pioneer life, Religious life, Cathedrals
- Locales: Canada, Arizona, New Mexico, Southwest (U.S.)
Form and Content
In an open letter to the editor of Commonweal (November 27, 1927) in response to queries from an admiring public, Willa Cather wrote about Death Comes for the Archbishop as follows:
I had all my life wanted to do something in the style of legend, which is absolutely the reverse of dramatic treatment. Since I first saw the Puvis de Chavannes frescoes of the life of Saint Genevieve [Pantheon nave, Paris, 1870’s] in my student days [actually first seen in 1902], I have wished that I could try something a little like that in prose; something...
[The entire page is 2331 words long]
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