She is beautiful and impressionable and ardent, and these qualities attract the attention of Clement Sebastian, an aging but charismatic singer who exercises all the tragic, sinister fascination of a man who has renounced life only to turn back to seize it one last time. Out of their doomed love affair—and Lucy's fatal estrangement from her origins—Willa Cather creates a novel that is as achingly lovely as a Schubert sonata.

    Stories of Lives:Socialist PleasuresThe Friendly OneSchoolgirlsThe SecretThe Incurable VirtueDaisy and VenisonThree Times RoundII. Stories of Ideas:Reality as Port HuntladyMiss Banquett, or The Populating of CosmaniaIII. Nearly True Stories:The Story-PigThe PlaygroundA Fairy Tale for Older PeopleA Last Lesson in GeographyIV. A Crown for Hans AndersenV. More Stories:In the BeginningEve's Side of ItPrivatenessIn the EndFrom Anarchism Is Not Enough:How Came It AboutHungry to HearIn a CaféAn Anonymous BookFrom Experts Are Puzzled:Mademoiselle CometThe Fortunate LiarMolly BarleywaterButtercupThe Fable of the DicePerhaps an IndiscretionArista ManuscriptThat WorkshopFinale:A Later Story: Christmastime (1966)