A prestigious award gives the middle-aged professor Godfrey St. Peter the funds to buy a new house, but he’s reluctant to let go of his old one. His wife and two daughters welcome the change, seeing it as a well-deserved step up in the world. St. Peter instead focuses his attention on editing the journals of Tom Outland, his former student and would-be son-in-law—before his life was taken in the Great War. As Outland’s own story unfolds, St. Peter finds himself too consumed by what could have been to move forward.

Published in 1925, The Professor’s House remains one of Willa Cather’s most understated works. While initially received poorly, it has since risen in stature as one of Cather’s most formally inventive novels.