Shadows on the Rock

Shadows on the Rock, written after Willa Cather discovered Quebec City during an unplanned stay in 1928, is the second of her "Catholic" historical novels and reflects her fascination with finding a little piece of France in eastern Canada. Set in the late seventeenth century, the novel centers on the activities of the widowed apothecary Euclide Auclair and his young daughter, Cecile. To Auclair's house and shop come trappers, missionaries, craftsmen, the indigent—those seeking cures, a taste of France, or liberation from the corruptions caused there by the excesses of the French court. Set against these fictional characters, historical personages such as Bishop Laval, Count Frontenac, and others contend in the political life of the vast colony. This edition, which is approved by the Modern Language Association, will be of special importance to Cather scholars. Not only is Cather's mining of historical sources explored in extensive explanatory notes, but a recently discovered reworked draft of the novel has been incorporated into the textual analysis. There is also a generous illustration section with maps of the setting.

John J. Murphy is a professor of English at Brigham Young University, author of My Antonia: The Road Home, and editor of Critical Essays on Willa Cather. David Stouck, a professor of English at Simon Fraser University, is the author of Willa Cather's Imagination and As for Sinclair Ross: A Biography. Frederick M. Link is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and textual editor of Cather's Obscure Destinies and The Professor's House.