My Mortal Enemy

Myra Driscoll had it all--dresses, jewels, a riding horse, and a Steinway piano--until she met and fell in love with Oswald Henshawe, a man her uncle, John Driscoll, hated. Despite the threat of disinheritance by Driscoll, Myra married Oswald. Nellie Birdseye narrates the poignant journey through a failing marriage and a woman's painful struggle with the marriage paradox: how to reconcile youth's romantic exuberance with growing disillusionment, bitterness, and regret. A novelist and short-story writer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather (1873-1947) is today widely regarded as one of the foremost American authors of the twentieth century. She spent her formative years in Nebraska, which at the time was a frontier territory. The pioneer spirit has influenced much of her writing; nevertheless, her departure from that world in My Mortal Enemy led to a mixed reception from critics and the general public. Although the novel was a commercial success, it sparked a heated controversy over whether Myra's "mortal enemy" was Oswald or Myra herself.