Flavia and Her Artists

Last updated October 12, 2019

Flavia and Her Artists is a short story by American writer Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905.^[1]

Willa Sibert Cather was an American writer who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922), a novel set during World War I.

<i>The Troll Garden</i> 1905 collection of short stories

The Troll Garden is a collection of short stories by Willa Cather, published in 1905.

Plot introduction

Imogen visits her friend Flavia, where she is to join a retinue of artists. However, things do not pan out as well as planned.

Plot summary

Imogen takes a train to Tarrytown, New York, where she has been invited by her friend Flavia. The latter picks her up from the station and drives her to her house. Later Miss Broadwood introduces herself and begs her not to think of her as another 'artist'; she will be her confidante. Arthur joins them to say hello and prepare the dinner. At supper, the artists have agitated conversations M. Roux remains distant. When asked about Flavia about his idea that women cannot be intellectual, he admits he has never met such a one. Later, Imogen thinks back to her childhood days when Arthur would read her children's stories. Before bed, he asks his wife why she invited Imogen, who is not a fickle artist; she said she owes it to her mother. M. Roux is to leave the next day.

Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about 25 miles (40 km) north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line. To the north of Tarrytown is the village of Sleepy Hollow, to the south the village of Irvington and to the east unincorporated parts of Greenburgh. The Tappan Zee Bridge crosses the Hudson at Tarrytown, carrying the New York State Thruway to South Nyack, Rockland County and points in Upstate New York. The population was 11,277 at the 2010 census.

The next day, Imogen has breakfast with Miss Broadwood, and they are joined by Arthur and his sons, who are to go off for the day so as not to unsettle the artists. Together, the two women wonder how Arthur can put up with his wife, why he ever married her; Miss Broadwood goes so far as to suggest she has no real sense of what art really is.

Later, back from a hike, Imogen and Arthur come upon the other artists, who seem agitated. They have been reading a satire on Flavia by M. Roux in a newspaper article; Arthur vows not to let his wife hear of it, lest it should hurt her feelings. At dinner, Flavia praises her slanderer, and Arthur lashes out about artists. Some of the artists decide to leave the next day. Flavia then argues with Imogen over Arthur's manners, although Imogen cannot tell her why he acted that way. She confides in Miss Broadwood that she is disheartened with Flavia; she shall leave the next day. Arthur takes her to the station.

Characters

Imogen Willard. She studies philology.
Flavia Malcolm, a patron of the arts. She is thirty-five years old. She is bossy and pretty, but somehow 'always ill at ease'.
Arthur Hamilton, Flavia's meek husband
M. Emile Roux, a French writer from Paris, who has written twelve novels. He later publishes a satirical article about Flavia.
Ivan Schemetzkin, a Russian pianist. He is small and fat.
Jules Martel, a painter.
Signor Donati, an Italian tenor. He is very small. He smokes cigarettes.
Professor Schotte, a scholar on Assyria.
Restzhoff, a Russian chemist.
Alcee Buisson, a philologist.
Frank Wellington, a novelist. He is from Kansas and went to Harvard. He has published three historical novels.
Will Maidenwood, the editor of Woman. He is convalescent.
Jemima Broadwood, Flavia's second cousin and a stage actress.
Fray Lichtenfeld, a German writer.

Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics. Philology is more commonly defined as the study of literary texts as well as oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist.

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018.

A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is one of the highest of the male voice types. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C₅. The low extreme for tenors is roughly A♭₂ (two A♭s below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F₅). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or spieltenor.

Allusions to other works

Arthur is said to have read Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Jabberwocky , as well as Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid out to Imogen when she was a child.
Flavia mentions Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, and George Sand when she asks M. Roux about intellectual women.
Schemetzkin plays some Chopin after the first dinner.
Music is also mentioned by Arthur, with Erlking.
Miss Broadwood compares the children's dialogue to something out of Maurice Maeterlinck.
Flavia is said to have garnered information from others about the Barbizon school and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler .
Flavia compares her husband to Banquo, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth .

Lewis Carroll English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English writer of world-famous children's fiction, notably Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. He was noted for his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy. The poems Jabberwocky and The Hunting of the Snark are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. He was also a mathematician, photographer, and Anglican deacon.

Jabberwocky nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The book tells of Alice's adventures within the back-to-front world of Looking-Glass Land.

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Allusions to actual history

M. Roux compares himself to Jaufré Rudel in his quest for an intellectual woman.
Imogen compares the household she leaves at the end to Caius Marius and the ruins of Carthage.

Carthage was the center or capital city of the ancient Carthaginian civilization, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now the Tunis Governorate in Tunisia. Carthage was widely considered the most important trading hub of the Ancient Mediterranean and was arguably one of the most affluent cities of the Ancient World.

Literary significance and criticism

The ending of Flavia and Her Artists foreshadows The Way of the World , with the reference to Caius Marius and the ruins of Carthage.^[2]

The Way of the World is a play written by the English playwright William Congreve. It premiered in early March 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. It is widely regarded as one of the best Restoration comedies and is still occasionally performed. Initially, however, the play struck many audience members as continuing the immorality of the previous decades, and was not well received.

Related Research Articles

<i>Alexanders Bridge</i> novel by Willa Cather

Alexander's Bridge is the first novel by American author Willa Cather. First published in 1912, it was re-released with an author's preface in 1922. It also ran as a serial in McClure's, giving Cather some free time from her work for that magazine.

"The Sculptor's Funeral" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in January 1905.

The Burglar's Christmas is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in 1896 under the pseudonym of Elizabeth L. Seymour, her cousin's name.

Jack-a-Boy is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Saturday Evening Post in March 1901.

"The Way of the World" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in April 1898.

"A Gold Slipper" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Harper's in January 1917.

Ardessa is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Century in May 1918.

Her Boss is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Smart Set in October 1919.

"A Night at Greenway Court" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Nebraska Literary Magazine in June 1896. Four years later a revised version was published in the Library.

Tommy, the Unsentimental is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in August 1896.

"A Resurrection" is a short story by American writer Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in April 1897.

The Affair at Grover Station is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Library in June 1900 in two installments, and reprinted in the Lincoln Courier one month later.

The Profile is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in June 1907.

The Garden Lodge is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905

The Marriage of Phaedra is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905

The Treasure of Far Island is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in New England Magazine in October 1902.

<i>My Mortal Enemy</i> novel by Willa Cather

My Mortal Enemy is the eighth novel by American author Willa Cather. It was first published in 1926.

"The Diamond Mine" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in October 1916.

References

↑ Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 172
↑ Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxxvii

External links

Full Text found in The Troll Garden at the Willa Cather Archive

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 172

[2] Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxxvii

v t e Works by Willa Cather
Novels	Alexander's Bridge O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark My Ántonia One of Ours A Lost Lady The Professor's House My Mortal Enemy Death Comes for the Archbishop Shadows on the Rock Lucy Gayheart Sapphira and the Slave Girl
Short stories	"Peter" "Lou, the Prophet" "The Elopement of Allen Poole" "A Tale of the White Pyramid" "A Son of the Celestial" "The Clemency of the Court" "The Fear That Walks by Noonday" "On the Divide" "A Night at Greenway Court" "Tommy, the Unsentimental" "The Princess Baladina – Her Adventure" "The Count of Crow's Nest" "The Burglar's Christmas" "The Strategy of the Were-Wolf Dog" "A Resurrection" "The Prodigies" "Nanette: An Aside" "The Way of the World" "The Westbound Train" "Eric Hermannson's Soul" "The Dance at Chevalier's" "The Sentimentality of William Tavener" "The Affair at Grover Station" "A Singer's Romance" "The Conversion of Sum Loo" "Jack-a-Boy" "El Dorado: A Kansas Recessional" "The Professor's Commencement" "The Treasure of Far Island" "A Death in the Desert" "A Wagner Matinee" "The Sculptor's Funeral" "Flavia and Her Artists" "The Garden Lodge" "The Marriage of Phaedra" "Paul's Case" "The Namesake" "The Profile" "The Willing Muse" "Eleanor's House" "On the Gulls' Road" "The Enchanted Bluff" "The Joy of Nelly Deane" "Behind the Singer Tower" "The Bohemian Girl" "Consequences" "The Bookkeeper's Wife" "The Diamond Mine" "A Gold Slipper" "Ardessa" "Scandal" "Her Boss" "Coming, Eden Bower!" "Uncle Valentine" "Double Birthday" "Neighbour Rosicky" "Two Friends" "The Old Beauty" "Before Breakfast" "The Best Years"
Short story collections	The Troll Garden Youth and the Bright Medusa Obscure Destinies The Old Beauty and Others Five Stories
Collection of poems	April Twilights
Collaborations	The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science
Adaptations	A Lost Lady (1934 film) O Pioneers! (1992 film) My Antonia (1995 film) The Song of the Lark (2001 film) O Pioneers! (2009 opera)
Related	Willa Cather Birthplace Willa Cather House Willa Cather Foundation WILLA Literary Award