In the following excerpt, Thurin presents an overview of Cather's debt to classical Greek and Latin literature in her short stories.

Stout, Janis P. “An Overview of the Life and Career of Willa Cather.” In Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 123, edited by Allison Marion and Linda Pavlovski. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group, 2003. In the following original essay, Stout discusses Cather’s life, career, awards and recognitions, and the overall body of work, while also examining the era in which Cather wrote and the critical reception of her works.

In the following essay, Wasserman surveys Cather's short fiction.

In the following essay, Arnold presents an overview of Cather's early career and stories.

In the following excerpt, Woodress presents an overview of the stories in The Troll Garden and Obscure Destinies, and addresses the effect these publications had on Cather's career and personal life.

In the following essay, Arnold offers a thematic overview of the stories in The Troll Garden.

In the following excerpt, Stouck discusses Cather's major narrative techniques as well as her portrayal of the artistic temperament in her short fiction.

In the following excerpt, Nelson explores the role of immigrants in Cather's stories, asserting that these characters represent Cather's struggle with the principles of American materialism.

In the following essay, Summers examines “Paul's Case” in the context of Cather's opinions about Irish writer Oscar Wilde and her retreat from the male-centered aestheticism that she espoused early in her career.

In the following excerpt, Murphy discusses Willa Cather and her belief in literature filled with mystery, free of “literalness.”

In the following essay, Brown traces Cather's early literary development.

In the following essay, Rosowski contends that Cather's main theme in Obscure Destinies is the acceptance of life as apparent reality, in contrast to her earlier themes of idealism.

In the following essay, Rosowski examines elements of temptation and salvation in The Troll Garden, and the ways these themes represent Cather's feelings about being an artist.

In the following essay, Haller investigates the influence of French writer Gustave Flaubert had on Cather's story “Behind the Singer Tower” and on the decisions she made regarding her life as an artist.

In the following essay, Schneider discusses Cather's notion of the value of land as depicted in her short fiction.

In the following essay, Arnold explores the themes of survival and adaptability in Cather's final stories.

In the following essay, Stich views “The Marriage of Phaedra” as Cather's interpretation of the Greek Amazon myth.

In the following essay, Hall underscores the difficulties for Cather in inheriting and drawing upon a predominantly male literary canon and the ways in which she addressed this problem through fiction.

In the following essay, Bohlke dilates upon Cather's sources for her story “The Clemency of the Court.”

In the following essay, Harris addresses Cather's conflicted notions about gender and the ways she expressed this ambivalence in her stories.

In the following essay, Salemi uses the example of “Paul's Case” to demonstrate his theory that Cather employed her training in the cadences and rhythms of classical writing in her own work.

In the following essay, Sullivan examines elements of German culture in Cather's stories, particularly the influence of Goethe on “Uncle Valentine.”

In the following essay, Zitter perceives the main female character of “The Marriage of Phaedra” as a precursor to Cather's later women protagonists.

In the following essay, Flannigan argues that Cather's insertion of references to the opera Cavalleria Rusticana is a fundamental element to understand the title character of “Eric Hermannson's Soul.”

In the following essay, Petry locates the meaning of the story “The Sculptor's Funeral” in the protagonist's homosexuality.

In the following essay, Salda questions the standard critical interpretation of the ending to “Paul's Case,” positing instead that the title character does not necessarily die.

In the following essay, Saari presents a psychoanalytic interpretation of “Paul's Case.”

In the following essay, Bush maintains that the power of Cather's fiction did not diminish with “The Best Years,” as other critics have asserted.

In the following essay, Harris discusses the stories in which Cather featured images of the Greek goddess Athene in an attempt to create female characters who embodied the ideals of her own masculine aesthetic.

In the following essay, Baker explores Cather's early view of Nebraska as a hostile place for artistic pursuits.

In the following essay, Crabtree considers the significance of flowers in “Paul's Case.”