A Study Guide for Willa Cather's "Paul's Case"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jul 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535830690

Book preview

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Paul’s Case

Willa Cather

1905

Introduction

Willa Cather’s story Paul’s Case was first published in 1905. It was the last of seven stories in her first collection, The Troll Garden, which launched Cather’s literary career. When the story was printed in McClure’s in May of the same year, it brought Cather to national attention. In 1920 the story was reprinted by Alfred Knopf in Youth and the Bright Medusa.

Like many of the stories in The Troll Garden,Paul’s Case explores the dangers of art and the struggles of artists and artistically inclined youth in a commercial world. Cather once remarked that the events in the story were modeled on an actual incident that occurred while she was teaching English in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Cather’s portrayal of a young man who lives for beauty and believes that money can transform his identity influenced F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose novel The Great Gatsby explores similar