Above link not working? Click here to launch Zoom session

'A Wagner Matinee'

by Willa Cather

This week on the Tales from the Library Book Club we are reading ' A Wagner Matinee' by Willa Cather. this story tells of a young Bostonian named Clark who receives word that his Aunt Georgiana is coming to visit from Nebraska to settle an estate. As a young woman, Georgiana had been a talented music teacher at the Boston Conservatory until, during a trip to the Green Mountains, she met Howard Carpenter, ten years her junior. They eloped and moved to a homestead in Nebraska.

Thirty years have passed since Georgiana has seen Boston. Clark recalls her kindness to him when, as a boy, he visited Nebraska and she introduced him to Shakespeare, classical mythology, and the music she played on her small parlour organ. Clark decided - as a gesture of thanks - to take her to 'A Wagner Matinee' performance, it is at the performance that to two of them share a moment of musical transcendence.

"A Wagner Matinee" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Everybody's Magazine in February 1904. In 1906, it appeared in Cather's first published collection of short stories, The Troll Garden.

Listen to the audio book above or read the story online

'A Wagner Matinee' by Willa Cather

The turning point of the story revoles tightly around the music of Richard Wagner, as both Clark and his aunt are moved by the performace. If you are not familiar with Wagners music, here is Seigfreids Funeral March  from the opera Götterdämmerung which is the last part of the ring cycle. This is the peice that is mentioned in the story near the end, which might be benificial to listen to for context.

About the Author

Willa Sibert Cather was born in 1873 on her maternal grandmother's farm in the Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.

Cather achieved recognition as a novelist of the frontier and pioneer experience. She wrote of the tenacity and spirit of settlers, many of them European immigrants, in the Great Plains in the early to mid-20th century. Common themes in her work include loss, exile, and social isolation. A sense of place is an important element in Cather's fiction; sometimes harsh, often beautiful, physical landscapes and domestic spaces are for Cather dynamic presences against which the characters both struggle and express love.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

Once you are singed up the link to join via zoom will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join. 

Sign up to join

Don't have a Log In? Create a profile now