"A Death in the Desert" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Scribner's in January 1903.Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 217
Plot summary Everett is on a train from Holdrege, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming. He is a man that looks like his older prodigy brother Adriance—this similarity haunts him throughout the entire story and robs him of his own personality. He will always be Adriance's brother.
The story follows Everett Hilgarde as he visits Katherine Gaylord, a dying woman who was once in love with his famous brother Adriance who was a musician and composer. Through Everett’s encounter with Katherine, he is forced to confront the emotional and psychological weight of living in his brother’s shadow. The desert makes the characters feel more alone and thoughtful as they confront death and the memories that still haunt them.
Characters Everett Hilgarde Charley Gaylord Two girls on the train. Adriance Hilgarde Katharine Gaylord Maggie Gaylord The Parson Diana, a chaste actress in New York City.
Allusions to other works Katharine Gaylord mentions Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold, Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Heinrich Heine's Florentine Nights.
Moreover, Gussie Davis' song "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" is mentioned - albeit 'in' is elided.Stouck, David, 'Review of The Troll Garden, by Willa Cather', Great Plains Quarterly, 4:278
Literary significance and criticism It has been argued that the title of the story was influenced by Willa Cather's reading of Robert Browning.Bernice Slote, 'Willa Cather and Her First Book', Willa Cather, April Twilights, University of Nebraska Press, 1968, page xi
Allusions to Alexandre Dumas, fils' La dame aux camelias and Lucretius's De rerum natura have also been found.Woodress, James, The Troll Garden by Willa Cather, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983b, p. 126
References
External links Full Text at the Willa Cather Archive