The Professor's House Audiobook By Willa Cather cover art

The Professor's House

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Professor's House

By: Willa Cather
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

A lyrical and bittersweet novel of a middle-aged man losing control of his life that's a brilliant study in emotional dislocation and renewal—from one of the most highly acclaimed authors of the twentieth century.

Professor Godfrey St. Peter is a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to his work, his wife, his garden, and his daughters, and achieved success with all of them. But when St. Peter is called on to move to a new, more comfortable house, something in him rebels. And although at first that rebellion consists of nothing more than mild resistance to his family's wishes, it imperceptibly comes to encompass the entire order of his life. The Professor's House combines a delightful grasp of the social and domestic rituals of a Midwestern university town in the 1920s with profound spiritual and psychological introspection.

©1925 Willa Cather (P)2016 Random House Audio Classics Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Inspiring
All stars
Most relevant  
Interesting. I felt a bit like I was playing a game of spot the gay and misogynistic untones. Which is nice for an English lit fan, as I'd imagine most people reading Willa Cather are. the language was beautiful, and the story plotless but engaging. The 1920s setting is very apparent, and very fun. I think the kids who like The Secret History would like this.

surprisingly gay

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Character development was exceptional. I felt like I knew the whole family. Could have been my own .

Brilliant!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
While it could be called a midlife crisis for St. Peters, I felt it more as a coming of age. Returning to himself. To the Kansas boy. As someone thinking about "listening to my life," it was powerful.

Deeply thought proving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Sean Runnette’s superb reading makes The Professor’s House a particular pleasure to listen to. Strongly recommended.

Sean Runnette’s excellent reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This work is remarkable in its description of the trajectory of the life of an highly sensitive, thoughtful, and kind man and much more.

A fine book for anyone contemplating retirement and the arc of a life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the Cather book that should have received her Pulitzer!

Familiar story with that award.

HER FINEST

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There's not a ton of action in this story about a professor who has lost interest in his life and is trying to cope with changes in both the world around him and in his own family life, but the picture that Willa Cather paints of this man still consumed by grief is so poignant.

The middle section, in which the professor's now deceased protege takes center stage, is less interesting to me but contains some beautiful prose as she describes the southwest landscape and Tom's feeling of connection to it.

Don't expect much of a plot and don't expect anything tied neatly in a bow at the end and just enjoy Willa Cather's writing.

Gently compelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was a great surprise. Captivating extensive description of the Professor and his interior thoughts and feelings. Cather "tells" the reader thru sensual description leaving the reader with sensations, tastes, sounds, textures, and perfect understanding.

Reading ar age 75

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found this hard to get into at first. I felt it was slow and difficult to see the plot. I stuck with it and found the narrator to be engaging. It is sentimental story.

Slow start

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.