A Singer's Romance is a short story by Willa Cather

Willa Cather

Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...

. It was first published in Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

in July 1900.

Plot summary

Frau Schumann drops a bag in an attempt to get a man who has been stalking her to talk to her; he picks up the bag and gives it to her but remains silent. Later, she receives another letter from her husband, asking her for money for his doctor's bills. She knows he only needs the money for gambling as she has already sent him money for his doctor, but she sends him a cheque anyway. Antoinette then asks her if she wants champagne, but she says not as she has stopped drinking it since the stalker has been around - she wants to look good as she thinks he is a secret lover. Later however, she overhears the man telling Antoinette that she will understand if she leaves her, as Frau has been so kind to her. It is clear that the young man is Antoinette's suitor. Distraught, Frau orders a quart of champagne.

Characters

• Frau Selman Schumann, a German
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
   opera singer
• Mr Schumann, Frau Schumann's husband. He used to be her singing teacher, and he now gambles away her earnings in Monte Carlo
  Monte Carlo
  Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
  
  .
• Antoinette, Frau Schumann's maid. A late French opera singer's daughter, she was 'rescued' by Frau Schumann from becoming a chorus girl.
• The Signorino, Antoinette's suitor.

Allusions to other works

• Frau Schumann is compared to a caricature by Aubrey Beardsley
  Aubrey Beardsley
  Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....
  
  , and later to Valkyrie
  Valkyrie
  In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decides who dies in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle , the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin...
  
  .

Literary significance and criticism

A Singer's Romance was a rewriting of Nanette: An Aside, though with a different stance.

External links

• Full Text at the Willa Cather Archive