Cather scholar Laura Winters suggested that the novel 'represents the bitter apotheosis of the issues of exile Cather worked on all of her life'.[2]
Literary analyst Merrill Skaggs identified editor Viola Roseboro' as Cather's probable inspiration for Myra Henshawe, and posited that although Cather said the inspiration for Henshawe had died in 1911, this was a reference to Roseboro' having left McClure's Magazine (former workplace of both Roseboro' and Cather) in that year.[3]
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The Question and Answer section for My Mortal Enemy is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Myra was holding her ebony crucifix.
When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them, as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from security into something malevolent and...
Myra caused a scandal when she eloped with Oswald and ran off to New York City. In doing so, she ostracized herself from her family and gave up her inheritance.
