Death Comes for the Archbishop is Willa Cather's best-known novel, a narrative whose spare beauty achieves epic -- and even mythic -- qualities as it recounts a life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert.

This concise supplement to Willa Silbert Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop helps students understand the overall structure of the work, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.