The Professor's House is a novel about Godfrey St. Peter, a middle-aged university professor in a Midwestern town who is about to move from his old house into a new one, yet clings to his shabby attic study. Success and family life have left him feeling distant and weary. At the centre of the book is an inset story of his former student Tom Outland, who discovered ancient cliff dwellings in the Southwest. The novel reflects on memory, ambition, loss and what gives a life meaning.
Quotes
The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own.
Chapter VIII · Project Gutenberg #65465 (opens in a new tab)
Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.
A work-room should be like an old shoe; no matter how shabby, it's better than a new one.
Art and religion (they are the same thing, in the end, of course) have given man the only happiness he has ever had.