Youth and the Bright Medusa
Collection of eight short stories about artists and the arts by Willa Cather, published in 1920. Four of the stories were reprinted from Cather's first collection, The Troll Garden (1905).  The stories include "Flavia and Her Artists," in which an artist exploits a benefactor; "The Garden Lodge," about a woman who suppresses her artistic impulses in exchange for a well-ordered life; "A Wagner Matinee," in which a nephew witnesses his aunt's communion with music; and PAUL'S CASE, Cather's most famous short story. The remaining four stories--"Coming, Aphrodite!," "The Diamond Mine," "A Gold Slipper," and "Scandal"--all concern opera singers.  --The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature