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Title: A Lost Lady by Willa Silbert Cather ISBN: 0-8488-0450-3 Publisher: Amereon Ltd Pub. Date: June, 1991 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.47 (15 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Homeless on the Range
Comment: This book is from Willa Cather's middle period of writing -- between My Antonia and Death Comes to the Archbishop. This may be the least known but best portion of her output.

As does My Antonia, The Lost Lady pictures the American frontier in the middle west and its closing due to urbanization, the demise of the pioneer spirit, and commercialization.

Together with its picture of the changing of the West, the book is a coming of age novel of a special sort and a portrait of a remarkable, because human and flawed, woman.

As with many of Cather's works the story is told by a male narrator, Neil Herbert. We see him from adolescence as an admirer of, and perhaps infatuated by Marian Forrester, the heroine and the wife of a former railroad magnate now settled on a large farm in South Dakota. Neil matures and leaves to go to school in the East. We see his idea of Ms. Forrester change as he learns that there is both more and less to her than the glittering self-assured woman that meets his young eyes.

The book is also the story of Marian herself, of her marriage, her self-assuredness, and her vulnerabilty. She is independent and a survivor and carries on within herself through harsh times and difficult circumstances, including the change in character of her adopted home in the midwest.

This is a tightly written, thoughtful American novel.

Rating: 4
Summary: Sad, solemn tale of a woman's (and nature's) loss
Comment: The story of a beautiful woman in the declining frontier town of Sweet Water is told by a studious young man who adores her from afar in this wistful, melancholy novel by Willa Cather. Niel Herbert is a sensitive, but substantial young man who makes the acquaintance of Captain and Mrs. Forrester, the town's leading citizens. Captain Forrester had been a railroad man - a builder, one could almost say a conqueror, who had originally chosen this out-of-the-way Midwestern train stop to make his home. His wife Marian, 25 years his junior, is the woman every man in town desires, and whom every woman in town envies. A native of California, she has grace, beauty, and youthful energy. She respects her husband's money and power and social position, but we don't often get the impression that she loves him. Instead, her head has been turned by a smarmy young gold-digger.

In a story that is more about characters than about action, motivations often start out hazy, and only gradually come into focus. It quickly becomes obvious that Niel is in love with Mrs. Forrester, and that Ivy Peters (the underhanded lawyer Marian hires) is an ugly sadistic snake. Less clear is the nature of the relationship between the Captain and his wife, which seems founded more on mutual admiration than on love. And ever present through the novel are the geographic, social and economic realities of the declining frontier town, which had once been rich and abundant with promise, but which has become choked with a citizenry that has neither the unforced elegance of Mrs. Forrester, nor the strength and vision of her husband. The Captain shows his strong social conscience by supporting the bank, even when it takes a toll on his own solvency. Compare this with his wife's willingness to allow Ivy any latitude in getting her what she wants, regardless of who suffers. Cather shows parallels between the decline of the social order and the destruction (exploitation) of America's natural beauty and resources, and lays the blame not only on those small-minded, shortsighted individuals who sacrificed things that were good and true for their own immediate personal gratification, but also on those who saw it happening and failed to stop it. Mrs. Forrester can always move to another frontier, or find herself another rich husband, but who will repair the dust bowls that she leaves behind?

This novel is a quick and easy read, and while there are intimations of sexual encounters, none are portrayed so graphically that modern teens would be likely to be shocked, although most will find the story a little too dry for their tastes. Many adults will probably feel the same way. There is no real humor in this book, and little that could be called uplifting, either, so while this book makes powerful statements about society, the roles of women, and the need to protect our natural environment, it should only be recommended to those who are devotees of serious literature.

Rating: 4
Summary: The Lost Frontier
Comment: First Cather book I've read. I was impressed, frankly and I think I'll read more.

Set in the 1880's/90's in Nebraska, this book chronicles the relationship of a young boy/man and the wife of a wealthy local luminary. As the boy turns into a man, his early admiration for the lady turns into contempt. Is this about a human relationship or rather a metaphor for the rise and decline of the plains economy in the aftermath of the railroad? Maybe both.

One interesting aspect about this book, and, I suppose, all of Cather's work, is that she is writing about a period some twenty or thirty years prior to the era when she was writing. I thought that was pretty cool. She seems like an early example of the "New Yorker" style fiction writer.

Good stuff.