A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Compact And Beautiful
The classic by Willa Cather.
Personal Review: A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
This is a simply written but thematically complex, metaphoric story, replete
with subtle nuances. The events that transpire are seen primarily through
the eyes of a boy who comes of age, a contrivance that the author
successfully employed in her best selling classic, "My Antonia". Here, it is
no less successful. Through the eyes of Neil Herbert, who lives in Sweet
Water, a prospective railroad hub on the Western plains in one of the
prairie states, the reader gets to know Marian Forrester. She is the much
younger, envied wife of one of the town's more prominent and wealthier
citizens, Captain Daniel Forrester, a former railroad contractor.
As Neil grows into a man, his adoration of the lovely Mrs. Forrester
undergoes a change. He sees her fall from the pedestal from where he
and all the townspeople have placed her and sees her, really sees her,
warts and all, for the first time, when he discovers her involved in an
unexpected peccadillo. It comes as a shock to him that she may not be all
that she seems to be. Still, his life is closely entwined with hers, as his
uncle, with whom he lives, is Captain Forrester's personal attorney and of
the same social standing in this socially circumscribed backwater.
Just as Neil's perception of Mrs. Forrester begins to change in his eyes, so
do the fortunes of the town and that of Captain Forrester. As Mrs. Forrester
physically deteriorates under the strain of the vicissitudes of fate, so do the
town and its surrounding environs. As she revives, leaving behind her old
values and adopting new ones that are anathema to those who respect the
traditional ones, her revival parallels changes in the town itself, as the old
makes way for the new. These changes also parallel the shifts occurring
on the American frontier, as social mores and personal values undergo a
change, and those stalwart pioneer values give way to new ones.
Beautifully descriptive of a bygone era and laconic in its pace, this is most
certainly a novel to be savored. Fans of the author will especially enjoy it.
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