A Lost Lady (1923)

A Lost Lady is about Mrs. Forrester the wife of a railroad man (Captain Forrester) who lives in a small town upon the railroad line always at the ready to greet guests which her husband bring home, or to make sure the local boys who play in the fields or fish in the creek near her house are always welcome. Told through the narrative of Neil Herbert, the nephew of a local judge and Captain Forrester’s lawyer.

The novel shows how as he grows up he learns more about Mrs. Forrester and she becomes less like the model wife he had thought her when he was a young child. Although, she stays with the captain until his very end, even through the threat of losing their beloved home and after he has a stroke and must not travel anymore.

Each time Neil found out something more which caused him to lose his love of the Mrs. Forrester he had grown up with my heart grieved. He might have been a tad naive rowing up, but there are some things which need to stay in the dark and for him to have to find out about these things is saddening. It is akin to finding out dark secrets about your own parents and then not being able to tell anyone. ( )

Im Mittelpunkt des Romans steht die hübsche und charmante Mrs. Forrester. Marian Forrester ist verheiratet mit einem Self-made-Mann. Ursprünglich verbringen die Forresters nur wenige Monate in Sweet Water. Die restliche Zeit leben sie im Osten (Osten Amerikas). Nach Mr. Forresters Erkrankung "geht es mit Marian Forrester bergab". Sie stürzt sich in Affären mit jungen Männern, die der neuen Generation, der der seelenlosen Amerikaner, angehören. ( )

proverb 22,87
geography 52

A compelling and intriguing story with well developed characters and setting. Like other Cathers well worth the reading effort. ( )

Captain Daniel Forrester and his younger wife, Marian, live in a prairie town with tight connections to the Burlington railway. Mrs. Forrester maintains a distant relationship with most people, but her charm and good looks still have them eating out of her hand. Early in the story, Mrs. Forrester gives a group of schoolboys permission to play on her property, and she brings them food. One of the boys, Niel, develops a crush on her and Mrs. Forrester's story is then told largely through his eyes.

Niel is a studious young man, reading classics and working to overcome his humble origins. Captain Forrester, a self-made man, counsels Niel that he need only work hard to get what he deserves in life:
All our great west has been developed from such dreams; the homesteader's and the prospector's and the contractor's. We dreamed the railroads across the mountains, just as I dreamed my place on the Sweet Water. (p. 55)

As Niel matures he watches the Forresters, and pines for Mrs. Forrester who of course sees him as nothing more than a nice schoolboy. Niel's illusions are shattered when Mrs. Forrester shows her own human weaknesses. Unfortunately, I failed to develop an emotional connection to these characters. The novel was improved by Cather's beautiful descriptions of the landscape:
The sky was burning with the soft p[ink and silver of a cloudless summer dawn. The heavy, bowed grasses splashed him to the knees. All over the marsh, snow-on-the-mountain, globed with dew, made cool sheets of silver, and the swamp milk-week spread its flat, raspberry-coloured clusters. There was an almost religious purity about the fresh morning air, the tender sky, the grass and flowers with the sheen of early dew upon them. There was in all living things something limpid and joyous -- like the wet, morning call of the birds, flying up through the unstained atmosphere. (p. 84)

This was a decent novel, just not one of Cather's best. ( )