A Lost Lady
Encyclopedia
Willa Cather
's A Lost Lady was first published in 1923. It tells the story of Marian Forrester and her husband, Captain Daniel Forrester who live in the Western town of Sweet Water, along the Transcontinental Railroad
.
Captain Daniel Forrester: A strong man who made his fortune building track for the railroads in the old pioneering days. He is proud of his beautiful wife. The novel opens at a time when he has already been physically destroyed by a fall from a horse.
After suffering two strokes he eventually dies, signifying the end of the pioneering era.
Niel Herbert: The main character, Niel is a young boy when he meets Mrs. Forrester. He falls in love with what she represents and struggles to preserve his boyhood image of her. After watching her first have an affair with Frank Ellinger and later Ivy Peters, he finally gives up on her. Niel realizes by the end of the novel that his perception of Mrs. Forrester is based on the Captain's influence over her.
Judge Pommeroy: Niel's uncle, he is a lawyer that falls on hard times much the way the Forresters do.
Ivy Peters: An elder boy who knocks down a woodpecker and slits her eyes before releasing her. He is cocky and pretentious and becomes a lawyer. Later in the novel he becomes very wealthy and eventually he succeeds in owning the Forrester estate.
Frank Ellinger: A large man, he is a bachelor at the beginning. Frank is Mrs. Forrester's lover and visits her when the Captain is away from the house. He later marries Constance Ogden.
Constance Ogden: A girl Niel's age whom he tries to entertain at the Forresters, she later marries Frank Ellinger.
Black Tom: Judge Pommeroy's black servant, he often works for the Forresters as well.
Adolph Blum: One of Niel's friends, he accidentally comes across Mrs. Forrester and Frank Ellinger in the cedar grove.
Cyrus Dalzell: The president of the Colorado and Utah and a good friend of the Forrester family.
Mrs. Beasley: The town phone operator, she listens in on all long distance calls.
, as Marian Forrester was an inspiration for his Daisy Buchanan character in The Great Gatsby
.
The novel was adapted very loosely into a film in 1934 by Gene Markey, and starred Barbara Stanwyck
as Marian Forrester. The film did not live up to the novel's reputation and is generally regarded as mediocre.
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
's A Lost Lady was first published in 1923. It tells the story of Marian Forrester and her husband, Captain Daniel Forrester who live in the Western town of Sweet Water, along the Transcontinental Railroad
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
.
Plot summary
The novel is written in the third person, but is mostly written from the perspective of Niel Herbert, a young man who grows up in Sweet Water and witnesses the decline of Mrs. Forrester, for whom he feels very deeply, and also of the West itself from the idealized age of noble pioneers to the age of capitalist exploitation.Characters in "A Lost Lady"
Mrs. Marian Forrester: The wife of Captain Forrester, she is a small town aristocrat. Niel falls in love with what she represents, and is dismayed to discover that she has a lover, Frank Ellinger. After her husband's death she allows Ivy Peters to run her estate. She eventually leaves the town and marries an Englishman, dying before Niel ever sees her again.Captain Daniel Forrester: A strong man who made his fortune building track for the railroads in the old pioneering days. He is proud of his beautiful wife. The novel opens at a time when he has already been physically destroyed by a fall from a horse.
After suffering two strokes he eventually dies, signifying the end of the pioneering era.
Niel Herbert: The main character, Niel is a young boy when he meets Mrs. Forrester. He falls in love with what she represents and struggles to preserve his boyhood image of her. After watching her first have an affair with Frank Ellinger and later Ivy Peters, he finally gives up on her. Niel realizes by the end of the novel that his perception of Mrs. Forrester is based on the Captain's influence over her.
Judge Pommeroy: Niel's uncle, he is a lawyer that falls on hard times much the way the Forresters do.
Ivy Peters: An elder boy who knocks down a woodpecker and slits her eyes before releasing her. He is cocky and pretentious and becomes a lawyer. Later in the novel he becomes very wealthy and eventually he succeeds in owning the Forrester estate.
Frank Ellinger: A large man, he is a bachelor at the beginning. Frank is Mrs. Forrester's lover and visits her when the Captain is away from the house. He later marries Constance Ogden.
Constance Ogden: A girl Niel's age whom he tries to entertain at the Forresters, she later marries Frank Ellinger.
Black Tom: Judge Pommeroy's black servant, he often works for the Forresters as well.
Adolph Blum: One of Niel's friends, he accidentally comes across Mrs. Forrester and Frank Ellinger in the cedar grove.
Cyrus Dalzell: The president of the Colorado and Utah and a good friend of the Forrester family.
Mrs. Beasley: The town phone operator, she listens in on all long distance calls.
Literary significance & criticism
The novel is regarded as having a robust symbolic framework.Allusions/references from other works
The novel is also regarded as having been an influence on F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
, as Marian Forrester was an inspiration for his Daisy Buchanan character in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted very loosely into a film in 1934 by Gene Markey, and starred Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
as Marian Forrester. The film did not live up to the novel's reputation and is generally regarded as mediocre.