Product Description

Marian Forrester brings delight to her husband, an elderly railroad pioneer; to the small town of Sweet Water where they live; and to Niel Herbert, the young narrator of her story, who falls in love with her as a boy and later becomes her confidant. He witnesses this vibrant woman in all her contradictory facets: by turns faithless and steadfast, dazzling and pathetic, invincibly charming yet dangerously vulnerable to the men she charms. All are bewitched by her charisma and grace - and all are ultimately betrayed. 'This classic has the striking economy of Hemingway, and is as poignant an elegy for the pioneer West as I have read. The vivacious Marian Forrester stands as a romantic paean to the pioneer's reckless abandon, counterpointed by the narrator's prim decency' The Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154503 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 167 pages

Review
'She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers' OBSERVER *'Willa Cather makes a world which is burningly alive, sometimes lovely, often tragic' HELEN DUNMORE *'This classic has the striking economy of Hemingway, and is as poignant an elegy for the pioneer West as I have read. The vivacious Marian Forrester stands as a romantic paean to the pioneer's reckless abandon, counterpointed by the narrator's prim decency' The Times *'A poised and perfectly shaped novel' Daily Mail *'Her finest novel ... The portrait of the nervy, alive Marian Forrester as a woman determined to survive remains unforgettable ... This wonderful performance displays Cather's narrative technique at its sharpest, as well as her understanding of the eloquence of the slightest gesture, the simplest statement ... A masterpiece' Irish Times

HELEN DUNMORE
'Willa Cather makes a world which is burningly alive, sometimes lovely, often tragic'

About the Author
Willa Cather (1873-1947) was born in Virginia where for generations her ancestors farmed land. She became a teacher and journalist and is one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews

LOST TO POSTERITY...
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 involvement 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.

Not as good as it should be, somehow....
This is the first of Willa Cather's books that I've read and I was slightly disappointed, although I shall try more of her books to see if they live up to A.S. Byatt's 'hype'. The beginning of this little work is rather like an American 'Lady Chatterly' - but not so explicit. It ends with a bit of a whimper. What it's trying to show is the decline of the old order in the wake of a vulgar new one, but it is rather too slight to carry the feeling fully. Mrs. Forrester comes over as a rather vacuous Zuleika Dobson. I wanted to like this book but it didn't have enough substance, and wasn't good enough to be ethereal.....

Maybe tastes in fiction change
I found this story initially engaging, the descriptions of scenery and society are beguiling and some of the characters are well drawn but then the whole thing promptly goes nowhere at all. The ending is as though it was written by someone else who just wanted to tie off the ends of the whole thing as quickly as possible. I am not sure how this work got to be considered a classic. Plotting was clearly not Ms Cather's strong point.