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Lucy Gayheart
In this haunting 1935 novel, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of My Ántonia performs crystalline variations on the themes that preoccupy her greatest the impermanence of innocence, the opposition between prairie and city, provincial American values and world culture, and the grandeur, elation, and heartache that await a gifted young woman who leaves her small Nebraska town to pursue a life in art. At the age of eighteen, Lucy Gayheart heads for Chicago to study music. She is beautiful and impressionable and ardent, and these qualities attract the attention of Clement Sebastian, an aging but charismatic singer who exercises all the tragic, sinister fascination of a man who has renounced life only to turn back to seize it one last time. Out of their doomed love affair—and Lucy's fatal estrangement from her origins—Willa Cather creates a novel that is as achingly lovely as a Schubert sonata.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1935
134 people are currently reading
2500 people want to read
About the author
Willa Cather
881 books2,777 followersWilella Sibert Cather was born in Back Creek Valley (Gore), Virginia, in December 7, 1873.
She grew up in Virginia and Nebraska. She then attended the University of Nebraska, initially planning to become a physician, but after writing an article for the Nebraska State Journal, she became a regular contributor to this journal. Because of this, she changed her major and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English.
After graduation in 1894, she worked in Pittsburgh as writer for various publications and as a school teacher for approximately 13 years, thereafter moving to New York City for the remainder of her life.
Her novels on frontier life brought her to national recognition. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, 'One of Ours' (1922), set during World War I. She travelled widely and often spent summers in New Brunswick, Canada. In later life, she experienced much negative criticism for her conservative politics and became reclusive, burning some of her letters and personal papers, including her last manuscript.
She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. In 1944, Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments.
She died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 73 in New York City.
She grew up in Virginia and Nebraska. She then attended the University of Nebraska, initially planning to become a physician, but after writing an article for the Nebraska State Journal, she became a regular contributor to this journal. Because of this, she changed her major and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English.
After graduation in 1894, she worked in Pittsburgh as writer for various publications and as a school teacher for approximately 13 years, thereafter moving to New York City for the remainder of her life.
Her novels on frontier life brought her to national recognition. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, 'One of Ours' (1922), set during World War I. She travelled widely and often spent summers in New Brunswick, Canada. In later life, she experienced much negative criticism for her conservative politics and became reclusive, burning some of her letters and personal papers, including her last manuscript.
She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. In 1944, Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments.
She died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 73 in New York City.
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January 14, 2023
INCIDENTI DI PERCORSO
Lucy è una diciottenne bella, brillante e vivace, nella cittadina del Nebraska dove è nata e ha vissuto è una giovane stella.
Il romanzo inizia che la giovane è sul lago ghiacciato a pattinare e viene raggiunta da Harry Gordon, figlio del locale banchiere, il miglior partito del paese. Una coppia perfetta che tutti danno per destinata a convolare a nozze.
Lucy, però, sogna una sua carriera musicale e, per perseguirla, decide di trasferirsi a Chicago, dove diventa la pianista che accompagna il baritono Clement Sebastian, del quale s’innamora rapita dal suo talento musicale, nonostante la grande differenza d’età, e nonostante Sebastian sia già sposato. È quello che si definisce un amore casto, oppure si definisce romantico: questa novella è molto romantica, pura goduria in questo senso.
Harry Gordon approda a Chicago per riprendersi Lucy e portarsela dietro al paesello, ma sbaglia i calcoli: la ragazza gli fa una metaforica pernacchia e non rinuncia al suo sogno musicale.
E quindi, eccoci davanti a una storia proto femminista? No, non direi.
Inaspettatamente Clement Sebastian affoga in un lago italiano e Lucy è oltre modo confusa: ritorna a casa, ad Haverford nel Nebraska, cittadina più che provinciale.
Qui apprende che nel frattempo Harry si è sposato con la ragazza più ricca. Così si accorge di essere ancora innamorata di lui: però lui a questo punto le rende la metaforica pernacchia e la respinge, proprio come gli pare che lei abbia fatto con lui a Chicago.
Lucy accusa il colpo e decide di tornare a Chicago per rimettersi a suonare.
Prima di intraprendere il viaggio, ha una discussione con sua sorella e, per sgombrare la mente dai brutti pensieri, torna sul lago a pattinare, lo stesso lago ghiacciato dove il racconto ha preso inizio con una scena simile.
Solo che questa volta Lucy non si accorge di quanto sia sottile il ghiaccio e…
Harry passerà il resto della vita nel senso di colpa.
Gayheart nomen omen?
Cather inizia con passo all’insegna del romantico, poi trasforma la sua eroina in un dannunziano ‘ama il tuo sogno se pur ti tormenta’, per poi riportare la narrazione in zona romantica, e sferrare il colpo finale.
A 13 anni Lucy lasciò tre piccole impronte sul cemento fresco del marciapiede davanti a casa sua. La novella termina con Harry che le guarda carico di rimpianto. Il lettore rimpiange insieme a lui: che bella storia avrebbe potuto essere la loro, il suo matrimonio con Lucy sarebbe stato perfetto, avrebbero vissuto felici e contenti. Invece…
Cather ha raccontata la frontiera americana, ciò che ha rappresentato e ciò che ha determinato. Per questo nelle sue pagine la Natura occupa un posto di rilievo. A contrasto delle città, qui in antagonismo a Chicago. E la Natura in questo caso diventa Destino.
Lucy sembra in controllo del suo destino, farà la pianista. Anche Harry sembra padrone del suo destino, sposerà Lucy. Invece le cose vanno in un altro modo, la Vita interviene, e da brava cieca, annulla i piani di tutti i personaggi.
Quello che varrebbe la pena succedesse, raramente succede.
Il lieto fine non si addice a Willa Cather.
PS
Joanne Woodward desiderò tanto trasportare sullo schermo questa storia che amava molto. Le fu consigliata da Gore Vidal. Ma il massimo che raggiunse fu poterla leggere in due serate a pagamento al Symphony Space di New York.
Lucy è una diciottenne bella, brillante e vivace, nella cittadina del Nebraska dove è nata e ha vissuto è una giovane stella.
Il romanzo inizia che la giovane è sul lago ghiacciato a pattinare e viene raggiunta da Harry Gordon, figlio del locale banchiere, il miglior partito del paese. Una coppia perfetta che tutti danno per destinata a convolare a nozze.
Lucy, però, sogna una sua carriera musicale e, per perseguirla, decide di trasferirsi a Chicago, dove diventa la pianista che accompagna il baritono Clement Sebastian, del quale s’innamora rapita dal suo talento musicale, nonostante la grande differenza d’età, e nonostante Sebastian sia già sposato. È quello che si definisce un amore casto, oppure si definisce romantico: questa novella è molto romantica, pura goduria in questo senso.
Harry Gordon approda a Chicago per riprendersi Lucy e portarsela dietro al paesello, ma sbaglia i calcoli: la ragazza gli fa una metaforica pernacchia e non rinuncia al suo sogno musicale.
E quindi, eccoci davanti a una storia proto femminista? No, non direi.
Inaspettatamente Clement Sebastian affoga in un lago italiano e Lucy è oltre modo confusa: ritorna a casa, ad Haverford nel Nebraska, cittadina più che provinciale.
Qui apprende che nel frattempo Harry si è sposato con la ragazza più ricca. Così si accorge di essere ancora innamorata di lui: però lui a questo punto le rende la metaforica pernacchia e la respinge, proprio come gli pare che lei abbia fatto con lui a Chicago.
Lucy accusa il colpo e decide di tornare a Chicago per rimettersi a suonare.
Prima di intraprendere il viaggio, ha una discussione con sua sorella e, per sgombrare la mente dai brutti pensieri, torna sul lago a pattinare, lo stesso lago ghiacciato dove il racconto ha preso inizio con una scena simile.
Solo che questa volta Lucy non si accorge di quanto sia sottile il ghiaccio e…
Harry passerà il resto della vita nel senso di colpa.
Gayheart nomen omen?
Cather inizia con passo all’insegna del romantico, poi trasforma la sua eroina in un dannunziano ‘ama il tuo sogno se pur ti tormenta’, per poi riportare la narrazione in zona romantica, e sferrare il colpo finale.
A 13 anni Lucy lasciò tre piccole impronte sul cemento fresco del marciapiede davanti a casa sua. La novella termina con Harry che le guarda carico di rimpianto. Il lettore rimpiange insieme a lui: che bella storia avrebbe potuto essere la loro, il suo matrimonio con Lucy sarebbe stato perfetto, avrebbero vissuto felici e contenti. Invece…
Cather ha raccontata la frontiera americana, ciò che ha rappresentato e ciò che ha determinato. Per questo nelle sue pagine la Natura occupa un posto di rilievo. A contrasto delle città, qui in antagonismo a Chicago. E la Natura in questo caso diventa Destino.
Lucy sembra in controllo del suo destino, farà la pianista. Anche Harry sembra padrone del suo destino, sposerà Lucy. Invece le cose vanno in un altro modo, la Vita interviene, e da brava cieca, annulla i piani di tutti i personaggi.
Quello che varrebbe la pena succedesse, raramente succede.
Il lieto fine non si addice a Willa Cather.
PS
Joanne Woodward desiderò tanto trasportare sullo schermo questa storia che amava molto. Le fu consigliata da Gore Vidal. Ma il massimo che raggiunse fu poterla leggere in due serate a pagamento al Symphony Space di New York.
February 4, 2019
I adored this book for so many reasons. I love Willa Cather style of writing, it seems almost like poetry.
This book tells the story of Lucy Gayheart. She was a unique girl, a free spirit, who saw the great beauty and glory of life.
This book broke my heart more then once. I found at the end i wanted to start it again, so I could recapture those feelings this book created. I highly recommend this book to any one. I was already a fan of Willa Cather, but now I love her work even more.
This book tells the story of Lucy Gayheart. She was a unique girl, a free spirit, who saw the great beauty and glory of life.
This book broke my heart more then once. I found at the end i wanted to start it again, so I could recapture those feelings this book created. I highly recommend this book to any one. I was already a fan of Willa Cather, but now I love her work even more.
October 21, 2020
Willa Cather draws the western rural plains of the Midwest and the Southwest exceptionally well. It is here her writing shines. When drawing landscapes, she describes beautifully different color nuances, how light reflects and the texture and feel, the pervading atmosphere of a place she captures to a T. Weather phenomenon too. Places she draws, put you right there! Urban areas she captures well too but not with same flair. This story is set in Haverford, Nebraska, and Chicago, Illinois, at the turn of the twentieth century.
Cather’s characters do not come as live to me as do the places they inhabit. They are realistically drawn. What they say and do makes sense given their respective personalities, and yet I do not empathize with them. I observe them instead at a distance. I want to feel a stronger connection to the characters than I do.
Parts of the story are told. This is because characters look back on what they have done and experienced, ponder and then tell us their thoughts. This is particularly pronounced at the end. Once again, a distance is there between the reader and the characters.
The is no aspect of the plot line I would change. All makes perfect sense, and yet this is not enough to make me fall in love with the story.
The story is split into three parts, each with abrupt changes. This happens and then this and then this. You ask yourself what the author is saying. She observes life. She observes different types of people. She does not judge them. Some intermingle easily with others and some don’t. Some are artistically talented, and others aren’t. Some have an inner need to go out and see the world. Others are content and satisfied with what they have. I do believe the author admires those intent on living life to the fullest, and yet such a life cannot be for all.
The book leads you to think and to analyze rather than to instinctively empathize and feel.
Kirsten Potter narrates the audiobook. The narration is fine, not hard to understand and read at a good pace. Neither is the narration exceptional in any way, so three stars for the narration performance
*******************
*My Ántonia 5 stars
*Alexander's Bridge 4 stars
*Death Comes for the Archbishop 4 stars
*One of Ours 4 stars
*The Song of the Lark4 stars
*Shadows on the Rock 3 stars
*Lucy Gayheart 3 stars
*O Pioneers! 3 stars
*Sapphira and the Slave Girl 2 stars
*A Lost Lady 2 stars
*The Professor's House 2 stars
*The Burglar's Christmas 2 stars
*My Mortal Enemy 1 star
Cather’s characters do not come as live to me as do the places they inhabit. They are realistically drawn. What they say and do makes sense given their respective personalities, and yet I do not empathize with them. I observe them instead at a distance. I want to feel a stronger connection to the characters than I do.
Parts of the story are told. This is because characters look back on what they have done and experienced, ponder and then tell us their thoughts. This is particularly pronounced at the end. Once again, a distance is there between the reader and the characters.
The is no aspect of the plot line I would change. All makes perfect sense, and yet this is not enough to make me fall in love with the story.
The story is split into three parts, each with abrupt changes. This happens and then this and then this. You ask yourself what the author is saying. She observes life. She observes different types of people. She does not judge them. Some intermingle easily with others and some don’t. Some are artistically talented, and others aren’t. Some have an inner need to go out and see the world. Others are content and satisfied with what they have. I do believe the author admires those intent on living life to the fullest, and yet such a life cannot be for all.
The book leads you to think and to analyze rather than to instinctively empathize and feel.
Kirsten Potter narrates the audiobook. The narration is fine, not hard to understand and read at a good pace. Neither is the narration exceptional in any way, so three stars for the narration performance
*******************
*My Ántonia 5 stars
*Alexander's Bridge 4 stars
*Death Comes for the Archbishop 4 stars
*One of Ours 4 stars
*The Song of the Lark4 stars
*Shadows on the Rock 3 stars
*Lucy Gayheart 3 stars
*O Pioneers! 3 stars
*Sapphira and the Slave Girl 2 stars
*A Lost Lady 2 stars
*The Professor's House 2 stars
*The Burglar's Christmas 2 stars
*My Mortal Enemy 1 star
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November 12, 2016
Willa Cather (1873-1947)
To have one's heart frozen and one's world destroyed in a moment - that was what it had meant.
Willa Cather was 62 years old when she published Lucy Gayheart (1935) - the eleventh of twelve novels - and clearly had attained a deep understanding of people and the course of life. This she poured into her new book which she endowed with a structure that slowly revealed her purpose.
The first "book" of Lucy Gayheart is a beautifully written, poignant story of the eponymous teenager who left her small town in Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century to study music in the vibrant center of Midwestern commerce and culture that is Chicago, that City of the Big Shoulders, and there met a sensitive, accomplished and much older man, Clement Sebastian, for whom she developed a boundless fascination. Though an internationally celebrated Lieder singer, Sebastian had lost the taste for his life and work, but Lucy's fervent loyalty and youthfully glowing admiration renewed his appetite. And because he really cared for her, he never allowed the relationship to become sexual. But life's accidents intervened, and he sank out of her sight permanently. Bereft of the center of her life, in the second "book" Lucy returned to Haverford, where she found that she no longer belonged. And just as she had reached the point where she was ready to rejoin the greater world, life's accidents intervened yet again.
A quiet tragedy, then, in which the moments of greatest drama are told with the greatest reticence. And it is the reader who now is left bereft.
The third "book" is set twenty-five years later and looks back on the earlier events with a new perspective. This is not, however, the well known artifice for tying up plot lines or drawing lessons. Suddenly the reader is torn out of the time and perspective he had made a commitment to and is forced to readjust. For this reader and the character Harry Gordon this meant adopting the bird's eye view of age in which the wholly random, unanticipated stones and tree stumps that modified the flow of life so significantly from the course it had seemed to be taking boldly stand out in their full whimsical purposelessness and then recalling the scrambles to first try to master and then adapt oneself to the new circumstances. The final pages where Harry tried to assure the quasi-permanence of Lucy's relics contracted my throat and moistened my eyes.
April 23, 2021
This has all the hallmarks of a Cather novel - powerfully descriptive writing that creates a clear picture of place, a story that touches all the emotions and one that makes the reader think! And all in a slim volume (roughly 200pp) that packs a punch and creates a whole world.
Lucy Gayheart is well-known around her rural Nebraska small town for her bright countenance, her energy and her piano-playing. Everyone assumes she will marry the banker's son Harry Gordon, including Harry, but she heads to Chicago at age 18 to study piano and eventually earns money accompanying a renowned international vocalist when he spends time in Chicago. Her life, the life of others and peoples' expectations are changed forever, including the readers! I tore through this book, heart pounding and reminding myself to slow down to savor the writing and to fully absorb the meaning.
This excerpt from the blurb for this book says it perfectly: "(Cather) . . . performs a series of crystalline variations on the themes that preoccupy her greatest fiction: the impermanence of innocence, the opposition between prairie and city, provincial American values and world culture . . ."
A bonus for me is that I lived in Chicago in the 1970's and, even though this takes place starting in 1903, I could picture everything, including the "Arts Building" along Michigan Avenue where Lucy played. I'm sure it was modeled on The Fine Arts building where I took modern dance classes for a couple of years in my early 20's.
Why I'm reading this: Buddy read with friend Diane. We have both read the usual Cather suspects (My Antonia / O Pioneers!) and want to explore some of her other titles.
Lucy Gayheart is well-known around her rural Nebraska small town for her bright countenance, her energy and her piano-playing. Everyone assumes she will marry the banker's son Harry Gordon, including Harry, but she heads to Chicago at age 18 to study piano and eventually earns money accompanying a renowned international vocalist when he spends time in Chicago. Her life, the life of others and peoples' expectations are changed forever, including the readers! I tore through this book, heart pounding and reminding myself to slow down to savor the writing and to fully absorb the meaning.
This excerpt from the blurb for this book says it perfectly: "(Cather) . . . performs a series of crystalline variations on the themes that preoccupy her greatest fiction: the impermanence of innocence, the opposition between prairie and city, provincial American values and world culture . . ."
A bonus for me is that I lived in Chicago in the 1970's and, even though this takes place starting in 1903, I could picture everything, including the "Arts Building" along Michigan Avenue where Lucy played. I'm sure it was modeled on The Fine Arts building where I took modern dance classes for a couple of years in my early 20's.
Why I'm reading this: Buddy read with friend Diane. We have both read the usual Cather suspects (My Antonia / O Pioneers!) and want to explore some of her other titles.
December 10, 2023
Lucy in the sky
...with diamonds. Ja, es wurde mal wieder Zeit ein kleines Musikzitat zu bringen. Und warum sollte man die Rezension zu einem (wiederentdeckten) Klassiker der Weltliteratur (und nichts Anderes ist "Lucy Gayheart" von Willa Cather) nicht mit einem Klassiker der Musikgeschichte beginnen?
Anyway: die neue Ausgabe der wie immer wunderschön und liebevoll gestalteten Manesse-Klassikerbibliothek in der Übersetzung von Elisabeth Schnack widmet sich der Geschichte von eben jener titelgebenden Lucy Gayheart. Sie ist eine junge Frau in den besten Jahren, spielt und unterrichtet Klavier - und steht zwischen zwei Männern. Also könnte man arg bösartig sein und sagen "Langweilige Dreiecksbeziehungsgeschichte".
Leute, ich kann euch beruhigen: diese Geschichte ist alles andere als langweilig. Sie enthält alles, was das "kultivierte" Leser:innenherz zu schätzen weiß: Liebe, Musik, Dramatik und noch so viel mehr, was zu entdecken sich lohnt. Dabei verzichtet die Autorin Willa Cather auf besonders pathos- und kitschtriefende Passagen wie das in anderen ähnlich gelagerten Romanen der Fall ist. Wobei das jetzt bitte nicht als generelle Kritik an dieser Art von Erzählung angesehen bzw. verstanden werden soll.
Aber Tatsache ist, dass Willa Cather es versteht, ihre Leser:innen mit ihrer vermeintlich mit leichten Worten erzählten leichten Geschichte zu bezaubern, mitzureißen und ihrem Publikum zwischen den Zeilen doch einen vor Dramatik und Tiefe nur so strotzenden Text vor die lesenden Augen zu "knallen", dass man das Buch am liebsten sofort wieder von vorne anfangen möchte.
Abgerundet durch ergänzende Anmerkungen und ein Nachwort von Alexa Hennig von Lange gehört auch dieser Band der Manesse-Klassiker-Reihe in jedes gut sortierte Bücherregal und ich ziehe zum letzten Mal in diesem Jahr fünf Sterne aus meinem Rezensionssternesäckchen und spreche eine absolute Leseempfehlung aus.
© kingofmusic
...with diamonds. Ja, es wurde mal wieder Zeit ein kleines Musikzitat zu bringen. Und warum sollte man die Rezension zu einem (wiederentdeckten) Klassiker der Weltliteratur (und nichts Anderes ist "Lucy Gayheart" von Willa Cather) nicht mit einem Klassiker der Musikgeschichte beginnen?
Anyway: die neue Ausgabe der wie immer wunderschön und liebevoll gestalteten Manesse-Klassikerbibliothek in der Übersetzung von Elisabeth Schnack widmet sich der Geschichte von eben jener titelgebenden Lucy Gayheart. Sie ist eine junge Frau in den besten Jahren, spielt und unterrichtet Klavier - und steht zwischen zwei Männern. Also könnte man arg bösartig sein und sagen "Langweilige Dreiecksbeziehungsgeschichte".
Leute, ich kann euch beruhigen: diese Geschichte ist alles andere als langweilig. Sie enthält alles, was das "kultivierte" Leser:innenherz zu schätzen weiß: Liebe, Musik, Dramatik und noch so viel mehr, was zu entdecken sich lohnt. Dabei verzichtet die Autorin Willa Cather auf besonders pathos- und kitschtriefende Passagen wie das in anderen ähnlich gelagerten Romanen der Fall ist. Wobei das jetzt bitte nicht als generelle Kritik an dieser Art von Erzählung angesehen bzw. verstanden werden soll.
Aber Tatsache ist, dass Willa Cather es versteht, ihre Leser:innen mit ihrer vermeintlich mit leichten Worten erzählten leichten Geschichte zu bezaubern, mitzureißen und ihrem Publikum zwischen den Zeilen doch einen vor Dramatik und Tiefe nur so strotzenden Text vor die lesenden Augen zu "knallen", dass man das Buch am liebsten sofort wieder von vorne anfangen möchte.
Abgerundet durch ergänzende Anmerkungen und ein Nachwort von Alexa Hennig von Lange gehört auch dieser Band der Manesse-Klassiker-Reihe in jedes gut sortierte Bücherregal und ich ziehe zum letzten Mal in diesem Jahr fünf Sterne aus meinem Rezensionssternesäckchen und spreche eine absolute Leseempfehlung aus.
© kingofmusic
August 24, 2024
Willa Cather's short, poignant 1935 novel "Lucy Gayheart" is a story of music and dashed dreams. The story takes place in the early twentieth century and contrasts the American plains, in Haverford, Nebraska, with large urban America, with its promise and perils, in Chicago.
The heroine of the book, Lucy Gayheart, has great pianistic talent. She leaves Haverford at the age of 18 to study piano, and to give music lessons, in Chicago. She meets a great but disillusioned and world-weary singer, Clement Sebastian, and has the opportunity to work with him as an accompanist. Cather loves and beautifully describes in the novel Schubert's wonderful song-cycles "Die Winterreise" and "Die Schone Mullerein". Both the winter cold and the lovely maiden of Schubert's two cycles are mirrored in the book. Lucy ultimately is seemingly faced with the choice between Sebastian and her hometown sweetheart.
Faced with tragedy in Chicago from both Sebastian and her former love, Lucy returns home. She gears herself to begin life anew but tragedy again intervenes.
Cather offers a great deal of description of the snow and the cold in both Chicago and Haverford. The book gives a sense of the tragic sense of life, with a hint of the power of art and religious faith to overcome it. The opposition between city life and provincial town life is similar to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street but with more depth and craft in the writing. The author's love for music, the human voice and the piano receives eloquently expression in the novel.
"Lucy Gayheart" is a beautifully wrought book which deserves to be better known.
Robin Friedman
The heroine of the book, Lucy Gayheart, has great pianistic talent. She leaves Haverford at the age of 18 to study piano, and to give music lessons, in Chicago. She meets a great but disillusioned and world-weary singer, Clement Sebastian, and has the opportunity to work with him as an accompanist. Cather loves and beautifully describes in the novel Schubert's wonderful song-cycles "Die Winterreise" and "Die Schone Mullerein". Both the winter cold and the lovely maiden of Schubert's two cycles are mirrored in the book. Lucy ultimately is seemingly faced with the choice between Sebastian and her hometown sweetheart.
Faced with tragedy in Chicago from both Sebastian and her former love, Lucy returns home. She gears herself to begin life anew but tragedy again intervenes.
Cather offers a great deal of description of the snow and the cold in both Chicago and Haverford. The book gives a sense of the tragic sense of life, with a hint of the power of art and religious faith to overcome it. The opposition between city life and provincial town life is similar to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street but with more depth and craft in the writing. The author's love for music, the human voice and the piano receives eloquently expression in the novel.
"Lucy Gayheart" is a beautifully wrought book which deserves to be better known.
Robin Friedman
November 4, 2024
3.5 stars.
This is a story of love, tragedy and regret set in the early part of the 20th century between Chicago, Illinois, where young Lucy Gayheart goes to study music, and Haverford, Nebraska, Lucy’s small rural hometown. Lucy’s mother is dead, her older sister is aggrieved and matronly, and her father, while affectionate and supportive of Lucy’s musical talent, struggles to make ends meet with his watch repair business. Lucy is “courted” by the rich boy in town, Harry Gordon, whose family owns the local bank. When Lucy’s father arranges for her to study piano with a friend in Chicago, Lucy’s entire 18-year-old world expands. And when she earns a temporary position as accompanist to world-famous baritone Clement Sebastian - a sophisticated, gentle, unhappily married man 30 years her senior - Lucy dives in with all her heart.
This is not my favorite Cather. I had a hard time truly bonding with any of these characters, except for Sebastian’s personal valet Guiseppe and kind, widowed Mrs. Ramsey of Haverford. The landscape writing, one of Cather’s trademarks, was lacking here for me as well. Chicago and Haverford were dreary places compared to Cather’s stunning deserts in ‘Death Comes For The Archbishop’ and her magnificent seasons of the ‘Great Plains Trilogy.’ But a less than perfect classic story from Willa Cather is better than many an overrated contemporary one. Lucy’s energy and optimism were inspiring and welcome.
“At last she was alone, lying still in the dark, and could give herself up to the vibration of the train - a rhythm that has to do with escape, change, chance, with life hurrying forward. That sense of release and surrender went all over her body; she seemed to lie in it as in a warm bath . . . In a few hours one could cover that incalculable distance, from the winter country and homely neighbors, to the city where the air trembled like a tuning-fork with unimaginable possibilities.”
~ Lucy Gayheart
This is a story of love, tragedy and regret set in the early part of the 20th century between Chicago, Illinois, where young Lucy Gayheart goes to study music, and Haverford, Nebraska, Lucy’s small rural hometown. Lucy’s mother is dead, her older sister is aggrieved and matronly, and her father, while affectionate and supportive of Lucy’s musical talent, struggles to make ends meet with his watch repair business. Lucy is “courted” by the rich boy in town, Harry Gordon, whose family owns the local bank. When Lucy’s father arranges for her to study piano with a friend in Chicago, Lucy’s entire 18-year-old world expands. And when she earns a temporary position as accompanist to world-famous baritone Clement Sebastian - a sophisticated, gentle, unhappily married man 30 years her senior - Lucy dives in with all her heart.
This is not my favorite Cather. I had a hard time truly bonding with any of these characters, except for Sebastian’s personal valet Guiseppe and kind, widowed Mrs. Ramsey of Haverford. The landscape writing, one of Cather’s trademarks, was lacking here for me as well. Chicago and Haverford were dreary places compared to Cather’s stunning deserts in ‘Death Comes For The Archbishop’ and her magnificent seasons of the ‘Great Plains Trilogy.’ But a less than perfect classic story from Willa Cather is better than many an overrated contemporary one. Lucy’s energy and optimism were inspiring and welcome.
“At last she was alone, lying still in the dark, and could give herself up to the vibration of the train - a rhythm that has to do with escape, change, chance, with life hurrying forward. That sense of release and surrender went all over her body; she seemed to lie in it as in a warm bath . . . In a few hours one could cover that incalculable distance, from the winter country and homely neighbors, to the city where the air trembled like a tuning-fork with unimaginable possibilities.”
~ Lucy Gayheart
October 11, 2020
I'm running out of Cathers. I was worried based the previous book, Shadows on the Rock and the contemporary criticism of conservativism in her later novels that she was running low at the end. Then here she immediately generates a wonderful character in Lucy Gayheart to open this novel. Lucy‘s vitality comes off the page in this prose. Her aura, her existence - it‘s beautiful and attractive. Maybe sexy. And there is a Chekhov element as we open not with Lucy exactly, but with memories and with the failure of photographs to capture her living energy, her “gentle glow”, a “bird flying home”. Cather has cast her magic.
Fate seems to play a role. Cather lays out this way:
The novel takes us from small town Nebraska pettiness to a mix of Chicago's anonymity and its high music culture in earlies days of the 20th century. I really enjoyed spending time with Lucy and worried about the ominous implications of fate. It's tightly knit, clean novel that offers its unique little literary spark, even if it revisits some well tread Cather themes.
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50. Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather
published: 1935
format: 195-page Vintage Classic paperback
acquired: June
read: Sep 8 – Oct 1
time reading: 5 hr 2 min, 1.6 min/page
rating: 4½
locations: early 20th century Nebraska and Chicago
about the author born near Winchester, VA, later raised in Red Cloud, NE. December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947
Fate seems to play a role. Cather lays out this way:
In the darkening sky she had seen the first star come out; it brought her heart into her throat. That point of silver light spoke to her like a signal, released another kind of life and feeling which did not belong here. It overpowered her. With a mere thought she had reached that star and it had answered, recognition had flashed between. Something knew then, in the unknowing waste: something had always known, forever! That joy of saluting what is far above one was an eternal thing, not merely something that had happened to her in ignorance and her foolish heart.
The flash of understanding lasted but a moment. Then everything was confused again. Lucy shut her eyes and leaned on Harry‘s shoulder to escape from what she had gone so far to snatch. It was too bright and too sharp. It hurt, and made one feel small and lost.
The novel takes us from small town Nebraska pettiness to a mix of Chicago's anonymity and its high music culture in earlies days of the 20th century. I really enjoyed spending time with Lucy and worried about the ominous implications of fate. It's tightly knit, clean novel that offers its unique little literary spark, even if it revisits some well tread Cather themes.
-----------------------------------------------
50. Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather
published: 1935
format: 195-page Vintage Classic paperback
acquired: June
read: Sep 8 – Oct 1
time reading: 5 hr 2 min, 1.6 min/page
rating: 4½
locations: early 20th century Nebraska and Chicago
about the author born near Winchester, VA, later raised in Red Cloud, NE. December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947
October 1, 2021
"En los pueblos, las vidas de las personas discurren muy cerca las unas de las otras; los odios y los amores palpitan sueltos, como tocándose las alas. En la misma acera por la que pasa todo el mundo, si es que uno ha llegado a marcharse alguna vez, es inevitable pasar algún día a muy pocos centímetros del hombre que te engañó y te traicionó o de la mujer a la que deseas más que nada en el mundo. Su falda pasa a tu lado. Das los buenos días y sigues de largo. Es imposible no rozarse. En el resto del mundo las posibilidades de huir no son tan escasas."
— Willa Cather, 'Lucy Gayheart' 🍂
Este es sencillamente uno de los libros más bellos que he leído nunca. Uno de esos libros de melancólica belleza que te cautivan durante su lectura y permanecen anclados para siempre en tu memoria.
Sus páginas cuentan la historia de Lucy Gayheart una joven alegre, vivaz y bonita, que deja atrás su pequeño pueblo de Nebraska para estudiar piano en Chicago. Allí Lucy conoce a un aclamado cantante de opéra y termina enamorándose.
Un mundo lleno de música, aprendizajes y belleza se abre entonces ante ella y de pronto la perspectiva de tener que dejarle a él y todos los sueños que parecen esperarla en la gran ciudad parece desoladora.
Es entonces cuando la tragedia llama por primera vez a su puerta y Lucy debe regresar a casa. La joven entusiasta, que unos años antes parecía volar entre las calles de su pequeño pueblo, en pos de un futuro brillante que solo ella podía ver, se ha ido para siempre. Ahora Lucy es tan solo una sombra que camina meláncolica sumiendo a todos los que la conocen y aprecian en una profunda tristeza.
Solo la mano amiga de su inseparable camarada de infancia, podría sacar a Lucy de su decaimiento, pero el orgullo de un corazón herido tendrá la última palabra...
No puedo, ni debo daros más detalles del libro. Solo puedo deciros que lo cerré con lágrimas en los ojos y el corazón roto...
Nunca es fácil enfrentarse a un relato en el que los sueños de juventud y todas sus esperanzas quedan destruidas; pero, pese a la tristeza, es tal la maestría de Willa Cather, la belleza con la que construyó cada una de estas páginas, que volví a releerlo de nuevo y lo haría una y mil veces más.
Desde las primeras líneas de Lucy Gayheart somos conscientes de que vamos a ser testigos de la historia de alguien que ya no está. De un preciado recuerdo que poco a poco va desdibujándose de la memoria. Yo no olvidaré nunca la imagen de Lucy entre los manzanos del huerto de su padre durante una tarde otoñal. Ni las tres sutiles pisadas aladas grabadas en el corazón de un hombre solitario...
Una joya de libro.
— Willa Cather, 'Lucy Gayheart' 🍂
Este es sencillamente uno de los libros más bellos que he leído nunca. Uno de esos libros de melancólica belleza que te cautivan durante su lectura y permanecen anclados para siempre en tu memoria.
Sus páginas cuentan la historia de Lucy Gayheart una joven alegre, vivaz y bonita, que deja atrás su pequeño pueblo de Nebraska para estudiar piano en Chicago. Allí Lucy conoce a un aclamado cantante de opéra y termina enamorándose.
Un mundo lleno de música, aprendizajes y belleza se abre entonces ante ella y de pronto la perspectiva de tener que dejarle a él y todos los sueños que parecen esperarla en la gran ciudad parece desoladora.
Es entonces cuando la tragedia llama por primera vez a su puerta y Lucy debe regresar a casa. La joven entusiasta, que unos años antes parecía volar entre las calles de su pequeño pueblo, en pos de un futuro brillante que solo ella podía ver, se ha ido para siempre. Ahora Lucy es tan solo una sombra que camina meláncolica sumiendo a todos los que la conocen y aprecian en una profunda tristeza.
Solo la mano amiga de su inseparable camarada de infancia, podría sacar a Lucy de su decaimiento, pero el orgullo de un corazón herido tendrá la última palabra...
No puedo, ni debo daros más detalles del libro. Solo puedo deciros que lo cerré con lágrimas en los ojos y el corazón roto...
Nunca es fácil enfrentarse a un relato en el que los sueños de juventud y todas sus esperanzas quedan destruidas; pero, pese a la tristeza, es tal la maestría de Willa Cather, la belleza con la que construyó cada una de estas páginas, que volví a releerlo de nuevo y lo haría una y mil veces más.
Desde las primeras líneas de Lucy Gayheart somos conscientes de que vamos a ser testigos de la historia de alguien que ya no está. De un preciado recuerdo que poco a poco va desdibujándose de la memoria. Yo no olvidaré nunca la imagen de Lucy entre los manzanos del huerto de su padre durante una tarde otoñal. Ni las tres sutiles pisadas aladas grabadas en el corazón de un hombre solitario...
Una joya de libro.
September 1, 2022
3,5/5
Cada vez que leo un libro de Willa, este es el tercero en lo que va de año, siento una creciente emoción. Leer a esta escritora estadounidense se ha convertido en una elección segura, una de esas en las que no dudas ni instante que te vas a sentir como en casa al leerla. Después de sucumbir ante “Una dama extraviada” y “Sapphira y la joven esclava”, le ha tocado el turno a “Lucy Gayheart”, una de sus últimas obras que fue publicada en 1935.
En esta historia conoceremos a Lucy, una joven querida por todos, sensible y risueña que apoyada por su padre, el relojero de su pueblo natal, Haverford, parte a Chicago para cumplir su sueño y ser educada musicalmente. Comenzará a dar clases de piano hasta que un día tendrá el honor de acompañar a un famoso barítono que se muestra taciturno y reacio a la felicidad e ilusión de vivir. Su relación supondrá un cambio drástico en su devenir, incluso llegando a dejar de lado a su máximo pretendiente desde que era jovencita.
Estamos ante una novela de apenas 200 páginas plagada de sutilezas delicadas y armónicas; su narración, nada sorprendente, resulta agradable, ligera y bastante más moderna de lo que había leído de la autora hasta la fecha. La trama nos presenta numerosos conflictos, entre ellos la postura entre la ciudad y el pueblo y los valores que representan, el arte y sus vicisitudes y el duelo en una etapa donde reinan los sueños y la inocencia más pura.
Más allá de eso, esta obra se centra en el amor, en las oportunidades que dejamos pasar ante ilusiones o espejismos que creemos reales. Esos golpes en el corazón que hieren, que alteran la cotidianidad y que rebajan las esperanzas de un destino ansiado apacible y bello. Tenemos un exacto y perfecto reflejo, una imagen hecha personaje, una protagonista especial, con la que no cuesta empatizar, perdida en un mar de quimeras irrealizables. Ya nada tiene sentido.
Para concluir esta reseña os diré que la señora Cather ha vuelto a emocionarme, me ha hecho sentir y disfrutar una vez más de su excelsa prosa, lacónica y detallista. Preparaos para un final de los que te dejan el corazón hecho añicos, un disfraz triste de una enseñanza que debilitaría las barreras de cualquier alma henchida u orgullosamente fría. Os la recomiendo, a mí me ha encantado.
Cada vez que leo un libro de Willa, este es el tercero en lo que va de año, siento una creciente emoción. Leer a esta escritora estadounidense se ha convertido en una elección segura, una de esas en las que no dudas ni instante que te vas a sentir como en casa al leerla. Después de sucumbir ante “Una dama extraviada” y “Sapphira y la joven esclava”, le ha tocado el turno a “Lucy Gayheart”, una de sus últimas obras que fue publicada en 1935.
En esta historia conoceremos a Lucy, una joven querida por todos, sensible y risueña que apoyada por su padre, el relojero de su pueblo natal, Haverford, parte a Chicago para cumplir su sueño y ser educada musicalmente. Comenzará a dar clases de piano hasta que un día tendrá el honor de acompañar a un famoso barítono que se muestra taciturno y reacio a la felicidad e ilusión de vivir. Su relación supondrá un cambio drástico en su devenir, incluso llegando a dejar de lado a su máximo pretendiente desde que era jovencita.
Estamos ante una novela de apenas 200 páginas plagada de sutilezas delicadas y armónicas; su narración, nada sorprendente, resulta agradable, ligera y bastante más moderna de lo que había leído de la autora hasta la fecha. La trama nos presenta numerosos conflictos, entre ellos la postura entre la ciudad y el pueblo y los valores que representan, el arte y sus vicisitudes y el duelo en una etapa donde reinan los sueños y la inocencia más pura.
Más allá de eso, esta obra se centra en el amor, en las oportunidades que dejamos pasar ante ilusiones o espejismos que creemos reales. Esos golpes en el corazón que hieren, que alteran la cotidianidad y que rebajan las esperanzas de un destino ansiado apacible y bello. Tenemos un exacto y perfecto reflejo, una imagen hecha personaje, una protagonista especial, con la que no cuesta empatizar, perdida en un mar de quimeras irrealizables. Ya nada tiene sentido.
Para concluir esta reseña os diré que la señora Cather ha vuelto a emocionarme, me ha hecho sentir y disfrutar una vez más de su excelsa prosa, lacónica y detallista. Preparaos para un final de los que te dejan el corazón hecho añicos, un disfraz triste de una enseñanza que debilitaría las barreras de cualquier alma henchida u orgullosamente fría. Os la recomiendo, a mí me ha encantado.
March 27, 2008
My all-time favorite novel by Willa Cather, my all-time favorite novelist.
Probably not her critical best, but the images will stick with you for many years.
Probably not her critical best, but the images will stick with you for many years.
October 31, 2023
Lucy Gayheart ist eine kurze, tragische Erzählung, die mitten ins Herz trifft. Das Buch erschien 1936 und wurde zum 150. Geburtstag der Autorin wiederentdeckt und neu aufgelegt.
Lucy Gayheart stammt aus einem kleinen Ort in Nebraska. Dort wird sie von allen geliebt, besonders jedoch von Harry, der sie gerne heiraten möchte. Lucy ist eine begabte Pianistin und studiert in Chicago Musik. Über ihren Professor macht sie dort die Bekanntschaft des deutlich älteren Tenors Sebastian. Zunächst schwärmt sie nur für ihn, verliebt sich dann jedoch richtig und erträumt sich eine gemeinsame Zukunft. Als Harry eines Tages in Chicago auftaucht greift Lucy zu einer Lüge, die alles verändert.
Von Willa Cather kannte ich bis jetzt nur My Antonia, das mir ebenfalls sehr gut gefallen hat. Lucy Gayheart ist ganz anders als dieses Buch, steht ihm aber erzählerisch in nichts nach. Die Geschichte ist sehr kurzweilig und wird aus mehreren Perspektiven erzählt, die der Handlung jeweils eine ganz neue Wendung geben.
Lucy Gayheart ist ein wirklich lesenswerte Neuentdeckung. Willa Cather erreichte in Deutschland und Europa leider nie den Bekanntheitsgrad, den sie in den USA hatte. Sie sollte viel mehr gelesen werden.
Lucy Gayheart stammt aus einem kleinen Ort in Nebraska. Dort wird sie von allen geliebt, besonders jedoch von Harry, der sie gerne heiraten möchte. Lucy ist eine begabte Pianistin und studiert in Chicago Musik. Über ihren Professor macht sie dort die Bekanntschaft des deutlich älteren Tenors Sebastian. Zunächst schwärmt sie nur für ihn, verliebt sich dann jedoch richtig und erträumt sich eine gemeinsame Zukunft. Als Harry eines Tages in Chicago auftaucht greift Lucy zu einer Lüge, die alles verändert.
Von Willa Cather kannte ich bis jetzt nur My Antonia, das mir ebenfalls sehr gut gefallen hat. Lucy Gayheart ist ganz anders als dieses Buch, steht ihm aber erzählerisch in nichts nach. Die Geschichte ist sehr kurzweilig und wird aus mehreren Perspektiven erzählt, die der Handlung jeweils eine ganz neue Wendung geben.
Lucy Gayheart ist ein wirklich lesenswerte Neuentdeckung. Willa Cather erreichte in Deutschland und Europa leider nie den Bekanntheitsgrad, den sie in den USA hatte. Sie sollte viel mehr gelesen werden.
August 12, 2022
Haven't reviewed the books I've read in a few days so I'll try to catch up on some. Was in the mood for more of Willa Cather. The plot nor characters aren't very special but with Willa's writing it was easy to get invested in and an enjoyable read for the most part. Excited to find more of her works to read
January 24, 2011
It's been literally years since I read a book this amazing. And I don't think I've ever read one as haunting, aching, or abrupt. It's painfully beautiful, reminds me of some of Edith Wharton's writing. There are elements of Willa Cather's better-known works here (My Antonia, The Professor's House come to mind) - the reverence of place, the creation of another world that fully draws you in, the characters who are so real that Cather paints their flaws with no excuses. But none of her other works that I've read (this is number five) even come near this. In the wired, in-your-face world we live in, how often do you find a book that makes you say, "Wow"? And as over the top as that sounds, this one did that for me.
December 14, 2012
Lucy Gayheart – unfortunate name nowadays – is a late novel by one of my favorite authors, Willa Cather. It follows a young piano student from her Nebraska home in the late 1800s to her study in Chicago and elsewhere. In Chicago, she meets a famous opera singer and becomes his rehearsal accompanist for a couple seasons; the experience changes her life. It also changes others’ lives.
I see what Cather was trying to do here. The opera singer changes young, steadfast Lucy. She also deeply affects him; the piano teacher that brought them together has touched the lives of them both, and they also adjust his trajectory. Lucy’s adventures also disrupts people her small town – her dad’s quiet widowhood, her sister’s spinsterhood, the rich young beau who’d love to marry her, the rich older woman who simply wants to not lose touch with the gifted young pianist.
It’s a ripple effect, just like how the works of composers, through the art of singers and musicians, can affect audiences.
Cather should be commended for – spoiler alert (barely) – not making this a common story about an affair. The opera singer is married, and he and Lucy come to have deep feelings for each other. However, to understand what this all means, you’d have to read the book.
There are big spots where the book falters, though. When you have someone go through a significant, heartfelt change, you have to give that person some time and attention early in the novel. If this doesn't happen, the reader may not care or understand, and the transformation may seem less than believable. A couple of Lucy Gayheart’s characters do have great epiphanies, and yet we barely know them; they are not fully drawn out before their life altering occurs. In that sense, the sort of ripple effect that Lucy has on others seems arbitrary.
Still, Cather is a wonderfully subtle and gifted writer – someone I feel has still not been given her due in literature circles. Cather is not showy or gutsy – she does not blow up buildings, stage massive gun fights, wipe cities out with meteors, or send in a flight of avenging angels. She writes about the polite and thoughtful – and sometimes inconsistent and selfish – humans. Her character can seem quaint and innocent, even when they face things like rape, suicide, murder, and other tragedies. Sometimes a natural disaster affects them, but the story isn’t about catastrophes but the strong and fragile, trite and meaningful, selfish and thoughtful – the people at the center.
Cather was trying to do something structural here, trying to break a couple rules of literature in quiet, small ways. She still is a phenomenal, careful writer; she just didn’t have everything perfectly executed. (Well, even if the icing slides off the cake a little, it’s still delicious.) She was 62 when she wrote this – 22 years after her first success, 13 years after her Pulitzer (this is novel 11 of 12). She was always amazing.
I see what Cather was trying to do here. The opera singer changes young, steadfast Lucy. She also deeply affects him; the piano teacher that brought them together has touched the lives of them both, and they also adjust his trajectory. Lucy’s adventures also disrupts people her small town – her dad’s quiet widowhood, her sister’s spinsterhood, the rich young beau who’d love to marry her, the rich older woman who simply wants to not lose touch with the gifted young pianist.
It’s a ripple effect, just like how the works of composers, through the art of singers and musicians, can affect audiences.
Cather should be commended for – spoiler alert (barely) – not making this a common story about an affair. The opera singer is married, and he and Lucy come to have deep feelings for each other. However, to understand what this all means, you’d have to read the book.
There are big spots where the book falters, though. When you have someone go through a significant, heartfelt change, you have to give that person some time and attention early in the novel. If this doesn't happen, the reader may not care or understand, and the transformation may seem less than believable. A couple of Lucy Gayheart’s characters do have great epiphanies, and yet we barely know them; they are not fully drawn out before their life altering occurs. In that sense, the sort of ripple effect that Lucy has on others seems arbitrary.
Still, Cather is a wonderfully subtle and gifted writer – someone I feel has still not been given her due in literature circles. Cather is not showy or gutsy – she does not blow up buildings, stage massive gun fights, wipe cities out with meteors, or send in a flight of avenging angels. She writes about the polite and thoughtful – and sometimes inconsistent and selfish – humans. Her character can seem quaint and innocent, even when they face things like rape, suicide, murder, and other tragedies. Sometimes a natural disaster affects them, but the story isn’t about catastrophes but the strong and fragile, trite and meaningful, selfish and thoughtful – the people at the center.
Cather was trying to do something structural here, trying to break a couple rules of literature in quiet, small ways. She still is a phenomenal, careful writer; she just didn’t have everything perfectly executed. (Well, even if the icing slides off the cake a little, it’s still delicious.) She was 62 when she wrote this – 22 years after her first success, 13 years after her Pulitzer (this is novel 11 of 12). She was always amazing.
June 14, 2022
Lovely
This is an absolutely perfectly written book. Willa Cather paints scenes with her words and therefore leaves the reader imagining where the events took place.
Now for me, it was relatively easy because I live in Nebraska and the story was like all of Cathers stories set in Nebraska. I didn’t necessarily know the locations but I knew what life rural Nebraska is like and therefore the story came alive for me.
I absolutely love this book.
This is an absolutely perfectly written book. Willa Cather paints scenes with her words and therefore leaves the reader imagining where the events took place.
Now for me, it was relatively easy because I live in Nebraska and the story was like all of Cathers stories set in Nebraska. I didn’t necessarily know the locations but I knew what life rural Nebraska is like and therefore the story came alive for me.
I absolutely love this book.
January 9, 2025
If you are new to Willa Cather, brace yourself for some beautiful imagery and really grey complex characters. This is going to be a rather succinct review simply because this little classic is only 200 pages.
Through the eyes of an unknown narrator we meet Lucy, full of life and is described on the first page as "always in motion". Lucy comes from humble yet acceptable means and decides to leave her small country community to pursue music education in Chicago, much to the chagrin of her beau Harry Gordon and her sisterw who are left behind. There she meets an older musician who changes her perpsective on life and thus we have our story. The most lovably and yet flawed character was Lucy's father, and I loved his blinded optimism the whole book.
I was deeply surpised by the ending (iykyk). This is a perfect story that models the phrase "what if?"
Through the eyes of an unknown narrator we meet Lucy, full of life and is described on the first page as "always in motion". Lucy comes from humble yet acceptable means and decides to leave her small country community to pursue music education in Chicago, much to the chagrin of her beau Harry Gordon and her sisterw who are left behind. There she meets an older musician who changes her perpsective on life and thus we have our story. The most lovably and yet flawed character was Lucy's father, and I loved his blinded optimism the whole book.
I was deeply surpised by the ending (iykyk). This is a perfect story that models the phrase "what if?"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2022
En los pueblos, las vidas de las personas discurren muy cerca las unas de las otras; los odios y los amores palpitan sueltos, casi tocándose las alas. En la misma acera por la que pasa todo el mundo, si es que uno ha llegado a marcharse alguna vez, es inevitable pasar algún día a muy pocos centímetros del hombre que te engañó y te traicionó o de la mujer a la que deseas más que nada en el mundo. Su falda pasa a tu lado. Das los buenos días y sigues de largo. Es imposible no rozarse. En el resto del mundo las posibilidades de huir no son tan escasas.
Una parte de mí se ha quedado entre las páginas de Lucy Gayheart. Lucy Gayheart se ha ganado un trocito de mi corazón. Así de especial ha sido esta historia para mí. Una historia bonita, pero tremendamente triste. Melancólica. Introspectiva. He disfrutado de su belleza de inicio a fin, pero... ¡A qué coste! Y es que en mi caso en particular está muy complicado el que un libro me haga llorar como tal. Pero ayer, día 9 de enero de 2022, lloré con Lucy Gayheart como personaje. Lloré por Lucy. Por su inocencia. Por su corazón roto y sus sueños aún más rotos. Lloré por los Gayheart. Lloré por ese presente no vivido y el futuro perdido en una tarde angustiosa de invierno.
No sé qué esperaba encontrar en esta novela, sinceramente. Pero os aseguro que ni remotamente se acercó a lo que yo imaginaba. Fue más. Mucho más de lo esperado. No hay palabras que hagan justicia a todo lo que ofrece esta historia. Eso sí. De primeras os aconsejo que vayáis a ella como fui yo. Casi a ciegas. Creo que de ese modo el cúmulo de emociones y sentimientos ganan intensidad.
Claramente la protagonista indiscutible de la novela es Lucy Gayheart. Que criada en un pueblito rural termina por trasladarse a la ciudad de Chicago para poder crecer y triunfar en la que es su pasión: la música. Pero allí una tragedia se cierne en torno a ella y nada volverá a ser como era.
Como ya he dicho Lucy Gayheart es una bonita historia. El ambiente que rodea (no olvidaré la primera escena en el lago helado mientras Lucy patina junto a Harry y Willa nos describe con bellas y certeras palabras la majestuosa puesta de sol que hay como telón de fondo durante toda la escena) a Lucy en su pueblo natal, su vitalidad, sus contradicciones internas, el amor que le profesa su pueblo, su impulsivo entusiasmo, la figura del arte como un personaje más de la trama... Todo ello, incluso lo más triste que pueda aparecer, tiene un aura de pura belleza y delicadeza. Un aura especial y que deleita. Y creo que eso lo consigue el estilo de narración de Willa que a mi modo de ver es casi poético. Poético, natural... Reflexivo. Una narración que te lleva a una historia de escenarios. De conocerse a uno mismo.
En un inicio dudaba de si estaría entrando por la puerta adecuada a Willa Cather. E igual esta novelita no es la mejor opción según qué lector, pero cuánto me alegra haber comenzado por ella. Sólo ha hecho que aumentar mi interés por la bibliografía de la autora. Willa al igual que su Lucy Gayheart puede seguir colándose en mi corazón para quedarse definitivamente conmigo y así ir atesorando cada una de sus obras.
July 3, 2016
Willa Cather is firmly established as one of my favourite authors, I have been slowly eking out her books, and although I did only read My Mortal Enemy recently I felt suddenly compelled to read this one now. Lucy Gayheart was Cather’s penultimate novel, and in it she returns to themes explored in some of her best loved novels, O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. There is an exquisite bittersweet elegiac quality to this novel which makes it unforgettable.
The story takes place in 1901/1902, with an extraordinarily beautiful epilogue taking place twenty-five years later. The novel opens with a retrospective remembrance of Lucy Gayheart, and the reader senses immediately that there will be sadness at the very heart of this story.
“In Haverford on the Platte the townspeople still talk of Lucy Gayheart. They do not talk of her a great deal, to be sure; life goes on and we live in the present. But when they do mention her name it is with a gentle glow in the face or the voice, a confidential glance which says: ‘Yes, you too, remember?’ They still see her as a slight figure always in motion; dancing or skating, or walking swiftly with intense direction, like a bird flying home.”
As she did with The Song of the Lark, here Cather considers the incompatibility of those wanting to dedicate themselves to the arts (in this case music) and the confining nature of small town Nebraskan life. At eighteen Lucy leaves her small town for Chicago to study music. As the novel opens Lucy is home in Haverford for the Christmas holidays, the young people of Haverford enjoy the traditional skating parties on the stretch of ice by Duck Island and Lucy is courted by the most eligible bachelor in town. Harry Gordon is determined to have a wife who other men will envy – and has chosen Lucy despite her family’s relative poverty. Lucy’s father gives music lessons from the room behind his watch repairer’s shop, while Lucy was effectively brought up by her sister Pauline.
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
The story takes place in 1901/1902, with an extraordinarily beautiful epilogue taking place twenty-five years later. The novel opens with a retrospective remembrance of Lucy Gayheart, and the reader senses immediately that there will be sadness at the very heart of this story.
“In Haverford on the Platte the townspeople still talk of Lucy Gayheart. They do not talk of her a great deal, to be sure; life goes on and we live in the present. But when they do mention her name it is with a gentle glow in the face or the voice, a confidential glance which says: ‘Yes, you too, remember?’ They still see her as a slight figure always in motion; dancing or skating, or walking swiftly with intense direction, like a bird flying home.”
As she did with The Song of the Lark, here Cather considers the incompatibility of those wanting to dedicate themselves to the arts (in this case music) and the confining nature of small town Nebraskan life. At eighteen Lucy leaves her small town for Chicago to study music. As the novel opens Lucy is home in Haverford for the Christmas holidays, the young people of Haverford enjoy the traditional skating parties on the stretch of ice by Duck Island and Lucy is courted by the most eligible bachelor in town. Harry Gordon is determined to have a wife who other men will envy – and has chosen Lucy despite her family’s relative poverty. Lucy’s father gives music lessons from the room behind his watch repairer’s shop, while Lucy was effectively brought up by her sister Pauline.
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
January 7, 2020
"Hauntingly beautiful" is the only way to describe this book. I was awestruck at the way it was written. The characters were so real, but at the same time, they were so other-worldly. The story made me weep at the raw trueness of it. Willa Cather's writing style gave me chills, and I highly, highly recommend this book everyone.
April 9, 2022
Cather’s usually quality. A little reminiscent of the Song of the Lark, which I preferred. Still highly recommended
October 18, 2025
4'5
«La suya era una relación accidental entre alguien que lo tenía todo y alguien que no tenía nada. El hecho de acompañarlo al piano no era sino fantasía; y su amistad acaso también lo fuera. Todo era irreal, menos los sentimientos de Lucy. Eso era real».
¿Cómo es posible que aparezcan personas en nuestras vidas que sean capaces de cambiar nuestro destino, aunque pasen muchos años o nos separen cientos de kilómetros? ¿Es el amor un sentimiento capaz de sacar tanto lo mejor como lo peor de nosotros?
No me esperaba que esta historia me fuera a llegar tanto como lo ha hecho. Y me ha recordado un poco a «La única historia», de Julian Barnes, uno de mis libros favoritos y el que da nombre a mi cuenta. Al menos, en su premisa. Porque, como esta, empieza con un enamoramiento casual e inesperado que transforma a ambos protagonistas y su forma de ver el mundo. Pero, sobre todo, a la joven Lucy: una mujer apasionada alegre, inocente y con un gran talento para el piano que llama la atención de un músico maduro, solitario y nostálgico que ve en ella algo único que le hace sentir joven, atractivo y valioso.
Me ha encantado la forma tan sutil u evocadora con la que la autora retrata a ambos personajes, así como la relación que se va forjando poco a poco entre ellos y cómo van evolucionando a medida que esta avanza.
Porque esta novela no solo aborda las consecuencias del amor y el desamor, también trata la decepción, la pérdida, la obsesión y la falta de recursos en una comunidad pequeña donde casi todos los personajes se conocen, al menos mínimamente.
Y, aunque es una historia con un trasfondo trágico y triste, no me ha dejado con esa sensación sino con un regusto esperanzador. Y me ha parecido una especie de canto a la vida a pesar de sus decepciones, desilusiones y pérdidas. Que nos recuerda que los buenos momentos que hemos vivido, los sentimientos y las sensaciones asociados a ellos son únicos y forman parte de nosotros y las personas en las que nos convertimos.
Estoy deseando seguir con Willa Cather, que en «Una dama extraviada» no me convenció, pero que con esta novela me ha enamorado con su estilo, personajes y su tono entre melancólico y elegante con un regusto optimista pese a la tristeza y los baches que nos encontramos a lo largo de la vida.
«La suya era una relación accidental entre alguien que lo tenía todo y alguien que no tenía nada. El hecho de acompañarlo al piano no era sino fantasía; y su amistad acaso también lo fuera. Todo era irreal, menos los sentimientos de Lucy. Eso era real».
¿Cómo es posible que aparezcan personas en nuestras vidas que sean capaces de cambiar nuestro destino, aunque pasen muchos años o nos separen cientos de kilómetros? ¿Es el amor un sentimiento capaz de sacar tanto lo mejor como lo peor de nosotros?
No me esperaba que esta historia me fuera a llegar tanto como lo ha hecho. Y me ha recordado un poco a «La única historia», de Julian Barnes, uno de mis libros favoritos y el que da nombre a mi cuenta. Al menos, en su premisa. Porque, como esta, empieza con un enamoramiento casual e inesperado que transforma a ambos protagonistas y su forma de ver el mundo. Pero, sobre todo, a la joven Lucy: una mujer apasionada alegre, inocente y con un gran talento para el piano que llama la atención de un músico maduro, solitario y nostálgico que ve en ella algo único que le hace sentir joven, atractivo y valioso.
Me ha encantado la forma tan sutil u evocadora con la que la autora retrata a ambos personajes, así como la relación que se va forjando poco a poco entre ellos y cómo van evolucionando a medida que esta avanza.
Porque esta novela no solo aborda las consecuencias del amor y el desamor, también trata la decepción, la pérdida, la obsesión y la falta de recursos en una comunidad pequeña donde casi todos los personajes se conocen, al menos mínimamente.
Y, aunque es una historia con un trasfondo trágico y triste, no me ha dejado con esa sensación sino con un regusto esperanzador. Y me ha parecido una especie de canto a la vida a pesar de sus decepciones, desilusiones y pérdidas. Que nos recuerda que los buenos momentos que hemos vivido, los sentimientos y las sensaciones asociados a ellos son únicos y forman parte de nosotros y las personas en las que nos convertimos.
Estoy deseando seguir con Willa Cather, que en «Una dama extraviada» no me convenció, pero que con esta novela me ha enamorado con su estilo, personajes y su tono entre melancólico y elegante con un regusto optimista pese a la tristeza y los baches que nos encontramos a lo largo de la vida.
April 10, 2021
Not Willa Cather breaking my heart and making me cry in under 200 pages again.
Cather doesn’t always work for me, but I do love her particular kind of tragedy. It’s always melodramatic in plot but realistic in execution, and in eventual result where every tragic thing joins the flat line of horizon in a long past life. Every thing is meaningful, but also small in the neverending scale of time and multiplicity of lived experiences.
Cather doesn’t always work for me, but I do love her particular kind of tragedy. It’s always melodramatic in plot but realistic in execution, and in eventual result where every tragic thing joins the flat line of horizon in a long past life. Every thing is meaningful, but also small in the neverending scale of time and multiplicity of lived experiences.
December 16, 2021
Me lo he bebido. Desde Galsworthy o Hardy no había leído una novela que me gustase tanto. Es una historia preciosa: la belleza y las ilusiones de la juventud, el amor a la música y a la naturaleza, la alegría de vivir y el azar o el destino moviendo los hilos.
Willa Cather es una de mis autoras preferidas, me han gustado mucho Mi Antonia, Una dama extraviada o Mi enemigo mortal, pero la historia de Lucy Gayheart me ha conmovido profundamente. Una joya.
Willa Cather es una de mis autoras preferidas, me han gustado mucho Mi Antonia, Una dama extraviada o Mi enemigo mortal, pero la historia de Lucy Gayheart me ha conmovido profundamente. Una joya.
Read
May 27, 2023Going to let this one soak in more. I’m struck by the contrast between Clement Sebastian and Harry Gordon when it comes to place.
May 30, 2019
Wow. This is my first Willa Cather and came to me as if by chance, but it is such a powerful and subtle tragedy. I had been interested by titles like Death Comes To The Archbishop in the past, but this lesser known title was a great jumping off point. It is a story of youth and its decay, of falling in love with ideals and with people, of legitimizing the longing for a life that flows with beautiful things.
I found this book a week or two ago. I randomly drove past a little library that I had never noticed before, a few block away from my house. I pulled over any reached inside, finding Lucy Gayheart and Euripides. As any used book bibliomaniac will tell you, it is a rare thing to find time to read the new acquisitions. But within a week or two, I had finished a large portion of both.
Here is Lucy Gayheart. A young country girl in the big city, full of artistic promise and solid principles. Lucy is nothing like a flighty or whimsical girl, but she is moved to her core by the beauty of nature, the beauty of music, and the sudden recognition of the beauty that can be crafted into a lifestyle that honors it. At home, she was the oblivious inspiration to so many people, filling the streets and the air with a vivacious joy as she took in the world around her. Harry Gordon is the hometown heir and youthful sweetheart who refuses to admit to himself or anyone else that a stable, masculine man can ever abandon a mask of stoicism for the authenticity of natural enjoyment. His only outlet was to watch Lucy enjoy life. But in Chicago, Lucy finds another, a man who has cultivated a long history of embracing beauty and cultivating sensitivity to the things that move him. What can one do, once the deeper longing is recognized and its chance is laid out as the hope of a lifetime? How can one hope to come back to the ground?
This novel is split into three very disproportionate books. Book I is by far the longest, hinting subtly at natures and characters and longings and slow evolutions of desire and belief. Books II & III are both very short and almost shocking, hooking the reader with a great deal more action and almost shocking the romance out of the novel. It is tragedy in its truest form, a complete recognition and taste of a life that could be more than ever hoped for, followed by fall after fall after fall.
I found this book a week or two ago. I randomly drove past a little library that I had never noticed before, a few block away from my house. I pulled over any reached inside, finding Lucy Gayheart and Euripides. As any used book bibliomaniac will tell you, it is a rare thing to find time to read the new acquisitions. But within a week or two, I had finished a large portion of both.
Here is Lucy Gayheart. A young country girl in the big city, full of artistic promise and solid principles. Lucy is nothing like a flighty or whimsical girl, but she is moved to her core by the beauty of nature, the beauty of music, and the sudden recognition of the beauty that can be crafted into a lifestyle that honors it. At home, she was the oblivious inspiration to so many people, filling the streets and the air with a vivacious joy as she took in the world around her. Harry Gordon is the hometown heir and youthful sweetheart who refuses to admit to himself or anyone else that a stable, masculine man can ever abandon a mask of stoicism for the authenticity of natural enjoyment. His only outlet was to watch Lucy enjoy life. But in Chicago, Lucy finds another, a man who has cultivated a long history of embracing beauty and cultivating sensitivity to the things that move him. What can one do, once the deeper longing is recognized and its chance is laid out as the hope of a lifetime? How can one hope to come back to the ground?
This novel is split into three very disproportionate books. Book I is by far the longest, hinting subtly at natures and characters and longings and slow evolutions of desire and belief. Books II & III are both very short and almost shocking, hooking the reader with a great deal more action and almost shocking the romance out of the novel. It is tragedy in its truest form, a complete recognition and taste of a life that could be more than ever hoped for, followed by fall after fall after fall.
November 29, 2015
I was intrigued by Kate Walbert's recommendation in the Wall Street Journal of this little-known Willa Cather novel and so ordered it with the intention of reading it when I could. I picked it up just to peruse since I was reading a couple other books at the same time. I couldn't stop reading it despite the pull of other works, other tasks. As an ardent admirer of Cather's descriptive powers and insight into human experience, I was not surprised at this haunting story of youth and regret, but I was taken aback by how much it affected me. I don't think I would have responded as strongly twenty years ago. The passionate nature of the young heroine, the tragedies that could have been avoided, the loss of one so talented and ready to appreciate life have given me pause. Its relatively short length, roughly the same as The Great Gatsby, whose author was a contemporary of Cather's, is not indicative of the powerful story contained within its pages. Like Gatsby, the depiction of life's turns and seeming injustices hit me squarely. It is not a novel I will likely forget and will certainly re-read, if providence does not intervene.
June 8, 2016
A good lesson here for writers and readers who think that to write about love you must write about sex. A writer who read my novel, "The Goddess of Wealth", asked me, "Why so coy about sex?" He thought I was being coy since there were no sex scenes, and he of course presumed there had to be. I didn't know what to answer. I thought it showed how many people have lost touch with certain tragic elements of great passion and love, and how they don't even consider that deep emotional conflicts can keep people who love each other apart. This is partly due to ignorance of literature before the modern era and partly due to a lack of feeling and understanding, or a mockery and scorn of any love that is more complicated than mere fucking. People like that will probably have no tolerance for romances like this one of Cather's, where she builds such intense interior feeling and hope, so much fantasy, so much tenderness, that is devastated and savaged in an instant in a world where people die tragic unexpected deaths, and love is lost, and the living are left with the ruins.
January 6, 2017
I fell in love with Cather when I read "Neighbor Rosicky" in college, and her short story instantly caused homesickness for my little town of the windswept prairie of Colorado. The story became a classroom favorite when I taught language arts and it popped up in my text books. I had not read Willa for years when recently we went on a road trip and drove through Red Cloud, Nebraska, the place where Willa grew up, and the setting of many of her novels. I toured her childhood home which is still mostly intact, and purchased this novel at her museum. I had forgotten how much I loved her style, and I was swept back to the days of my youth, to the folks that came in and out of my family market, and to the kinds of novels I used to curl up to on a winter's day and mull over. What a delight to rediscover a classical American author who describes life, even in tragedy, as something to see with a sense of wonder.
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