A Lost Lady

By: Willa Cather

Narrated by: Will Damron

To the people of Sweet Water, a fading railroad town on the Western plains, Mrs. Forrester is the resident aristocrat, at once gracious and comfortably remote.

To her aging husband, she is a treasure whose value increases as his powers fail.

To Niel Herbert, who falls in love with her as a boy and becomes her confidant as a man, Mrs. Forrester is by turns steadfast and faithless, dazzling and pathetic.

Mrs. Forrester is a woman whose charm is intertwined with a terrifying vulnerability, and whose inevitable decline with age is symbolic of the West itself and its fall from the idealized age of noble pioneers to the age of capitalist exploitation, and A Lost Lady is the portrait of a frontier woman who reflects the conventions of her age even as she defies them.

Public Domain (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Willa Cather always delivers

Even when the story is fairly predictable, her use of language to draw out emotions and shine a spotlight on human frailty or strength is wonderful. The way those two things are combined in the main characters in different ways gives one food for thought.

A Lesson in True Character

This short book is a study in both beauty and character and how a young boy came face to face with the brutal fact that outward loveliness does not equal integrity within. It is a love story, of both an older gentleman and a boy who saw in Mrs. Forrester a rare beauty that fascinated them, captured their hearts . . . and made them believe certain things about her . . . so captivated by her that they would attempt to move heaven and earth for her. Her husband, much older than her, Captain Forrester had made many investments which had benefited him over the years, but when the bank that he had invested in failed, he chose to bear the brunt of the failure himself and refused to let down his depositors, as the other partners did. This led to a great financial loss for the Forresters, who never regained their wealth. As time marched onward, the young Neil Herbert was forced to re-evaluate his opinion of Mrs. Forrester, particularly after the death of her husband. The boy who had began visiting the Forresters and hunting on their land kept track of Mrs. Forrester long after she left Sweet Water. The memories of his first meeting with Mrs. Forrester sometimes overwhelmed him once again, her freshness, her beauty . . . and then Neil the man remembered when he had realized that Mrs. Forrester was only a human being . . . a very flawed one, at that.

A bit triggering with brutality in beginning, then it lightens up.

I was reminded of Flannery O’Connor. How all seems okay and then fast turns into a nightmare. There is one particularly brutal scene in the beginning, but once your past that the story becomes interesting and decent.

Great story!

The narrator did a great job capturing the essence of each character, and the story was riveting! Willa Cather never disappoints!

decent

I would say it was a pretty easy read out. i did not really like the ending

A wonderful tale

Beautiful story. Overall good narration, but a very peculiar prononciation of Juan. Definitely worth a listen

great short listen

narrator excellent story great i listened to this book twice in one day i really enjoyed this listen

It's Willa Cather🌹

I didn't like it and I didn't dislike it. For whatever it's worth, I'm glad I experienced the story. I love Willa Cather, so if she wrote it, I'll recommend it. It's just such a realistic tale. I've known this heroine ten times over already in my life. - without doing the history, it makes me think the author took inspiration from this story from someone she knew or heard of. There's something extremely Holly Golightly about this character... I wonder if Truman Capote was inspired by Willa. 🤔In any case, the story was written in 1924 and it comes across that way. Which... 🤷‍♀️Realism.

Very Enjoyable

Willa Cather a wonderfully insightful author. I enjoyed this reading very much! Don’t pass this one up!

Wish it had a warning

The vision of a poor little robin bird first, being hit with a stone then having its eyes cut with a knife then let go, describing this bird being tortured
disgusted me. I wish there was a warning attached to this story. I had it on the surround sound, doing chores, and ran down my stairs to shut it off. It was so offensive. And I'm a cowgirl, I don't offend easily. And I'm not about sensory, I am for choosing what I stain my brain with. This vision I want to scrub out.