A Lost Lady

{{short description|1923 novel by Willa Cather}} {{other uses}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{infobox book |  | name = A Lost Lady | title_orig = | translator = | image = Image:WillaCather ALostLady.jpg | caption = First edition | author = Willa Cather | cover_artist = | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | release_date = September 1923 | media_type = Print (Hardback) | pages = | preceded_by = | followed_by = }}

'''''A Lost Lady''''' is a 1923 novel by American writer Willa Cather. 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. Throughout the story, Marian—a wealthy married socialite—is pursued by a variety of suitors. Her social decline is seen to represent the end of the American frontier.<ref>{{harvnb|Rosowski|1977|p=51}}: "Mrs. Forrster's decline parallels the West's decline; the novel becomes an elegy for the pioneer past".</ref> F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, ''The Great Gatsby'' was significantly influenced by this work.{{sfnm|Quirk|1982|1p=578|Bruccoli|1978|2pp=171–72}}

== Plot summary == Niel Herbert, a young man who grows up in Sweet Water, witnesses the slow decline of Marian 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.

== Major characters == * '''Niel Herbert'''{{snd}}the main character who is a young boy when he meets the beautiful Mrs. Forrester. He falls in love with what she represents and struggles to preserve his boyhood image of her. After watching her have an affair with Frank Ellinger and later, as a widow, with lawyer Ivy Peters, he leaves Sweet Water. By the end of the novel, Niel realizes that his love of Marian was based on Captain Forrester's idealization of her. * '''Mrs. Marian Forrester'''{{snd}}a charming socialite married to Captain Forrester. The young Niel falls in love with her beauty and apparent refinement. He is later dismayed to discover her affair with Frank Ellinger. After her husband's death, the widow becomes the mistress of Ivy Peters, who runs her estate. She eventually leaves the town and moves to California, dying before Niel sees her again. * '''Captain Daniel Forrester'''{{snd}}an aging man of the Pioneer generation who made his fortune building track for the railroads when the continent was crossed. He is proud of his beautiful, sophisticated 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. * '''Frank Ellinger'''{{snd}}a muscular bachelor and businessman of the Gilded Age generation. Frank is Mrs. Forrester's lover and visits her when the Captain is away from the house. He marries Constance Ogden. * '''Ivy Peters'''{{snd}}a cocky and pretentious young man of the Jazz Age generation, who later becomes a lawyer. He becomes very wealthy and manages the Forrester estate, taking the widowed Marian as a mistress. He eventually owns the estate. * '''Constance Ogden'''{{snd}}a Southern girl who is Niel's age and is envious of Marian's beauty. She later marries Frank Ellinger. * '''Judge Pommeroy'''{{snd}}Niel's uncle, he is a lawyer who falls on hard times in much the same way the Forresters do.

== Literary significance and criticism == alt=capa da edição brasileira de Ida Um Romance (Ponto Edita, 2019)|thumb|upright=0.6|Cover of the Brazilian Portuguese edition The novel has a robust symbolic framework.{{sfnm|Rosowski|1977|1p=51|Harvey|1995|2p=76|Funda|1995|3p=275}} Critical approaches have noted that the character of Marian Forrester symbolically embodies both the American Dream, as "focused on self" <ref>{{harvnb|Harvey|1995|p=76}}: "Marian Forrester, then, represents the American Dream boldly focused on self, almost fully disengaged from the morals and ethics to which it had been tied in the nineteenth century".</ref>{{sfn|Funda|1995|p=275}} and the gradual decline of the American West.{{sfn|Rosowski|1977|p=51}}

== Legacy and influence == F. Scott Fitzgerald acknowledged the influence of this novel; he borrowed many of its themes and elements.{{sfnm|Quirk|1982|1p=578|Bruccoli|1978|2pp=171–72}} Marian Forrester, in particular, partly inspired his Daisy Buchanan character in ''The Great Gatsby''.{{sfnm|Quirk|1982|1p=578|Bruccoli|1978|2pp=171–72}} Fitzgerald later wrote a letter to Cather apologizing for any unintentional plagiarism.{{sfnm|Quirk|1982|1p=578|Bruccoli|1978|2pp=171–72}}

== Media adaptations == The first film version of the novel was created in 1924, adapted by screenwriter Dorothy Farnum.{{sfn|''A Lost Lady''|1924}} Directed by Harry Beaumont, the film starred Irene Rich, Matt Moore, June Marlowe, and John Roche.{{sfn|''A Lost Lady''|1924}}

The novel was adapted again, very loosely, as a film of the same name in 1934 by Gene Markey. It starred Barbara Stanwyck as Marian Forrester.{{sfn|''A Lost Lady''|1934}} The film did not live up to the novel's reputation and is generally regarded as mediocre.{{sfn|''A Lost Lady''|1934}} Cather was so displeased with the film that she forbade any further film or stage adaptations of her work.{{sfn|Fuller|2019}}

== References == === Citations === {{reflist}}

=== Works cited === {{refbegin|indent=yes|30em}} * {{cite web | title = ''A Lost Lady'' (1924) | publisher = American Film Institute | location = Los Angeles, California | url= https://catalog.afi.com/Film/10379-A-LOSTLADY | access-date = July 16, 2021 | ref = {{harvid|''A Lost Lady''|1924}}}} * {{cite web | title = ''A Lost Lady'' (1934) | publisher= American Film Institute | location = Los Angeles, California | url = https://catalog.afi.com/Film/7152-A-LOSTLADY | access-date = July 16, 2021 | ref = {{harvid|''A Lost Lady''|1934}}}} * {{cite journal|last=Bruccoli|first=Matthew J.|author-link=Matthew J. Bruccoli|title='An Instance of Apparent Plagiarism': F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, and the First 'Gatsby' Manuscript|journal=Princeton University Library Chronicle|publisher=Princeton University|location=Princeton, New Jersey|date=Spring 1978|volume=39|issue=3|pages=171–78|doi=10.2307/26402223|jstor=26402223}} * {{cite web|last=Fuller |first=Jaime|title=Looking at Willa Cather's West | work = Jezebel | location = New York City |date=December 17, 2019|url=https://theattic.jezebel.com/looking-at-willa-cathers-west-1840245840 |access-date=August 16, 2020}} * {{cite journal|last=Funda|first=Evelyn I.|title=Review of 'Redefining the American Dream: The Novels of Willa Cather'|journal=Great Plains Quarterly|publisher=University of Nebraska–Lincoln|location= Lincoln, Nebraska|volume=15|issue=4|date=Fall 1995|pages=275–76|jstor=23531702}} * {{cite book|last=Harvey|first=Sally Peltier|title=Redefining the American Dream: The Novels of Willa Cather|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University|location=Florham Park, New Jerse|year=1995|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGNaAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9780838635575}} * {{cite journal|last=Quirk|first=Tom|title=Fitzgerald and Cather: The Great Gatsby|journal=American Literature|volume=54|issue=4|date=December 1982|pages=576–91|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, North Carolina|jstor=2926007|doi=10.2307/2926007|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2926007|access-date=May 25, 2021|url-access=subscription}} * {{cite journal|last=Rosowski|first=Susan J.|title=Willa Cather's 'A Lost Lady': The Paradoxes of Change|journal=Novel: A Forum on Fiction|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, North Carolina|volume=11|issue=1|date=Autumn 1977|pages=51–62|doi=10.2307/1344886|jstor=1344886 }} {{refend}}

== External links == * {{gutenberg|65636}} * {{Internet Archive|id=in.ernet.dli.2015.213611|name=A Lost Lady}} * {{librivox book | title=A Lost Lady | author=Willa Sibert Cather}} * [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025422/ A Lost Lady at the IMDB]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Lady, A}} Category:1923 American novels Category:Novels by Willa Cather Category:Alfred A. Knopf books Category:American novels adapted into films Category:Third-person narrative novels