Cather's great theme, the passing of the old order and the loss of the pioneering virtues of the Old West, are brilliantly handled here in this, her finest novel. First published in 1923, A Lost Lady predates The Great Gatsby by two years and comes close to matching Fitzgerald's dazzlingly romantic blend of the elegiac and the corrupt. The central character, Marian Forrester, is ultimately more tragic than Jay Gatsby because her fall exudes powerlessness and desperation. Cather places her flawed heroine in the closed society of Sweet Water, a small town that is initially Forrester's sanctuary, but eventually her prison. Forrester's appeal as the young wife of an admired much older man, a railroad hero and dignified embodiment of the innocent past, establishes her in the local society. But with her husband's decline in fortune, her status is also challenged. Watching all of this is young Neil Herbert, through whose thoughts the story unfolds. Cather's characterisation of the intense Neil, torn between admiration for and increasing disappointment with her as she defies morality, is superb. The portrait of the nervy, alive Marian Forrester as a woman determined to survive remains unforgettable. Cather (1873-1947) is an intelligent observer often at the mercy of her didacticism. This wonderful performance however displays her narrative technique at its sharpest, as well as her understanding of the eloquence of the slightest gesture, the simplest statement.
