Author | Willa Cather |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | September 1923 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
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 and her social decline mirrors the end of the American frontier.[1] The work had a significant influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby.[2]
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.
The novel has a robust symbolic framework.[3] Critical approaches have noted that the character of Marian Forrester symbolically embodies both the American Dream,[4][5] as well as the gradual decline of the American West.[6]
The novel had an acknowledged influence on writer F. Scott Fitzgerald who borrowed many of its themes and elements.[2] Marian Forrester, in particular, partly inspired his Daisy Buchanan character in The Great Gatsby.[2] Fitzgerald later wrote a letter to Cather apologizing for any unintentional plagiarism.[2]
The first film version of the novel was created in 1924, adapted by Dorothy Farnum.[7] Directed by Harry Beaumont, the film starred Irene Rich, Matt Moore, June Marlowe, and John Roche.[7] It would also be adapted very loosely into a film of the same name in 1934 by Gene Markey, and starred Barbara Stanwyck as Marian Forrester.[8] The film did not live up to the novel's reputation and is generally regarded as mediocre.[8] Cather was so displeased with the film that she forbade any further film or stage adaptations of her work.[9]