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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780679728887
ISBN: 0679728880
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 1995-09-26
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1995-09-26
Studio: Vintage

Lucy Gayheart ist achtzehn, einen temperamentvolle junge Frau voller Charme und Vitalitaet und eine gute Pianistin. Als das Leben in dem Provinzstaedtchen Haverford sie zu ersticken droht, flieht sie nach Chicago, um dort Musik zu studieren. Doch sie ist nicht zur Kuenstlerin geboren, denn fuer eine grosse Karriere fehlt es ihr an Wille und Disziplin. Diese bittere Erkenntnis trifft Lucy wie ein Blitz, als sie den Opernsaenger Sebastian zum ersten Mal singen hoert. Es ist eine Begegnung, die ihr weiteres Leben schicksalhaft veraendern soll.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A minor classic deserving of attention
Review: A hundred years after the novel is set, the contrast between Chicago and Nebraska still rings true. Having lived in both places, I admire Cather's abiltiy to show the readers the strengths and weak points of each setting. Lucy is so in tune with her surroundings that the settings act almost as characters.
My book discussion group is reading "Lucy Gayheart" because we've all read the "major" Cather works. We chose this one because none of us knew anything about it. It will never be considered one of her great works, but it certainly can stand against the works of many other writers. Cather delicately touches on the subjects of change as a part of leaving home and growing up, the yearning for what is ethereal and lovely, and the difficulty & loneliness of creating a life as an artist.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: a haunting story of hope and remorse
Review: I don't know what to make of this story, though I loved it. I love Willa Cather's imagery, characterizations, and descriptions. I couldn't put it down, and I've been haunted by it since I read it. Lucy has so much hope and optimism in the first section of the book. She is in the depths of despair in the second section of the book, but then her hope rises again at the plans she forms to rise above her situation. But at that pinnacle of hope, she is again struck by tragedy. Why??? Why did Cather create such a scenario??? In section 3, Harry has to live with the remorse of his role in the tragedy. He's an example of how a moment of pettiness can lead to a lifetime of remorse. I guess what is so haunting to me is the juxtaposition of hope and tragedy/remorse that carries throughout the book.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: not her best
Review: I have am working my way through the Cather collection (I have read O Pioneers, Song of the Lark, and My Antonia) and I have to say that of the works I have read, this is my least favorite. I agree with the other reviewers that this book gives a brief glimpse into a beautiful tragedy. The problem with this book is that the story, and the emotions feel too contrived for Cather, like she was trying too hard. She carries it off well with her superb writing, rallying my score from three stars to four.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Music and Dashed Dreams
Review: Willa Cather's short poignant novel was written in 1935. The story takes place in the early twentienth century and contrasts the American plains, the small town of Haverford, Nebraska, with Chicago, large urban American with its promise and perils. 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.

In Chicago she meets a great but disillusioned and world-weary singer, Clement Sebastian, and has the opportunity to work with him as an accompanyist. There are wonderful descriptions of Schubert song-cycles: the Winterreise and the Miller's Lovely Daughter. She ultimately is seemingly faced with the choice between Sebastian and her hometown sweetheart.

Faced with tragedy from both men in Chicago, Lucy returns home. She gears herself to begin life anew but tragedy again intervenes.

There is a great deal of description in the book of the snow andthe cold, in both Chicago and Haverford. The book also has for me a feel for 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 love for music, the human voice and the piano eloquently comes through the book.

This is a beautifully wrought book which deserves to be better known.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Classical Tragedy
Review: This beautiful and tragic book ranks as one of my favorite Willa Cather novels. Nowhere else is a pervading sense of tragedy so well contrasted with the all-present beauty of nature. All of Cather's novels are pastoral, but none are quite as tragic as this one.
The story--similar to "The Song of the Lark"--follows an artistically gifted women out of her small town, and into a large city (Chicago) full of promise and angst. The adultry of the young artist falling in love with an older, married, successful artist has an Anna Karanina tinge (a book much admired by Cather): of subdued moral complexity. There are never blanket moral diatribes, but one gets the feeling that not all is well, especially near the end of the book.
Ultimately, this book is about the immortality of youth, and especially art. Cather admired art, in all its forms, which is profoundly reflected in this book.

(If you have read Alexander's Bridge, note also the similar metaphor of drowning: the weak bringing down the strong.)

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