Alexander's Bridge

by Willa Cather and Willa Sibert Cather

Book Overview

Willa Cather's first published novel, set in Boston, London, and Paris, is the story of a man unable to resolve the contradictions in his own nature. The central figures are Bartley Alexander, a world-famous engineer; his wife; Winifred, a Boston society matron; and his former love, Hilda Burgoyne, a London actress. Long considered an uncharacteristic production, in the light of recent scholarship Alexander's Bridge is seen to be closely...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803258631
• ISBN13: 9780803258631
• Release Date: June 1977
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

strong first novel by Cather

Alexanders Bridge is the first novel by Willa Cather and it is surprisingly strong for a first novel. The bridge metaphor obviousily plays a major role in the novel and is used for good effect and the dynamics of Alexanders relationships between his wife and with his first love who on reuniting becomes his mistress. His turmoil is well described and his final decision no surprise. At times the symbolism is too much and Cather uses it to dominate the story instead of supplementing it .This is still quite good and shows her genius which became more apparent in later works

Alexander's Bridges

This is an amazing story about a successful engineer and his simultaneous romantic relationships with two brilliant and capable women. Originally published in 1912, it must have been scandalous, creating sympathetic portrayals of each of the three main characters: Bartley Alexander, a leading bridge building engineer; Winifried Alexander, his intelligent, enabling, supportive, and capable wife; and Hilda Burgoyne, Alexander's mistress, a talented and spirited British stage actress. This is not a perfect book. And in the preface written by Willa Cather in 1922, ten years after it's original publication, it seems Cather almost apologizes for some of the choices she made in telling her original story - conceding it was not truly a story she understood from personal history, but rather a young writer's attempt to tell a story similar to the stories told by authors she admired. It is not a long novel, so I was able to read it for the first time over the last few weeks. I enjoyed it very much. The title "Alexander's Bridge" refers to several primary metaphors, including: a) The story is about Alexander's attempt to bridge his life between two great loves, the two amazing and unique women in his life. b) "Alexander's Bridge" is also a metaphor for the institution of marriage, a "singular span" that is capable of bearing conventional loads, but that may not be the safest or most facilitative structure to handle the demands of some modern expanses, loads, and conditions. c) And "Alexander's Bridge" refers to the Alexander's repeated and unavoidable attempts to bridge his current life and responsibilities with the passions, memories, and goals of his youth. Alexander, for many good reasons, not only loves Hilda (his current mistress and first love), but maybe as importantly he also loves the person he was in his youth when he was around her chemistry and environments. And he regularly struggles with his present life, where his marriage, career, and all the related societal and work obligations have taken over almost all his time and concerns. Throughout the story, he is consciously, and unconsciously in his sleeping dreams, struggling with the relentless memories of the past. While I love the insight and universal perspectives in this book, unfortunately, my two least favorite sentences are the last sentence of Chapter X, and the last sentence of the Epilogue. It appears Cather was torn with what summarily should be said about Alexander's choices, because the Epilogue is in notorious conflict with the last sentence of Chapter X. The whole book is an intelligent exploration of morality, ethics, and dualities - it seems unnecessarily disarmed with such an overriding negative spin as is suggested in the final sentence of Chapter X. I understand Cather must have been under a great deal of social pressure in 1912 to identify Alexander's behaviors as destructive, but almost the entire rest of the book is one big long wink to savvy readers t