Lucy Gayheart

by Willa Cather

Book Overview

In this haunting 1935 novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of My ?ntonia performs crystalline variations on the themes that preoccupy her greatest fiction: the impermanence of innocence, the opposition between prairie and city, provincial American values and world culture, and the grandeur, elation, and heartache that await a gifted young woman who leaves her small Nebraska town to pursue a life in art.

At the age of eighteen,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679728880
• ISBN13: 9780679728887
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

absolutely breaking.

I love Willa Cather’s works. Before Lucy Gayheart I had only read a few of her shot stories, which I also loved, before a teacher of mine recommended this book. The way Cather paints images throughout the book is an amazing work of art. I would (and already have) recommend this book to anyone.

Music and Dashed Dreams

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.

A Classical Tragedy

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.)

Beautiful

Lucy Gayheart is one of the greatest books in my memory, certainly the best among the five Willa Cather books I have read. Though difficult to describe to one who is unfamiliar with the style, the story is lovely, wistfully romantic... and Cather's sparkling prose is simply unequaled. I especially loved the novel's reflection of the creative spirit - Lucy is a young artist full of ardent longing, passion, and ultimately pain.

I believe there is a Lucy Gayheart in all of us

Lucy Gayheart is a young, spirited, intelligent music student from Havorford, on the South Platte River. In the winters, she attends a conservatory in Chicago, under the tutelage of Professor Auerbach. In Chicago, she lives in a room above a German bakery, where she takes her breakfasts and suppers. These small quarters do not distress her; indeed, she craves the solitude of her own will, her own piano, her own bed. She walks hungrily through Chicago, her appetite for life never disappointed by the thriving midwestern metropolis. She is beautiful, she is talented, and her young heart has never been broke. The year is 1901. At some point in everyone's life, you meet someone whom you think can lift you beyond where you are, to a place where you always wished to be, but weren't sure how to get there. For some, this crossroads leads to success; for others, to despair. For a time, Lucy Gayheart feels the assurance of a bright future reaffirmed daily. And then a tragedy strikes, an undreamed-of turn of events, something which happens every day, and yet which we never address, because it is unthinkable. So will Lucy allow tragedy to beat her down into an existence she has long scorned? Or will she find the mettle to not only endure, but to grow in the face of, her heartbreak? This book was published in 1935. Its syntax can be long-winded, but its imagery is unforgettable. The author conveys a deep love for her fellow man, and for the inexpressible promise of a young life. I believe there is a Lucy Gayheart in all of us.

As the World Falls Down Lucy Gayheart Soars High

From the beginning Lucy Gayheart held my attention. It had so many ups, and downs, twists and turns that it was captivating. The book was very descriptive and wordy, but instead of taking away from the book it added depth and clarity. It's detail allowed me to become part of the book. I felt as if I knew Lucy forever, sharing in her emotions and fears, hopes and dreams. Willa Cather was definitely a very skillful author. I was given inspiration by her stirring quotes and even had a change of heart. Despite it's sadness, the book, in it's own way, lifted itself up to it's own happy ending, making it worthwhile to read. I'm a sophomore in high school and I highly reccomend this book to anyone who loves a beautiful, fulfilling love story filled with suspense, hapiness and sadness.