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Alexander's Bridge + One of Ours (2 Unabridged Classics) Kindle Edition

by Willa Cather (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
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This carefully crafted ebook: "Alexander's Bridge + One of Ours (2 Unabridged Classics)" contains 2 books in one volume and is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Alexander's Bridge is the first novel by Willa Cather. First published in 1912, it was re-released with an author's preface in 1922. Bartley Alexander is a construction engineer and world-renowned builder of bridges undergoing a mid-life crisis. Although married to Winifred, Bartley resumes his acquaintance with a former lover, Hilda Burgoyne, in London. The affair gnaws at Bartley's sense of propriety and honor. One of Ours is a novel by Willa Cather. It tells the story of the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska native around the turn of the 20th century. Claude, working on the family farm, and married to a woman who is more interested in her missionary work, than she is in him, tires of his monotonous life. When his wife leaves for China, he decides to enlist in the US Army, which has just begun preparing to enter the First World War. Claude believes that he has finally found his purpose in life, a place where he matters. Willa Sibert Cather (1873 – 1947) was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.
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  1. Print length
    72 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    e-artnow ebooks
  5. Publication date
    September 20, 2013
  6. File size
    2067 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This scholarly edition does justice to Cather’s notoriously particular production requirements. The material and editorial quality of the book meets very high standards, with the paper, the visual presentation of the words on the page, the rigor of the editing and proofreading, the thoroughness of the notes, and the detailed explanation of editorial decisions all illustrating impeccable scholarship. The historical essay and the illustrations provide useful information. . . . This volume stands as a model of scrupulous, indeed loving, scholarship. It offers a fully elaborated, beautiful text that even Cather, despite her effort to bury the book, might be proud to acknowledge.”—Great Plains Quarterly


Published On: 2008-06-04

From the Back Cover

Alexander's Bridge (1912), Willa Cather's first novel, tells the story of Bartley Alexander, a successful engineer torn between duty to his career and wife, and his passion for the Irish actress Hilda Burgoyne. In spare but often searing prose, Cather's taut novella traces a mid-life crisis of self-doubt and disappointment that ends in a spectacular catastrophe. Cather's portraits of indomitable women on the Nebraska frontier in the novels O Pioneers! and My Antonia are well-known, but Alexander's Bridge shows her working in another, equally important mode, using urban settings and the figure of the bridge-builder to analyse America's emergence as an international industrial power at the turn of the twentieth century. Both anxious and celebratory, Alexander's Bridge anticipates The Great Gatsby in trying to reckon with the social and emotional costs of a new era in American life.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00HVZKDAY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ e-artnow ebooks (September 20, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 20, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2067 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 72 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B0CHL3QYHL
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 56 ratings

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  1. Willa Cather

    Willa Cather

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
56 global ratings
Forget it!
2 Stars
Forget it!
Even though the book is well written, it's not at all worth reading. The plot is banal-- a talented engineer of bridges caught between his mistress, an engaging actress, and his wife, a good woman who loves and cares for her husband. The gentleman is portrayed as somewhat tired of his life, looking for a change and some excitement. He finds it in an old flame -- a stunning, notable stage actress. The man moves back and forth between his two women. There is barely any romantic love portrayed between Alexander and his mistress. In the end, his mistress tells her lover she intends to marry another man so as to assure their relationship ends. She knows he is being torn apart, and she is unhappy. This appears to prompts Alexander to write a long letter to his wife. We never learn exactly what it says for he does not send it. Then, in a mishap on a bridge construction site there is an accident, and Alexander dies. The letter is found in his pocket, unreadable. THE END. So what? Both women mourn. The situation is resolved. A silly ending, an uninteresting, trite story. Don't waste your time.
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Top reviews from the United States

dolphin147
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVELY READ
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2019
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Alexander’s bridge was a lovely book. Willa Cather was recommended by a friend. Reading My Antonia next.
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AuntieN
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2015
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Good summer read, not earth shaking or riveting. But an interesting take on a life unraveling.
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One More Option
4.0 out of 5 stars Alexander's Bridges
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2007
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 that she was under pressure to put such a pat moral perspective on the totality of his actions.

In later books, like My Ántonia, Cather created a male narrator that does not identify his undying loves as destructive. My Ántonia, as a book, is one man taking the time to recollect and share his fond memories of one of his first love's (Ántonia). A beautiful aspect of My Ántonia is a concession by the narrator that his love for Ántonia never died, even though she married and lived a life separate from him.

Alexander's Bridge, in almost every other part of the book, suggests that Alexander was not intent on being self-destructive; but rather, he had excellent reasons for loving both women and for pursuing so many hard to achieve simultaneous business goals. Both women are drawn lovingly (as Cather is so capable of doing).

Cather was brilliant. Notice that Alexander does not die because his bridge crushes him, or because its weight and undertow drown him. He does not die of hubris. He does not die because he is arrogant and ignores the engineering data. As soon as he receives data suggesting the one bridge cannot meet all the demands placed on it, he immediately changes directions and makes best efforts to get everyone off the bridge. He does not die because he is not self-sufficient or because he is unable to swim. He dies because fearful people around him panic, and they pull him under the water as they drown.

The book is an exploration of this important question: Is it possible for good and moral people to have a healthy extra-marital affair? And in 1912, seriously and carefully examining that question in a mainstream and literate novel had to be controversial. The book suggests that when people are faced with more than one great love, whether or not they choose to pursue only one of those loves (and therefore exclude the other), the conflicts inherent in those decisions continue the rest of their life, regardless of whether they choose to love only one or both.

I recommend people read this book to read the internal dialogues of all the main characters. The book challenges common presumptions, and it questions its own presumptions. Buy a version that includes Cather's 1922 preface.

When Alexander sees that one bridge (one relationship) will not safely support the load, he is not a fool. He doesn't stand idly and sink with the ship (the bridge). He makes best efforts to save himself and as many others as possible by letting them know that his one bridge will no longer keep them safe. And he personally goes back out onto the unsafe bridge and tries to save as many of the other men as possible.

The book is not simply a critique of the traditional love relationship formula. Rather, it is more intent on being illustrative of circumstances that might merit something other than simple Victorian guilt as a response to non-singular love relationships. It compassionately shows how one man had separate and distinctly beautiful relationships with two unbelievably good women. It shows how the social constructs of that era led good men and women to live with self-inflicted and sometimes crushing guilt. Each character loves deeply and genuinely. But in that era, they were forced to choose only one. The book considerately examines the inherent negative consequences that often arise out of the traditional marital contract.
4 people found this helpful
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William S. Armfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Willow Cather
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2019
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Great story by a great writer that keeps your interest. One of my favorite's.
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SM
5.0 out of 5 stars Okay
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2012
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Trying out a new author... Short stories are fun and easy reading on a hot summer day.. It was free so made it even better... probably would read other books by this author
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Bernard W. Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Those who don't know the history are condenmed to repeat
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2013
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Every engineer needs to know the history of the construction. It is necessary to know the past construction for the future construction
One person found this helpful
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Itai
3.0 out of 5 stars An architect's mid life crisis
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2011
It is a story of an affair between an actress and a married bridge architect. They used to be an item way back when, but since then their ways separated and he married another woman, the wholesome, angelic type - the kind you might see portrayed in pastel colors on tin biscuit boxes of British export alongside an inspirational Keats quote.

Alexander the successful architect is suffering from an early mid life crisis, feels bogged down in a perfect, but uneventful marriage, and yearns to feel young again. Just like Alexander's marriage, this book is oppressively uneventful. The description of the affair is wholesome and insinuated. The scant plot, though spanning two continents and three countries, is nonetheless slow pacing. Watch out, though, for the abrupt, perplexing turn of events toward the end.

The writing style is eloquent and the paragraphs flow well and are carefully structured, but the narrative is dull (except that peculiar, incongruous turn near the end) as are the characters. I see no compelling reason to read this burdensome, fatiguing novel, unless you happened to enjoy that famous Edith Wharton account of 19th century WASPy New York society, in which case this might be your cup of tea.
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mike s
2.0 out of 5 stars not one of her best
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2014
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I do like Willa Cather, but apparently not all of her books will have the depth of 'Song of the Lark', 'O Pioneers' and 'My Antonia' (I love all 3). She must have been just beginning to blossom as a writer when this was written, and that's understandable.
Still, for the sake of being a faithful collector/fan, of a writer whom I have much respect for, I will want to have all of her books eventually in the collection. And I certainly will read it again.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

john Cooper
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2015
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FINE
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