Alexander’s Bridge (1912) - Willa Cather

Written by Willa Cather
Read by Marguerite Gavin
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: January 1, 2006
Duration: 02:48:02

Alexander’s Bridge was Willa Cather’s first novel and one of her best.

Bartley Alexander was the world’s leading bridge builder, something that was considered an awesome skill in the early 20th century. Alexander has the strength and regret that weave throughout Cather’s male characters much as they do through those of her contemporary authors, strength and forbearance of Cather’s female characters, shown off most clearly after the great bridge collapses along with Alexander himself.

“There is a pleasure in listening to the imagery of Alexander’s Bridge that is similar to viewing a beautiful watercolor, as in the following description of a Boston street in late afternoon: “The sun sank rapidly; the silvery light had faded from the bare boughs and the watery twilight was setting in when Wilson at last walked down the hill, descending into cooler and cooler depths of grayish shadow.” Against this delicate imagery, Willa Cather renders the tough inner terrain of a man in mid-life crisis. Bartley Alexander is a master bridge engineer. At forty-three he is at the height of his power, comfortable with success and all it brings. Yet he yearns for the lost vibrancy of his youth. He leads a double life, veering between his beautiful, accomplished wife and his mistress, an actress he knew as a student in Paris. This conflict creates a crack in the structure of his life which ultimately undermines him.”