Book Description
Perhaps Willa Cather's most autobiographical work, The Song of the Lark charts the story of a young woman's awakening as an artist against the backdrop of the western landscape. Thea Kronborg, an aspiring singer, struggles to escape from the confines her small Colorado town to the world of possibility in the Metropolitan Opera House. In classic Cather style, The Song of the Lark is the beautiful, unforgettable story of American determination and its inextricable connection to the land. "The time will come when she'll be ranked above Hemingway." -- Leon Edel


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In this novel Willa Cather presents Thea Kronberg, a minister's daughter, living with her family in Moonstone, Colorado. After enrolling Thea for piano lessons, Mrs. Kronberg is told that her daughter's true talent is in the beauty of her voice when her teacher hears her sing in church. Thea leaves home to study music in Chicago where she is unaware of the city's hurrying crowds, glittering shops, and loitering men, and is drawn to the art museum and concert hall. Her ambition to become an operatic artist is set in motion, and though she is completely preoccupied with the emotional and intellectual demands put on her by the arduous training required to achieve her goal, she withstands the grueling regimen. She finds a guardian and love interest in Fred Ottenburg who sends her to Arizona to become rejuvenated. Once there she learns to submit to the physical experience and, at the same time, to control the reaction. Ten years later the reader meets Thea who has just returned from Germany and is the leading soprano of the Metropolitan Opera. Sometimes she is tempted by marriage, but art always comes before any other attraction. Cather makes it clear that the serious artist must refuse any claim to personal regard and work to fulfill the rewards of creation in solitude. Please Note: This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

ANNOTATION

In the Cather tradition, a memorable heroine emerges as a woman of strength and hope who works to build a life that affirms her unflagging spirit.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A novelist and short-story writer, Willa Cather is today widely regarded as one of the foremost American authors of the twentieth century. Particularly renowned for the memorable women she created for such works as My Antonia and O Pioneers!, she pens the portrait of another formidable character in The Song of the Lark. This, her third novel, traces the struggle of the woman as artist in an era when a woman's role was far more rigidly defined than it is today. The prototype for the main character as a child and adolescent was Cather herself, while a leading Wagnerian soprano at the Metropolitan Opera (Olive Fremstad) became the model for Thea Kronborg, the singer who defies the limitations placed on women of her time and social station to become an international opera star. A coming-of-age-novel, important for the issues of gender and class that it explores, The Song of the Lark is one of Cather's most popular and lyrical works.

SYNOPSIS

Born into poverty in a small desert town in the American Midwest, Thea Kronborg is one of seven children. But Thea is exceptional, a fact recognized by a discerning few, including Ray Kennedy, who longs to marry her but whose fate it is to set her free. With her rugged will and pioneer spirit, Thea carves her way from Moonstone, Colorado to Chicago, from Dresden to New York, culminating in a triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera. Thea has become a great singer, but she also learns that as a true artist, she must make the most bitter sacrifices of all.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

The time will come when she will be ranked above Hemingway.
 — Leon Edel