zullia's review against another edition
3.0
Unsophisticated plot and characters, but charming nonetheless.
barrypierce's review against another edition
3.0
In the preface to this edition Willa Cather writes, "Alexander's Bridge was my first novel, and does not deal with the kind of subject-matter in which I now find myself most at home." She spends the rest of the preface apologising for its existence. I feel Cather is far too tough on herself for this novel, because I rather enjoyed it.
The plot is very simple. A man has an affair and can't live with it. That's basically it. This novel has the unique claim of the main character being a bridge-maker, can't say I've come across that before. However what this novel lacks in plot, it makes up for in sheer enjoyability. Many reviewers overlook the basic experience of enjoying a book. When I sat down and read this novel it flowed before me. I was enthralled for the whole journey. I must give props to Cather for constructing such a smooth narrative and for creating such a crazy ending, that was great. Altogether this is a fine novel that overcomes its plot problems and leaves you rather content.
The plot is very simple. A man has an affair and can't live with it. That's basically it. This novel has the unique claim of the main character being a bridge-maker, can't say I've come across that before. However what this novel lacks in plot, it makes up for in sheer enjoyability. Many reviewers overlook the basic experience of enjoying a book. When I sat down and read this novel it flowed before me. I was enthralled for the whole journey. I must give props to Cather for constructing such a smooth narrative and for creating such a crazy ending, that was great. Altogether this is a fine novel that overcomes its plot problems and leaves you rather content.
thebookcure's review against another edition
3.0
Again I love the Barnes and Noble Library of Essential Reading Series, it brings me books I would have missed. Very different style from her other works, not as compelling but interesting and worth a read.
turophile's review against another edition
4.0
Reading Willa Cather books, even a short novella such is this, is such a pleasure. She has a concise, easy flowing writing style that flows beautiful. The pleasure derives not just from the story but the way it is written. Structure intriguing. The story begins and ends with a prophetic character. Charisma, youth, love, burning out are the themes. So enjoyable.
graywacke's review against another edition
4.0
22. Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather
published: 1912
format: 97-page paperback
acquired: June 2020
read: Jun 5
time reading: 2:26, 1.5 mpp
rating: 4
locations: Boston, London and New York – especially London.
about the author: born near Winchester, VA, later raised in Red Cloud, NE. December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947
Cather's first novel is one she sort of wanted to take back. She later published an essay on how her real first novel was [b:O Pioneers!|140963|O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1)|Willa Cather|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388956566l/140963._SY75_.jpg|467254] (pub. 1913), and this one instead a kind of false start, overly influenced by and designed to impress the literary crowd she had become a part of. It's a nice novel, but one that only hints at Cather's later strengths.
One thing I felt was different here was the persistent exploration of psychology. The book is roughly a tragedy, one of Bartley Alexander, an American engineer. He has made himself something of a heroic bridge builder, called to work in Canada, London, Paris and Tokyo among other places. But his admirers can see how unhappy he is. Early on we're told he probably doesn't remember his own childhood. His admiring one-time professor explains "He was never introspective. He was simply the most tremendous response to stimuli I have ever known." And later, "No past, no future for Bartley; just the fiery moment. The only moment that ever was or will be in the world."
The same professor foreshadows our bridge-builder's future - right to him. He tells him, "The more dazzling the front you presented, the higher your facade rose, the more I expected to see a big crack zigzagging from top to bottom...then a crash and clouds of dust." Further, he observes to himself, "... that even after dinner, when most men achieve a decent impersonality, Bartley had merely closed the door of the engine-room and come up for an airing. The machinery itself was still pounding on."
Cather doesn't stop there with Bartely. But the stage is set. This force of nature runs, almost naturally, almost carelessly into an extra-marital affair, and then heads to disaster. The strain of managing his secret second life starts to pull him apart, without him able to understand it. (bridge metaphors intended) As the book goes forward, Bartley's internal tension increases, and the text reflects that.
The main complaint about the book, from Cather herself, as well as other critics, is that themes are oversimplified. And probably they are. But for 2.5 hours reading, it was a nice insight into her early thinking and writing.
published: 1912
format: 97-page paperback
acquired: June 2020
read: Jun 5
time reading: 2:26, 1.5 mpp
rating: 4
locations: Boston, London and New York – especially London.
about the author: born near Winchester, VA, later raised in Red Cloud, NE. December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947
Cather's first novel is one she sort of wanted to take back. She later published an essay on how her real first novel was [b:O Pioneers!|140963|O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1)|Willa Cather|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388956566l/140963._SY75_.jpg|467254] (pub. 1913), and this one instead a kind of false start, overly influenced by and designed to impress the literary crowd she had become a part of. It's a nice novel, but one that only hints at Cather's later strengths.
One thing I felt was different here was the persistent exploration of psychology. The book is roughly a tragedy, one of Bartley Alexander, an American engineer. He has made himself something of a heroic bridge builder, called to work in Canada, London, Paris and Tokyo among other places. But his admirers can see how unhappy he is. Early on we're told he probably doesn't remember his own childhood. His admiring one-time professor explains "He was never introspective. He was simply the most tremendous response to stimuli I have ever known." And later, "No past, no future for Bartley; just the fiery moment. The only moment that ever was or will be in the world."
The same professor foreshadows our bridge-builder's future - right to him. He tells him, "The more dazzling the front you presented, the higher your facade rose, the more I expected to see a big crack zigzagging from top to bottom...then a crash and clouds of dust." Further, he observes to himself, "... that even after dinner, when most men achieve a decent impersonality, Bartley had merely closed the door of the engine-room and come up for an airing. The machinery itself was still pounding on."
Cather doesn't stop there with Bartely. But the stage is set. This force of nature runs, almost naturally, almost carelessly into an extra-marital affair, and then heads to disaster. The strain of managing his secret second life starts to pull him apart, without him able to understand it. (bridge metaphors intended) As the book goes forward, Bartley's internal tension increases, and the text reflects that.
The main complaint about the book, from Cather herself, as well as other critics, is that themes are oversimplified. And probably they are. But for 2.5 hours reading, it was a nice insight into her early thinking and writing.
msand3's review against another edition
2.0
A rather dull and disappointing first effort from Cather, who seems to be trying to write like James or Wharton, but the result comes off as a pale imitation. Interestingly enough, Cather admits this much in her 1922 preface, as well as her notes on Alexander's Bridge, written in 1931: "At the time I found the new more exciting than the familiar. The impressions I tried to communicate on paper were genuine, but they were very shallow." In a word, Cather had not yet found her voice in writing "novels of the soil." Even though this novella takes about a day to read, it's worth skipping, unless you're a diehard Cather fan.
oldenglishrose's review against another edition
3.0
Alexander’s Bridge tells the story of Bartley Alexander, an American engineer famed for building bridges. He lives a perfect life in Boston with his loving, supportive wife Winifred. However, his life starts to unravel when business takes him to London and he meets Hilda Burgoyne, an Irish actress with whom he had been in love when he was younger. He begins to question how happy he really is and soon finds himself divided in two and under the terrible strain of leading a double life.
It seems that I picked a particularly interesting author for my reading in order experiment, as Cather later distanced herself from this first novel of hers, saying that it ‘does not deal with the kind of subject matter in which I now find myself most at home‘ and that: "The difference in quality in the two books is an illustration of the fact that it is not always easy for the inexperienced writer to distinguish between his own material and that which he would like to make his own. Everything is new to the young writer, and everything seems equally personal. That which is outside his deepest experience, which he observes and studies, often seems more vital than that which he knows well, because he regards it with all the excitement of discovery."
She continues: ‘The writer, at the beginning of his career, is often more interested in his discoveries about his art than in the homely truths which have been about him from his cradle.’ Certainly, this book was not what I was expecting from what I have heard about Cather’s later and more famous works. Alexander’s Bridge has quite an urban focus, which I hadn’t anticipated, and the way that it develops puts me in mind more of Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence than what I had been awaiting from Cather. The plot does feel a little strained at times, and this may well be because she is trying to mimic other literature than to write her own, although equally it may reflect the tensions between the characters, echoed in the bridges that Alexander builds.
However, I do not agree that this makes Alexander’s Bridge a book filled with ‘youthful vanities and gaudy extravagances’ as Cather terms these early works of a writer; although the plot is somewhat lacking there are moments in the writing of quiet introspection and deep beauty. For all it feels as though she is writing someone else’s plot, she still does so from her own perspective and with her own perceptive vocabulary, allowing the emotions of her characters to shine through in a way that is instantly understandable. Take, for instance, her description of Bartley Alexander’s thoughts as he becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his perfect life: "His existence was becoming a network of great and little details. He had expected that success would bring him freedom and power; but it had brought him only power that was in itself another kind of restraint. He had always meant to keep his personal liberty at all costs… He happened to be a engaged in a work of public utility, but he was not willing to become a public man. He found himself living exactly the kind of life he had determined to escape. What, he asked himself, did he want with these genial honours and substantial comforts? Hardships and difficulties he had carried lightly; overwork had not exhausted him; but this dead calm of the middle life which confronted him — of that he was afraid. It was like being buried alive."
Moments like this one make the novel worth reading, despite the disappointing storyline. It shows a thoughtfulness, an insight and an awareness of humanity which hopefully develops into something really special in her later works. I can’t wait to continue on my journey through Cather.
It seems that I picked a particularly interesting author for my reading in order experiment, as Cather later distanced herself from this first novel of hers, saying that it ‘does not deal with the kind of subject matter in which I now find myself most at home‘ and that: "The difference in quality in the two books is an illustration of the fact that it is not always easy for the inexperienced writer to distinguish between his own material and that which he would like to make his own. Everything is new to the young writer, and everything seems equally personal. That which is outside his deepest experience, which he observes and studies, often seems more vital than that which he knows well, because he regards it with all the excitement of discovery."
She continues: ‘The writer, at the beginning of his career, is often more interested in his discoveries about his art than in the homely truths which have been about him from his cradle.’ Certainly, this book was not what I was expecting from what I have heard about Cather’s later and more famous works. Alexander’s Bridge has quite an urban focus, which I hadn’t anticipated, and the way that it develops puts me in mind more of Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence than what I had been awaiting from Cather. The plot does feel a little strained at times, and this may well be because she is trying to mimic other literature than to write her own, although equally it may reflect the tensions between the characters, echoed in the bridges that Alexander builds.
However, I do not agree that this makes Alexander’s Bridge a book filled with ‘youthful vanities and gaudy extravagances’ as Cather terms these early works of a writer; although the plot is somewhat lacking there are moments in the writing of quiet introspection and deep beauty. For all it feels as though she is writing someone else’s plot, she still does so from her own perspective and with her own perceptive vocabulary, allowing the emotions of her characters to shine through in a way that is instantly understandable. Take, for instance, her description of Bartley Alexander’s thoughts as he becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his perfect life: "His existence was becoming a network of great and little details. He had expected that success would bring him freedom and power; but it had brought him only power that was in itself another kind of restraint. He had always meant to keep his personal liberty at all costs… He happened to be a engaged in a work of public utility, but he was not willing to become a public man. He found himself living exactly the kind of life he had determined to escape. What, he asked himself, did he want with these genial honours and substantial comforts? Hardships and difficulties he had carried lightly; overwork had not exhausted him; but this dead calm of the middle life which confronted him — of that he was afraid. It was like being buried alive."
Moments like this one make the novel worth reading, despite the disappointing storyline. It shows a thoughtfulness, an insight and an awareness of humanity which hopefully develops into something really special in her later works. I can’t wait to continue on my journey through Cather.
franciscaviegas's review against another edition
4.0
Alexander's Bridge foi o primeiro romance publicado pela escritora Willa Cather.
Devo confessar que quando comecei a ler este livro, não achei que conseguiria lê-lo até ao fim. Não sei, ao certo, a partir de que momento fiquei presa na história.
Alexander's Bridge conta-nos a história de Bartley Alexander, um engenheiro civil, cuja especialidade é a construção de pontes. Bartley é casado com uma adorável senhora de nome Winifred. Tendo em conta a sua profissão, Bartley tem que se submeter a viagens constantes de negócios a Londres. Numa dessas viagens, reencontra Hilda Burgoyne, o seu amor dos tempos de estudante.
Ao longo da história, testemunhamos a incapacidade de Bartley de escolher entre a sua amada esposa, e a rapariga que se tornou sua amante e que consegue sempre fazê-lo sentir-se novo.
A história acaba tragicamente, tendo Bartley finalmente decidido deixar Winifred (ou pelo menos é o que é dado a entender) e escrito uma longa carta à mesma.
Não se sabe o que teria acontecido caso a morte de Bartley não tivesse acontecido, mas sabemos que todas as pessoas que conheceram Bartley não foram indiferentes à sua personalidade, tendo-se modificado bastante com ele e com a sua morte. Como Hilda diz no final do livro "Nothing can happen to one after Bartley".
Foi um livro tocante que me deu uma perspectiva diferente do adultério, e me fez ver que realmente as coisas não são a preto e branco. Existem vários tons de cinzento que precisam de ser analisados, e que causam dúvidas e obrigam a tomar decisões.
Devo confessar que quando comecei a ler este livro, não achei que conseguiria lê-lo até ao fim. Não sei, ao certo, a partir de que momento fiquei presa na história.
Alexander's Bridge conta-nos a história de Bartley Alexander, um engenheiro civil, cuja especialidade é a construção de pontes. Bartley é casado com uma adorável senhora de nome Winifred. Tendo em conta a sua profissão, Bartley tem que se submeter a viagens constantes de negócios a Londres. Numa dessas viagens, reencontra Hilda Burgoyne, o seu amor dos tempos de estudante.
Ao longo da história, testemunhamos a incapacidade de Bartley de escolher entre a sua amada esposa, e a rapariga que se tornou sua amante e que consegue sempre fazê-lo sentir-se novo.
A história acaba tragicamente, tendo Bartley finalmente decidido deixar Winifred (ou pelo menos é o que é dado a entender) e escrito uma longa carta à mesma.
Não se sabe o que teria acontecido caso a morte de Bartley não tivesse acontecido, mas sabemos que todas as pessoas que conheceram Bartley não foram indiferentes à sua personalidade, tendo-se modificado bastante com ele e com a sua morte. Como Hilda diz no final do livro "Nothing can happen to one after Bartley".
Foi um livro tocante que me deu uma perspectiva diferente do adultério, e me fez ver que realmente as coisas não são a preto e branco. Existem vários tons de cinzento que precisam de ser analisados, e que causam dúvidas e obrigam a tomar decisões.
infosifter's review against another edition
3.0
Bartley Alexander is an engineer who has become famous for the bridges he builds. He feels discontent and constrained by the demands of his high social position, so he pursues an affair with the woman he jilted when they were young so that he could marry a socially prominent lady. But it is not so much the woman he is chasing, rather it is his own lost youth. Alexander is not very sympathetic, but as the tension builds the reader is drawn into dreading his inevitable collapse.