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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.
--This text refers to the
Digital
edition.
The Song of the Lark
The Song of the Lark,Willa Cather,Doris Grumbach,Mariner Books,0395345308,Chicago (Ill.),Children of clergy,Classics,Fiction,Literary,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Swedish Americans,Women singers,Fiction / Literary,Modern fiction
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