Alexander's Bridge

Infobox Book |
name = Alexander's Bridge
title_orig =
translator =




author = Willa Cather
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
release_date = 1912
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Alexander's Bridge" is the first novel by American author Willa Cather. First published in 1912, it was re-released with an author's preface in 1922. It also ran as a serial in McClure's, giving Cather some free time from her work for that magazine [Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxiv] .

Plot introduction

Bartley Alexander is a construction engineer and world-renowned builder of bridges going through what's known today (but not in 1912) as a mid-life crisis. Although married to his wife Winifred, Bartley resumes his acquaintance with a former lover, Hilda Burgoyne, in London. The affair proves to gnaw at Bartley's sense of propriety and honor.

Plot summary

Professor Wilson arrives at the Alexanders's house in Boston, after Mr Alexander has talked him into attending a Congress of Psychologists there. He is greeted by Mrs Alexander; later her husband comes home and they have a talk; his wife plays the piano for them. The next day, she tells him how she met her husband through her aunt.

In London, Bartley Alexander meets with Maurice Mainhall to see a play starring Hilda Burgoyne, an erstwhile lover of his. Back in his hotel room, he thinks back to how he broke up with her in a letter after he met Winifred in Canada. Later, he walks to her house to see where she lives and reminisces about his youth. At a party at Lady Warford's, he talks to her after many years apart and she says she has been reading in the newspapers about his success with bridges in Japan and Canada. Later, he goes to another party also held by Lady Warford. The following Thursday, he takes Hilda to dinner and they reminisce about Madame Anger and Angel, and a beggar they had seen in the street once. He asks her to sing for him and she asks if he will let her love him.

On Christmas Eve, the Alexanders are getting ready for the Christmas dinner, and Bartley tells Wilson he is in trouble with the bridge in Canada. Later, he gives him wife pearl earrings. On New Year's Day, Alexander is getting ready to leave for London again. Later, on the ship, he battles with sharp gales and goes into a bar, where he gambles at bridge. Once in London, Bartley visits Hilda and tells her he cannot go on having two relationships; she must forget about him and leave him alone. She is distressed. The day before he is due to return to America however, he takes her out to dinner.

Later, Hugh MacConnell walks Hilda back to her house on a foggy day, and she says she isn't attracted to him because they are just close friends. Back in her house, she receives a letter from Bartley, saying he is going mad away from her. This prompts her to visit him in America to tell him she will marry another man and thence be bound to someone else; he doesn't like the idea.

Sometime later, Bartley is on his way to Canada to fix his bridge there; because Philip Horton was remiss, the bridge crumbles down and most workers drown. Bartley is rescued the next day, and taken to Philip's house. Winifred comes back to look after the dead body. Finally, Wilson visits Hilda. The latter expresses her jealousy over Winifred, but Wilson reminds her that she will not live again, she will be haunted by her husband's death. Hilda concludes that she will be too.

Characters

*Professor Lucius Wilson, a Professor of Philosophy. He was a student in Boston and now lectures in a Western university.
*Mrs Winifred Alexander
*Mr Bartley Alexander, a bridge builder.
*Thomas, the Alexanders's servant.
*MacKeller, a Scottish engineer who brought Bartley from London to Quebec when he was younger. He was a friend of Eleanor Pemberton.
*Mrs Eleanor Pemberton, Winifred's aunt.
*Maurice Mainhall, a popular man amongst writers.
*Hugh MacConnell, a playwright.
*Florence Merrill
*Cyril Henderson
*Hilda Burgoyne, Winifred's erstwhile lover with whom he resumes an affair. She is an actress.
*Irene Burgoyne, a member of Hilda's family.
*Sir Harry Towne
*Lord Westmere
*Lady Dowle
*Lady Westmere
*Lady Warford
*Lady Kildare, an Irish philanthropist.
*Robert Owen, Lady Kildare's nephew.
*Sarah Frost, a novelist.
*Mr Frost, Sarah Frost's husband.
*Marie, a French girl.
*Madame Anger
*Angel, Madame Anger's servant, who was from Britanny and eventually left to start affairs with soldiers.
*Mrs Hastings
*Angora
*Philip Horton. He works on bridges with Bartley.

Allusions to other works

*Music is mentioned with Robert Schumann's "Carnaval" and Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore".
*Literature is mentioned with William Shakespeare's "Sonnets" and Ernest Dowson.

Allusions to actual history

It has been argued that the story might have been prompted by the collapse of the Quebec bridge on August 29, 1907 [Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xli] .

References

External links

*gutenberg|no=94|name=Alexander's Bridge
* [http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/examples/servlet/transform/tamino/Library/cather?&_xmlsrc=http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/cather/writings/cat.0001/cat.0001.xml&_xslsrc=http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/cather/xslt/cather.xsl "First Edition"] at the [http://cather.unl.edu "Willa Cather Archive"]