It seemed a solemn moment, seemed to knock at the door of Fate; behind which all days, happy and otherwise, were hidden.

Cather wields the most delicate of the written word—she stands solidly on the good side between that fine balance of poetic narration and overwritten attempts at such. Her writing is so fragile and precise that it embodies the language of the main character, the lady of the title, Mrs. Forrester. The words are Cather's, but the power in them is Mrs. Forrester's.

I cannot praise the writing style enough—it was fragrant, smooth, and wispy. Everything felt perfect and touched, handled and directed. The brilliance in the writing can be shown through the ease with which it can be read, understood, and felt. There was such a complexity to the story that worked so brilliantly against the simple and sophisticated writing style.

"Lilies that fester," he muttered, "lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."

I was reminded, early on as I read this, of [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480580717s/4671.jpg|245494] by [a:F. Scott Fitzgerald|3190|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427040571p2/3190.jpg]. There was that feeling of wistfulness to Mrs. Forrester and that undeniable charm about her that reminded me of Daisy Buchanan, but better, improved, and more fleshed out. There was also something in Niel Herbert that spoke strongly of Nick Carraway. Again, though, I found I preferred Cather's characters and the story in which they swim. Then, I noticed in the Wikipedia article for A Lost Lady, that there was an entry that stated (without a citation) that Fitzgerald drew great inspiration from Cather's Mrs. Forrester for his own Daisy. So, after very little research, I discovered a whole current of references to this shared similarity. Apparently, Cather herself even wrote to Fitzgerald about that very thing, at first citing something bordering on plagiarism, and then just crediting Fitzgerald with acknowledging that same nameless quality that charming women of that kind share.

Whatever the connection, it seems to exist, and not just in my mind. Regardless, I found A Lost Lady to be a rarity of a book—I adored it. This is now a favorite and I plan on adding a hardcopy to my personal library.