The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

 

One of the categories on the Back to the Classics Challenge this year was to read a classic with an animal in the title. I didn't have anything left on my Classics Club list that I could double dip with, so I had to search for something that would work in my stacks. I ended up finding The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, which I picked up at a used bookstore a few years ago. This is the second book in her Great Plains Trilogy. The first book is O Pioneers!, which I actually read last year for this challenge. The books aren't really connected to each other though, so it's not like I had to read them in order. I liked O Pioneers! for the most part back when I originally read it, so I was hoping to have a good experience with this book too.

The plot follows Thea Kronborg, a young girl growing up in the small town on Moonstone, Colorado in the 1890s. The story mainly follows her development as a pianist and singer, starting from her childhood. From the outset, Thea is shown to be a different sort of girl. She's intelligent, very musically gifted, and has a mature temperament that sets her apart from her peers. She studies piano faithfully as a youngster and travels to Chicago to continue her learning under a well-known teacher. Under the new teacher's instruction, she shifts all of her focus to singing and begins building a career as an opera singer. The rest of the story follows her rise as an artist, focusing on all of the internal changes she goes through as she reaches her full potential.

This is a very character-driven novel, with almost all of the attention focused on the changes Thea undergoes as she rises to fame. Even when we visit the minds of other characters, all of their thoughts are centered around Thea and her various good qualities. As such, there aren't many big plot events, but the beauty and depth of Cather's writing makes up for it. It's not a boring story, even though it isn't about very much. Any person who has ever put their heart and soul into trying to achieve something will relate to Thea's struggles. There was a very strong thread of truth running throughout her journey. While I don't think that the sheer amount of people utterly bewitched by her was particularly realistic, a lot of the thoughts and emotions she felt about her growth process were. It was interesting to watch her climb from her humble origins to the top of her craft. I especially liked that things weren't all perfect as Thea's career starts to take off. Becoming more successful certainly enriches her life, but she loses some of the old bits of herself along the way. It's left for the reader to ponder the true worth of her rise. Thinking about that was interesting. How much of one's old life are should they sacrifice to move up in the world?

One thing that was a little off-putting about this novel was all the attention that older men gave to Thea in the first section of the story. In particular, the character of Doctor Archie came off very creepy. He was overly interested in hanging out with Thea when she was a pre-teen and he was an adult, married man. He took her on outings with him regularly, held her hand, and commented repeatedly on how she was better than other children her age. They often hung our together alone as if they were buddies. There was an especially awkward scene at the start of the novel in which he nurses her back to health from an illness. He glories in being alone with her during treatments and comments on the beauty of her naked body while he is applying a plaster to her chest. I think this is a case of the writing just aging poorly, as I'm sure Cather didn't mean to include anything untoward here. Doctor Archie is never physically inappropriate with Thea, and I believe that his thoughts and actions were only meant to show the reader how Thea was uniquely wonderful. It felt very weird reading it though. Towards the end of the novel, even Doctor Archie recognizes that he was probably too absorbed by her when she was a child. It was...a lot.

So ultimately, I don't have much to say beyond that. This was a very good novel, but it was a very quiet one as well, so it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Back when I read O, Pioneers!, I was loving it right up until the ending, which I thought was quite disappointing. In The Song of the Lark, I maintained a more consistent level of enjoyment, although I probably didn't like it quite as much. In any case, I think Cather is an excellent writer and this book was worth reading. The third entry in the Great Plains Trilogy is My Ántonia. I've heard really great things about that one and I imagine I will get to it one day.

Challenge Tally

Back to the Classics 2021 (A Classic with an Animal in the Title): 11/12

Total Books Read in 2021: 42