rbit Marion, their orderly intersections describe a grammar of images within and through which the multiple themes of the novel manifest themselves directly. On the surface, A Lost Lady is a story of social deterioration; at a deeper level, however, it examines the paradox that the highest virtues can be juxtaposed with the lowest vices (Daiches ). Partly through skillful manipulation of the narrative voice, every scene and every character is made to serve both the dramatic purposes of fiction and the moral purposes of social commentary.
Set in a small, rural Nebraska town, A Lost Lady describes Niel's acquaintance with Captain Forrester, a well known railroad builder, and his wife Marian. As a boy and later as a young man, Niel finds Marian Forrester irresistably attractive, and like most men, he admires Captain Forrester for his industry, grace and honor. As he grows up, Niel's life becomes entwined with the lives of the Forresters. Niel observes Captain Forrester's financial decline, illness and death. He also observes Mrs. Forrester's decline in her attempt to accommodate to her changing fortunes. His friendship with the couple and his infatuation with Marian lead Niel to the discovery that, seemingly a proper lady through and through, Marian is actually an unfaithful wife. Niel's revulsion at his discovery, based partly on a constricted moral order, contrasts with Captain Forrester's acceptance of the infidelity of a wife twenty five years his junior and with Mrs. Forrester's capacity to subordinate moral contradictions to the grander requirements of her role.
The narrative style of the novel is carefully designed as a setting for these conflicts of value. The novel was originally written using Niel as a first person narrator, a device nearly identical to the one Cather employed in My Antonia. The final product, written in the third person, largely adopts Niel's limited perspective but makes occasio...