Alexander's Bridge

There is a pleasure in listening to the imagery of Alexander's Bridge that is similar to viewing a beautiful watercolor, as in the following description of a Boston street in late afternoon: “The sun sank rapidly; the silvery light had faded from the bare boughs and the watery twilight was setting in when Wilson at last walked down the hill, descending into cooler and cooler depths of grayish shadow.”

Against this delicate imagery, Willa Cather renders the tough inner terrain of a man in mid...