Song of the Lark

The daughter of a Swedish minister growing up in Colorado, Thea Kronborg's musical talent sets her apart from her contemporaries. Driven by her determination to satisfy her artistic impulse, she moves to Chicago where she falls in love with a wealthy married man. The novel follows Thea's growth from provincial midwesterner to acclaimed international opera singer. Her ability to resolve the tensions between her personal and professional lives and to communicate through her art makes her an unusual and thoroughly modern heroine.
From one of the foremost 20th-century novelists, a portrait of a formidable woman who defies the limitations set on women of her time and social station to become an international opera star. This coming-of-age novel, important for the issues of gender and class that it explores, is one of Cather's most lyrical and popular.