14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
He builds bridges that must never fall, but his own life carries a strain he cannot settle.
Bartley Alexander has a respected name, a gracious Boston home and a great engineering project in Canada. His wife, Winifred, trusts him. Yet success leaves him restless. When his former teacher, Professor Lucius Wilson, visits, he senses a change in the man whose career he follows with pride.
In London, actress Hilda Burgoyne brings Bartley close to memories of youth and freedom. Between Boston and London, he feels pulled toward two different selves. Willa Cather’s brief first novel explores marriage, ambition and divided loyalties, asking what happens when the life a man builds no longer holds all his desires.
What you’ll discover
- A builder under strain Follow a successful engineer whose private unrest unsettles the ordered life he seems to command.
- Trust within a marriage Meet Winifred, whose calm intelligence and trust give Bartley’s divided loyalties their quiet emotional weight.
- The pull of youth Discover Hilda, a lively, independent actress bound up with Bartley’s memories of a freer self.
- Success with a cost Explore the distance between youthful hopes and the person ambition helps a man become.
- Pressure beneath careful manners Enter drawing rooms where gracious surfaces conceal unrest, in a story kept brief and tightly shaped.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy quiet, finely drawn novels about marriage, ambition and the pull of the past, where inner lives matter more than loud events.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Success hides a quiet strain
- An old love returns onstage
- Achievement has not brought freedom
- Their reunion crosses a line
- His resolve weakens between two homes
- Each life spoils the other
- Neither woman is merely a prize
- Images reveal the weight people bear
- Longing and guilt live together
Who’s who
- Bartley AlexanderA Boston bridge builder, strong and successful, who feels his life closing in and longs to recover the free young man he once was.
- Winifred AlexanderBartley's tall, proud, musical wife, who loves him deeply and has chosen to follow wherever his restless paths lead.
- Hilda BurgoyneA gifted Irish actress in London who loved Bartley as a young woman and has built her own career and independence since.
- Professor Lucius WilsonBartley's old teacher, a thoughtful philosopher who watches the Alexanders closely and once feared a crack in his student's success.
- Hugh MacConnellA gruff, kind playwright who writes parts for Hilda and has long hoped she might love him.
- Maurice MainhallA talkative London gossip and author who knows everyone and loves a story, true or not.
- Philip HortonA young assistant engineer on the Moorlock Bridge who looks up to Bartley and is anxious to do right.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook opens when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Alexander's Bridge in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Alexander's Bridge
by Willa Cather · 1912
A Boston bridge builder feels a second man growing inside him, and a London actress waits across the sea.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
Learn a language with medium classicsSpanishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseEnglishHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeRenews every year · Cancel anytimeHow it works
- Read, large type too
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
“It seems a man is meant to live only one life in this world.”
In short
What happens to a man who has won everything he set out to win, and still feels a second self growing inside him? Bartley Alexander is a Boston engineer who has built ten great bridges.
Alexander's Bridge at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 55 min1 h 30 min fast, 2 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 27,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1912by Willa Cather
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A visitor sees a perfect Boston home
Professor Lucius Wilson arrives in Boston on a bright April afternoon. He teaches philosophy at a Western university, and he has come to visit an old student. He walks down Chestnut Street toward the river, enjoying the smell of wood smoke and river salt.
Winifred Alexander pours tea in a wide brown library that looks out on a garden and the river. Wilson feels completely at ease. She tells him that people who knew Bartley as a boy always speak as if he were a stranger, and she would like to see him through Wilson's memory.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1912
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Cather, Willa. Alexander's Bridge. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/alexanders-bridge.
Cather, W. (2026). Alexander's bridge. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/alexanders-bridge (Original work published 1912)
Cather, Willa. Alexander's Bridge. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/alexanders-bridge.
@book{cather2026alexanders,
author = {Cather, Willa},
title = {Alexander's Bridge},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/alexanders-bridge},
note = {First published 1912}
}
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every eBookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Alexander's Bridge
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Alexander's Bridge about?
It follows Bartley Alexander, a successful Boston bridge builder with a devoted wife, who meets his former love Hilda Burgoyne in London and feels his life splitting in two. Cather uses his bridges as an image of strain and balance.
Who is Hilda Burgoyne in Alexander's Bridge?
Hilda is a gifted Irish actress in London whom Bartley loved when they were young and poor in Paris. She has become a star in Hugh MacConnell's comedies and now lives independently near Bedford Square.
Is Alexander's Bridge a true story and when was it written?
It is fiction, Willa Cather's first novel, published in 1912. Cather invents Bartley, Winifred and Hilda, though she draws on the real world of engineers, theaters and city life in Boston and London at the time.
The author
Willa Cather
1873–1947 · American novelist
Willa Cather was an American novelist celebrated for her portraits of prairie life on the Great Plains. My Ántonia, her 1918 story of a Bohemian immigrant girl in Nebraska, remains one of the most beloved American novels of its era.
“It seems a man is meant to live only one life in this world.”
More by Willa Cather
See all their booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
