They were a very pale blue, a color scarcely stronger than wood smoke, and the sunset had left bright streaks in the snow-filled gorges. The great toothed wall behind which the sun had gone down now separated into four distinct ranges, one behind the other. They were now about thirty miles from Denver, and the mountains looked very near. This is from early in the book, when Thea as a young girl is traveling to Denver by train with her friend Ray Kennedy, who works on the railroad. Heart stopping descriptions of Colorado-from the eastern plains to the Front Range, from the light in Denver in January, to the cool magic of the stars on the plains, to the arid beauty of the landscape, to the ever-present fringe of mountains on the horizon. There is so much to love about this book.let me count the ways.ġ. Song of the Lark - painting by Jules Breton It is the story of Thea Kronberg, one of many children of Swedish immigrants, who is blessed with not only tremendous musical talent but also a string of friends and mentors who enable her to reach her potential.Īt first, Thea sets out to be a pianist, and studies dutifully and advances rapidly, but her real destiny is to become an opera diva who gravitates to Wagnerian roles. Fortunately, I learned that Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark is set in the north east corner of Colorado, and that sealed the deal. Novels set in Colorado are not all that common, and I could only come up with ones that are not yet 50 years old - Centennial, The Shining, Kent Haruf's eastern plains stories, a variety of mysteries (cozy and otherwise), but no real classics.

Since I am the definition of a homebody, I needed to find a book set in Colorado as I have never lived anywhere else. This year's Back to the Classics challenge has a category for books set in a place you've lived.

Willa cather the song of the