Complete and unabridged paperback edition. Alice Adams is a 1921 novel by Booth Tarkington that received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. The narrative centers on the character of a young woman (the eponymous Alice Adams) who aspires to climb the social ladder and win the affections of a wealthy young man named Arthur Russell. The story is set in a lower-middle-class household in an unnamed town in the Midwest shortly after World War I. Description from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ...
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Complete and unabridged paperback edition. Alice Adams is a 1921 novel by Booth Tarkington that received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. The narrative centers on the character of a young woman (the eponymous Alice Adams) who aspires to climb the social ladder and win the affections of a wealthy young man named Arthur Russell. The story is set in a lower-middle-class household in an unnamed town in the Midwest shortly after World War I. Description from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Add this copy of Alice Adams to cart. $27.01, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Independently published.
Tarkington writes about small town Indiana in the early Twentieth Century better than anyone. Alice Adams is an ambitious social climber, but coming from a poor family it's a hard climb. A handsome young man of 'good quality' is attracted to Alice, but she can't be herself. She must make up stories to put her and her family in a better light. When her father's business venture develops into a scandal, she sees the error of her ways and faces her future with her head held high while remaining loyal to her family. This was a very enjoyable read...
GypsyLee
Jun 25, 2009
An underrated classic-
An underrated classic, pure Americana- warts and all. Proof yet again that a good contemporary novel beats a ?historical? one any day. The kind of book you?ll want to have on your shelf, to read again.
Tarkington was very much a product of his time, and his language reflects this. Translation: the novel contains racist terms and characterizations which, interestingly enough, only serve to reinforce its original premise: the ugliness of the ?class system? of early 20th century America, and the utter futility of one outsider?s struggle to bluff her way into its upper stratum. Blind to her own prejudices, the heroine is painfully sensitive to the treatment she receives as an outsider; contrast this with her brother, far more egalitarian in his associations, yet so discouraged by hisown clear-sightedness that he makes a classic error. The African-Americans in the story provide a resonant counterpoint: despite the ?minstrelization? of their characters, they have the collective effect of a Greek chorus, which I believe was the author?s intention, though I am not one of those who claim he did not himself buy into the bigotries he depicted. Put another way, Yes: Tarkington did in fact intend these characters to be ?clownish?; to have the effect (collectively) without the eerie dignity (individually or otherwise) of the classical Greek chorus.
Time, in my opinion, has had the last laugh.
My advice: hold your nose (over spots) and read it anyway. If you haven?t seen the 1935 Hollywood (-ending) version with Katherine Hepburn ? don?t bother (misses the point).
