Excerpt from Alice Adams: Illustrated by Arthur William Brown In his youth Adams might have been less resentful of sounds such as these when they interfered with his night's sleep: even during an illness he might have taken some pride in them as proof of his citizenship in a live town; but at fifty - five he merely hated them because they kept him awake. They pressed on his nerves, as he put it; and so did almost everything else, for that matter. He heard the milk-wagon drive into the cross-street beneath his windows and ...
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Excerpt from Alice Adams: Illustrated by Arthur William Brown In his youth Adams might have been less resentful of sounds such as these when they interfered with his night's sleep: even during an illness he might have taken some pride in them as proof of his citizenship in a live town; but at fifty - five he merely hated them because they kept him awake. They pressed on his nerves, as he put it; and so did almost everything else, for that matter. He heard the milk-wagon drive into the cross-street beneath his windows and stop at each house. The milk man carried his jars round to the back porch, while the horse moved slowly ahead to the gate of the next customer and waited there. He's gone into Adams thought, following this progress. I hope it'll sour on 'em before breakfast. Delivered the Andersons'. Now he's getting out ours. Listen to the darn brute! What's he care who wants to sleep! His complaint was of the horse, who casually shifted weight with a clink of steel shoes on the worn brick pavement of the street, and then heartily shook himself in his harness, perhaps to dislodge a fly far ahead of its season. Light had just filmed the windows; and with that the first sparrow woke, chirped instantly, and roused neighbours in the trees of the small yard, including a loud-voiced robin. Vociferations began irregularly, but were soon unanimous. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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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).
