Bøger af Booth Tarkington

It tells the story of a wealthy family and their decline in society during the late 19th century as America underwent significant industrial and societal changes.

Alice Adams is Booth Tarkington¿s second novel to win a Pulitzer Prize, just three years after his novel The Magnificent Ambersons won it. The novel tells the story of Alice, a Midwestern girl who grows up in a lower-middle-class family just after World War I. Alice meets a wealthy young man and tries to win his affection, despite her lower-class upbringing.Alice Adams was twice adapted for film, with the second adaptation starring Katherine Hepburn and earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The Magnificent Ambersons, winner of the 1919 Pulitzer prize, is considered by many to be Booth Tarkington¿s finest novel and an American classic. The story is set in the Midwest, where George, the spoiled and oblivious scion of an old-money family, must cope with their waning fortunes and the rise of industry barons in the automobile age.George¿s antiheroic struggles with modernity encapsulate a greater theme of change and renewal¿specifically, the very American notion of a small community exploding into a dark and dirty city virtually overnight by virtue of industrial ¿progress.¿ Tarkington¿s nuanced portrayal of the often-unlikable Amberson family and his paradoxical framing of progress as a destroyer of family, community, and environment, make The Magnificent Ambersons a fascinating and forward-thinking novel¿certainly one with a permanent place in the American social canon. Despite the often heavy themes, Tarkington¿s prose remains uniquely witty, charming, and brisk.The novel is the second in Tarkington¿s Growth trilogy of novels, and has been adapted several times for radio, film, and television, including a 1942 Orson Welles adaptation that many consider one of the finest American films ever made.

Bibbs is the dreamy, sensitive son of Mr. Sheridan, a cigar-chomping, larger-than-life businessman in the turn-of-the-century American Midwest. Sheridan made his fortune in the rapid industrialization that was overtaking the small towns and cities of America, but Bibbs¿named so ¿mainly through lack of imagination on his mother¿s part¿¿is too sickly to help his father in Sheridan¿s relentless quest for ¿Bigness.¿The Sheridan family moves to a house next door to the old-money Vertrees family, whose fortunes have declined precipitously in this new eräs thirst for industry. Bibbs makes fast friends with Mary, Vertrees¿ daughter; but as he tries to make a life for himself as a poet and writer, away from the cutthroat world of business, he must face off against the relentless drum of money, growth, and Bigness that has consumed American small-town life.The Turmoil is the first book in Tarkington¿s Growth trilogy, a series that explores the destruction of traditional small-town America in favor of industrialization, pollution, automobiles, overcrowding, and suburbia. Tarkington makes no secret of his opinion on the matter: the trilogy is filled with acrid smoke, towering buildings crammed with people, noise and deadly accidents caused by brand-new cars, brutal working conditions, and a yearning for the clean, bright, slow, dignified days of yore.The book was made in to two silent films just eight years apart from each other. Its sequel, The Magnificent Ambersons, went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1919.

National Avenue, originally titled The Midlander, is Booth Tarkington¿s final entry in his Growth Trilogy. Like the previous entries in the series, National Avenue addresses the rapid industrialization of small-town America at the turn of the century, and the socioeconomic changes that such change brings with it.Dan Oliphant and his brother Harlan are the children of a wealthy small-town businessman. Harlan is a traditional upper-class man¿affecting an accent, dressing for dinner, and contemplating beauty and culture¿while Dan is boisterous and lively, eager to do big things. Dan sees the rise of industry in Americäs east as a harbinger for his own Midwestern town, and sets his mind on building an industrial suburb, Ornaby Addition, next to his city¿s downtown.Dan¿s idea is met with scorn and mockery from not only his family, but also his fellow townspeople. Dan persists nonetheless, and soon the town must contend with his dream becoming a reality: noisy cars, smoky factories, huge, unappealing buildings, and the destruction of nature and the environment become the new normal as Dan¿s industrial dream is realized.Where The Turmoil focuses on industrialization¿s effect on art and culture, and The Magnificent Ambersons focuses on industry¿s destruction of family and of small-town life, National Avenue focuses on the men and women who actually bring that change about. Dan is portrayed sympathetically, but Tarkington makes it clear that his dreams and choices lead to a deeply unhappy family life and the ruination of the land around him. But can Dan really be faulted for his dream, or is industry inevitable, and inevitably destructive?

The Midlander, has been considered important throughout human history. In an effort to ensure that this work is never lost, we have taken steps to secure its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for both current and future generations. This complete book has been retyped, redesigned, and reformatted. Since these books are not scans of the authors' original publications, the text is readable and clear.

George Amberson Minafer is a terrible brat. Believing that his family name and fortune entitles him to a lifetime of prestige, he is oblivious to the lives of others and the changing ways of the world. Considered to be Booth Tarkington¿s best novel, The Magnificent Ambersons is a harrowing look at a family in decline in the wake of the Industrial Age.

Georgie Bassett was a unique young man. He was unaware of it until he overheard his mother discussing it with two of his aunts one day. The guys came to the conclusion that the weather is unjust. All during the week, there had been pleasant breezes and clear skies, but on Saturday, around breakfast, the dome of heaven completely filled with a dark mist. Mrs. Schofield was returning from a three-day trip to see her sister in Dayton, Illinois when she lost herself in a daydream on the train. In her reflective mind, she replayed several memory plays, and Penrod appeared in each one as a main character or star. This winter, the Schofields went without a cat, but the Williams' yard had a lovely white cat. Penrod slouched down in the pew, leaning one side and resting his legs on the back of the pew in front. As a result, those seated behind only saw a tuft of hair and one bored ear of him. They sat down in the large dining room quietly enough, but their brazen looks caused them to purposefully bump into their neighbors and jostle one another as they did so. The slight explosion of paper "crackers" that released fantastical headwear brought the reflection to a close.

The second book of his Growth trilogy, The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, was published in 1918. It was made into the 1925 silent picture Pampered Youth after winning the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Orson Welles wrote and directed the movie that was released in 1942. A television adaptation based on Welles' screenplay debuted much later, in 2002. The rise of industrial tycoons and other new money families, who gain influence not through family names but by "doing things," contrasts with the demise of the Ambersons. At the turn of the century, the titular family is the wealthiest and most influential in the community. The patriarch's grandson, George Amberson Minafer, is pampered by his mother, Isabel. George falls in love with Lucy Morgan, a young but astute debutante, despite his conceit, self-assurance, and complete ignorance of the lives of others. George is not aware of the long relationship that exists between Lucy's father and his mother. Industry prospers as the village develops into a city, the Ambersons' fame and fortune decline, and the Morgans, due to Lucy's foresightful father, prosper. Life as George knows it ends when he thwarts his widowed mother's developing feelings for Lucy's father.