| Text Source: |  |
| Description: | Not available |
| Table of Contents: | Not available |
Customer Review: A Classic Early 20th Century Novel
I think Tarkington's "Ambersons" is the first great Post-WWI American novel. Written in 1918, the novel chronicles the transition of the midwestern American postwar society from the contol of the robber baron gentry to industrialized, modern consumerism-- all personified in the precipitous decline of the Ambersons and their world of priveledge and social status.
With a surprisingly dry and sophisticated sense of cynicism, Tarkington's prose shows the beginnings of the style of Sinclair Lewis, Hemmingway, and Steinbeck that became ascendant in the period after the war.
Customer Review: OK
I read this book because it was on the Modern Library's Top 100. I honestly thought it was going to be boring, but after getting through the beginning (which I thought was very slow) I found it to be entertaining. It doesn't get the best rating from me however, because it was too much like a soap opera. It reminds me of an older and cleaner version of the type of novels you buy at the grocery store. It didn't leave me in awe with it's brilliance, and that's the type of book I rate the highest. It's a good book for people that want to escape, but not actually think or gain new intelligence. I would definitely recommend it to my Mamaw, who does nothing but read Dean Koontz and cheesy romance novels.
Customer Review: Better than Marquand
Assuming you have read the synopsis and a few other reviews, I thought a comparative review might serve as a change of pace. I purchased this book some time ago after The Atlantic ran a few reviews for early 20th century `transformation' novels slowly reclaiming their place in American Literature. Included in that list were The Late George Apley, H.M. Pullham Esquire (both by John P. Marquand), Alice Adams, and The Magnificent Ambersons (both by Booth Tarkington). Booth Tarkington had the added honor of an article in the New Yorker discussing his merits (structure and theme) and his demerits (awkward prose) during his `rediscovery.'
Each of these books takes as its theme the cultural transformation of America in the early 20th century (less so Alice Adams), which I found appealing given what I consider to be a cultural transformation currently taking place. I can only hope I am not becoming as out-of-touch as the characters in these novels when I question society's direction. And if I am, I hope I am more George Apley than Georgie Minafer.
I enjoyed both Marquand novels for their directness and humor. While The Magnificent Ambersons lacks these qualities (and their clean prose), its net effect is much more profound in my mind. The Marquand novels function as well-crafted time capsules rather than emotional appeals to the necessity of change. In today's world, it is easy to dismiss the codgerly annoyance and trifling social involvements of George Apley as the consequence of an East Coast aristocracy in decline. It is similarly easy to dismiss the honor-bound desperation and cognitive dissonance of Harry Pulham as the follow-on effects of Apley's generation, passed on to children faced with the Great War and the Great Depression. However, it is not easy to dismiss Georgie Minifer's behavior and ultimate `comeuppance.' The reason is simple - his character is so completely worthless and needlessly arrogant that it is impossible not to HATE this character. It is impossible not to beg for his `comeuppance.' Most frustratingly, by story's end it is difficult not to feel sorry for his character and hope that a better tomorrow waits him...the reader becines guilty of the very same motherly coddling which created Georgie's faults in the first place.
As opposed to the Marquand Man who has simply been passed by a newer generation, here we have someone actually IN the new generation who scornfully rejects every opportunity to change. In the end, he is literally run over by his town's agent of change while pining for his symbol of the way things used to be. Most like the Marquand Man, he is actually returned to the bosom of the old world by simple virtue of being unable to function in the new. Does he deserve forgiveness simply for asking? Maybe. Does he deserve a second chance because he forces himself to adopt the bedrock principles which initially provided his family's fortune (hard work and respect for family)? Possibly. Is it fair to Apley and Pulham to reward a spoiled brat for refusing to give in? I don't think so.
However, this is the point of comparison - it is the emotional impact of this novel that sets it above other transitional works in the same vein. Tarkington has captured one of the few truths of the human experience - some people never change. Tarkington has also created a much more effective message - change or fall into oblivion in spite of your most violent protests. This is the transition both Tarkington and Marquand were witnessing, yet Tarkington seems to have better anticipated impact. America does not bypass the elites because their time has passed, it bears down with the entire weight of its populace on those unwilling to innovate, work hard, and cast off conceits falsely placed in the achievements of their forebears.
Product Description
Set in Midwest America in the early twentieth century, this bestselling novel introduces the extravagantly rich Ambersons, whose only real problem is that George Amberson Minafer-the spoiled grandson of the family patriarch-refuses to acknowledge the rising wealth and prestige of business tycoons, industrialists, and real-estate developers. Rather than join the modern age, George insists on remaining a "gentleman." But his town soon becomes a city, and the family palace becomes surrounded by industry, destroying the elegant, cloistered lifestyle enjoyed by the family in years gone by. This brilliant portrayal of social change in America is a timeless literary masterpiece. Newly designed and typeset for easy reading by Boomer Books.
Customer Review: Two-hundred and fifty-six pages of who-gives-a-damn...
The Magnificent Ambersons is a well-written bad book. And by bad, I mean APPALLING. Crap. The plot had me shaking my head, grimacing, leafing ahead, and putting the book down repeatedly. I could only manage thirty pages at a time before I had to leave off reading, cleanse my mental palate, and then resume the slog after a lengthy interval.
The strange thing is that Booth Tarkington was a good writer. He had all the technical chops you could want--along with a definite talent for composing a phrase. But the godforsaken PLOT--Jesus. The characters are ciphers. You hate the protagonist, George Minafer, who is a complete caricature, and yet you have to spend time with him and his boring, pointless family. Genteel folk sliding into poverty. Even in 1918 that was hackneyed.
There are clumsy and abrupt shifts in time, giving the narrative a disjointed aspect, along with ridiculous examples of factitious behavior. George Minafer may as well have marionette strings emanating from his shoulders. I didn't care whether he lived, died, or grew mushrooms from his crack. Deaths occurred when convenient, and...gah!
Don't read this book, and if you're assigned it, get the CliffsNotes. Life is too short. (The MLA says this is the hundredth best novel of the 20th Century--which, if you put any stock into the MLA, is f'ing PATHETIC.)
Customer Review: An American Classic
The winner of a 1919 Pulitzer Prize, the second book in the Growth Trilogy is an American classic of the rise and fall of an aristocratic family whose acquired wealth means nothing in a new age of new money.
Set in a fictional Mid-Western town, author Booth Tarkington chronicles the Amberson Family Dynasty and how things fall apart slowly, brick-by-brick, as society swiftly leaps forward into the industrial age, with a new generation of tycoons on the move and who have a wealth of ideas to change the world. The closing scene is a harsh reminder on how the famous from one generation can be forgotten quickly, since history is written in the present, with eyes fixed to the future.
It is truly an American story and one of the finest American novels ever written.
Book Categories:
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / General / Classics
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Genre Fiction / Family Saga
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Genre Fiction / Historical
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Classics
Books / Refinements / Binding (binding) / Paperback
Books / Refinements / Format (feature_browse-bin) / Printed Books
|
Pick of the Day
Lists of Interest
Modern Library 100 Best Novels:
In 1998, Modern Library picked the top 100 Novels of the century. This list contains all of the bo
...
Webmaster's Favourites:
These are my selections, humbly presented as books that I particularly enjoyed.
Other ways of browsing
|
