Booth Tarkington

Series

Growth Trilogy volume 2
American century
Modern Library classics

Formats

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Summary

The lives and changing fortunes of three generations of a once-powerful and socially prominent family are chronicled in this vivid tale of the corrupting influence of greed and materialism. As the rapidly turning wheels of industry and commerce overtake old ways in th eearly twentieth century and change the definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty, the prominence and prestige of the Amberson family irreversibly changes as well.

2) Alice Adams

Author

Series

Bantam classic
Belt Revivals

Formats

Summary

"In post-World War I America, Alice Adams, a small-town girl with big ambitions, welcomes the attention of Arthur Russell, a handsome eligible bachelor from the upper echelons of society. Alice and her famiy embark on a delicate game of pretense to conceal their desperate financial position and lower social standing. As she oscillates between fantasy and reality, Tarkington reveals Alice's inner turmoil and the shame, longing, and desperation that...

3) Penrod

Author

Series

Penrod volume 1
Library of Indiana classics
Penguin classics

Formats

Summary

Penrod sat morosely upon the back fence and gazed with envy at Duke, his wistful dog. A bitter soul dominated the various curved and angular surfaces known by a careless world as the face of Penrod Schofield. Except in solitude, that face was almost always cryptic and emotionless; for Penrod had come into his twelfth year wearing an expression carefully trained to be inscrutable. Since the world was sure to misunderstand everything, mere defensive...

4) The gentleman from Indiana

Author

Formats

Summary

Among only three other novelists to have won the Pulitzer Prize more than once, Tarkington was one of the greatest authors of the 1910s and 1920s who helped usher in Indiana's Golden Age of literature. His books saw numerous reprintings and were often prize-winning bestsellers, with many being for film and other media. Originally published in 1899, "The Gentleman from Indiana" is Tarkington's first novel and explores the subject of corrupt law making,...

5) Penrod and Sam

Author

Series

Penrod

Formats

Summary

"During the daylight hours of several autumn Saturdays there had been severe outbreaks of cavalry in the Schofield neighbourhood. The sabres were of wood; the steeds were imaginary, and both were employed in a game." "Penrod and Sam" (1916) is the sequel to "Penrod" (1914). Set before World War One, it focuses on Penrod Schofield and his best friend Sam Williams as they go on hilarious adventures.

6) The guest of Quesnay

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Formats

Summary

There are old Parisians who will tell you pompously that the boulevards, like the political cafes, have ceased to exist, but this means only that the boulevards no longer gossip of Louis Napoleon, the Return of the Bourbons, or of General Boulanger, for these highways are always too busily stirring with present movements not to be forgetful of their yesterdays. In the shade of the buildings and awnings, the loungers, the lookers-on in Paris, the audience...

7) The flirt

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Formats

Summary

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Booth Tarkington has an amazingly deft touch with characterization, and the tense relationship between town flirt Cora Madison and her quieter sister Laura is so compelling that the story has been the basis for a number of filmed versions. As with Tarkington's later novel The Magnificent Ambersons, The Flirt is a thoroughly entertaining portrait of a dysfunctional but ultimately loving family.

8) The beautiful lady

Author

Formats

Summary

Is there something about aesthetic beauty that can soothe the soul of even the most troubled individual? That's the question at the center of Booth Tarkington's eminently entertaining short novel The Beautiful Lady. In the story, a down-on-his-luck Italian who is barely scraping by in Paris has his whole life turned upside down by a chance encounter with the enchanting temptress referred to in the book's title.

9) Monsieur Beaucaire

Author

Formats

Summary

Throughout history, bit players on the sidelines have somehow become embroiled in the most notorious scandals, finding themselves wrapped up in intrigue with far-reaching consequences they could never have imagined. That's exactly what happens to the eponymous protagonist of Booth Tarkington's novel, Monsieur Beaucaire. This humble barber to the French ambassador to England finds himself at the center of a scandalous love triangle. Will

...

10) Booth Tarkington: novels & stories

Author

Series

Library of America volume 319

Summary

"Here are three indispensable works from the Pulitzer Prize-winning laureate of the American heartland, including the novels that inspired a classic film by Orson Welles and an Oscar-nominated performance by Katharine Hepburn. The Magnificent Ambersons depicts the fall from grace of George Minafer, scion of the once-unassailable Amberson family whose wealth and grandeur are in precipitous decline. Alice Adams, perhaps Booth Tarkington's greatest work,...

11) Image of Josephine

Author

12) Women

Author

13) Rumbin galleries

Author

14) Presenting Lily Mars

Author

15) The world does move

Author

16) Some old portraits: a book about art and human beings

Author

Series

Essay index reprint

17) Your amiable uncle: letters to his nephews

Author

18) Monsieur Beaucaire: and The beautiful lady, His own people

Author

19) Seventeen

Author

Summary

"Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William" is a 1917 novel about 17-year-old William Sylvanus Baxter. It takes place in the Midwest just before World War I and satirises first love. "Seventeen" was first published in part in the Metropolitan Magazine, before coming out as a collected volume, and becoming a bestselling novel in the United States.

20) The midlander

Author

Series

Growth Trilogy volume 3

Summary