Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Signet Classics (1961), Paperback, 232 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: The winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize in literature and the subject of several well-received film adaptations, Alice Adams is regarded as one of Booth Tarkington's most accomplished novels. The tale follows the exploits of the plucky young protagonist, who disregards her family's low social standing and pursues love with the well-heeled young man of her dreams..
User reviews
LibraryThing member Joycepa
Alice Adams is a morality tale about a socially ambitious young woman and her family in a Midwestern city. The family is middle-class, and sliding down in the economic scale. The father has worked in the same job for 20 years and is content. The mother, ambitious for her children, bitterly blames
Alice pours nearly all her energy into making a good “catch”. Quite popular a few years ago, the gentleman callers have vanished. Still, she practices gestures and facial expressions in front of the mirror, works hard at making over clothes (actually, dictating directions to her mother) to keep fashionable, spending all she can on accessories and clothes. She visits a well-to-do friend and basically worms her way into receiving invitations to society events.
Her brother Walter is a bitter young man who hates the situation in which he finds himself, loathes the ‘swells’ that Alice courts so assiduously, and hangs around with a crowd that his mother in particular finds appalling.
A new young man comes to town and is attracted to Alice, who goes all out to land him. But as we see increasingly in her dialogue with him, she misrepresents herself and her family and is terrified of what he will find out from his well-connected society relations.
Meanwhile, her father, goaded beyond endurance by the nagging mother, decides to leave the firm for which he has worked and start a glue factory, using a formula that can be rightly said to belong to his former employer.
The book has a double climax: a dinner party given by the mother for Alice’s young man and the outcome of the father’s business enterprise.
There are no surprises here—in a morality tale, the outcomes are guaranteed. That wouldn’t be a problem if the book were as well written as The Magnificent Ambersons, but in my opinion, it isn’t. The Magnificent Ambersons was a complex story, enriched by Tarkington’s observations on the transformation of a small Midwestern town into an industrialized city and the social changes that accompanied the growth. Alice Adams has a much narrower focus, and while the writing at times is excellent—the description of the dinner party is superb—there is no tension to the story because the reader knows perfectly well how it has to end. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for 1922, it really suffers by comparison, both in plot, style, and excellence in writing by the previous winner, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. It’s a good read if your goal is to read the Pulitzer winners. Otherwise, I feel it’s not worth the effort.
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the father for not having made more of himself, for not thinking of his children’s social futures and therefore not having any gumption to do better. Her entire life is focused on her children, especially Alice, being part of upper-class society. The mother is convinced that money and money alone will make the difference and constantly badgers the father to do better.Alice pours nearly all her energy into making a good “catch”. Quite popular a few years ago, the gentleman callers have vanished. Still, she practices gestures and facial expressions in front of the mirror, works hard at making over clothes (actually, dictating directions to her mother) to keep fashionable, spending all she can on accessories and clothes. She visits a well-to-do friend and basically worms her way into receiving invitations to society events.
Her brother Walter is a bitter young man who hates the situation in which he finds himself, loathes the ‘swells’ that Alice courts so assiduously, and hangs around with a crowd that his mother in particular finds appalling.
A new young man comes to town and is attracted to Alice, who goes all out to land him. But as we see increasingly in her dialogue with him, she misrepresents herself and her family and is terrified of what he will find out from his well-connected society relations.
Meanwhile, her father, goaded beyond endurance by the nagging mother, decides to leave the firm for which he has worked and start a glue factory, using a formula that can be rightly said to belong to his former employer.
The book has a double climax: a dinner party given by the mother for Alice’s young man and the outcome of the father’s business enterprise.
There are no surprises here—in a morality tale, the outcomes are guaranteed. That wouldn’t be a problem if the book were as well written as The Magnificent Ambersons, but in my opinion, it isn’t. The Magnificent Ambersons was a complex story, enriched by Tarkington’s observations on the transformation of a small Midwestern town into an industrialized city and the social changes that accompanied the growth. Alice Adams has a much narrower focus, and while the writing at times is excellent—the description of the dinner party is superb—there is no tension to the story because the reader knows perfectly well how it has to end. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for 1922, it really suffers by comparison, both in plot, style, and excellence in writing by the previous winner, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. It’s a good read if your goal is to read the Pulitzer winners. Otherwise, I feel it’s not worth the effort.
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LibraryThing member LibrarysCat
I have read this book many times and loved it each time. Alice tries so hard to fit in with the upper crust and fails miserably. She is a very likable character in spite of her lies and manipulations.
LibraryThing member npl
Alice Adams is a young woman coming of age just as the role of women in society is changing. Although her story is set in the 1920s, her family would be familiar to many today. Alice’s mother is in inveterate social climber, who must keep up with the Jones in appearance if not reality. Her father
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is over worked, over burdened by his wife’s social aspirations, and torn between what he knows is right and an opportunity for easy money. Alice’s brother is the ne’er-do-well who is hanging with the wrong crowd and destined for trouble. Tarkington lets us observe this domestic story full of the melodrama of young adulthood. Alice is obsessed with having the perfect dress for the upcoming dance, and is ecstatic when she catches the eye of a wealthy bachelor. Meanwhile, the other members of the family have their own crises. And as in real life, some members weather life’s storms better than others do. The bittersweet ending shows Alice beginning a new, more independent, chapter of her life. Show Less
LibraryThing member pdebolt
Alice Adams is the story of a young woman from a family of modest means who yearns to "belong," as does her mother. Set in the 1920s, Alice's life is filled with, and defined by, an awareness of how she is perceived by her peers. As in the Magnificent Ambersons and Dreiser's An American Tragedy,
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life revolves around social status and we observe these pretentious struggles with embarassment and compassion. I wonder after reading this book how many people in the early 21st century still attempt to be part of a group that judges them by such shallow values and hope we have evolved into a more caring society. Show Less
LibraryThing member mikedraper
It's the turn of the 20th century in the industrialized midwest. Alice Adams is a young woman of age twenty-two. She's from a middle class family but has ambitons to rise up in society.
The difficulty is that her family doesn't have the financial means to provide her with the necessities to compete
The main theme of the novel is getting ahead in life, moving up in the financial and social hieracy that exists.
Alice is reminiscent of Charlotte in "Gone With The Wind' in her attempts to get ahead in society. She also wants to capture the most eligible bachelor, even if that person is promised to another. Her father, Virgil, is a more sympathetic character. He seemed content in his life but is persuaded to give up his contentment and attempt to follow his wife's dream. She wants him to go after an invention that he was partly responsible for, even at the betrayal of his former employer and trusting friend.
The difficulty is that her family doesn't have the financial means to provide her with the necessities to compete
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with the other women she wants to impress. For the dance at her friend's home, she doesn't have a date and coerces her brother, Walter, to escourt her. She wears a dress that is already owned but her mother fixes it up by adding some lace to it. She can't afford flowers from a florist but goes out and picks violets and wears them, by the time the dance is held, the violets are withered and dead.The main theme of the novel is getting ahead in life, moving up in the financial and social hieracy that exists.
Alice is reminiscent of Charlotte in "Gone With The Wind' in her attempts to get ahead in society. She also wants to capture the most eligible bachelor, even if that person is promised to another. Her father, Virgil, is a more sympathetic character. He seemed content in his life but is persuaded to give up his contentment and attempt to follow his wife's dream. She wants him to go after an invention that he was partly responsible for, even at the betrayal of his former employer and trusting friend.
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LibraryThing member Schmerguls
I read this because it won the Pulitzer fiction prize for 1922. I found it insipid.
LibraryThing member Dreesie
I can't believe this won a Pulitzer.
This is not a deep read. The descriptions of black people and in working people in general are crude.
Alice Adams in a young 20-something. She (and her mother) desperately want her to land a good (read: wealthy and/or important) husband. But since she was 16,
So, she is not a desirable wife for the "quality" husband she wants. In the end, mother and daughter (and father) see what must be done and start to settle into their proper places within society.
Ugh.
This is not a deep read. The descriptions of black people and in working people in general are crude.
Alice Adams in a young 20-something. She (and her mother) desperately want her to land a good (read: wealthy and/or important) husband. But since she was 16,
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fewer and fewer young men have come to call. She's grasping, and they are now looking for wives, not girls. And Alice's father is a department head. He's not a business owner, he's not wealthy. They have had to scramble to put Alice out there, meanwhile they have given her younger brother none of this and he is just going to take it.So, she is not a desirable wife for the "quality" husband she wants. In the end, mother and daughter (and father) see what must be done and start to settle into their proper places within society.
Ugh.
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LibraryThing member RoseCityReader
Grounded in outmoded attitudes about class and distractingly highlighted by outmoded attitudes about race, Alice Adams has not aged well. In his 1922 Pulitzer winner, Booth Tarkington presents a heroine striving to climb the short social ladder of her Midwestern city using only her charms and
Watching Alice struggle is painful. She has self-awareness sufficient to know she is doing things wrong, but lacks the tools to do them right. And it never seems that the game is worth the candle.
Finally, after watching Alice dither for most of the book, circumstances force her to face reality and make some difficult but intelligent decisions. The book ends on a gloriously hopeful note, which is the most redeeming feature of the story.
Also posted on Rose City Reader.
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well-rehearsed mannerisms.Watching Alice struggle is painful. She has self-awareness sufficient to know she is doing things wrong, but lacks the tools to do them right. And it never seems that the game is worth the candle.
Finally, after watching Alice dither for most of the book, circumstances force her to face reality and make some difficult but intelligent decisions. The book ends on a gloriously hopeful note, which is the most redeeming feature of the story.
Also posted on Rose City Reader.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
I found myself alternately amused by, disgusted at and sorry for Alice Adams. Part of the aspects that bothered me about her character were due to the time and culture in which she lived (the book was published in 1921 so it was just after WW1). Alice is a romantic and somewhat silly 22-year-old
The Adams are a middle class family uneasily teetering on the edge of a changing world; the mother continues to believe in the values and social mores of the 19th century in which she had been raised while the son Walter is a devotee of the Jazz Age just beginning. Between these two extremes are the father, who while more aware than his wife of the realities of their situation financially is ill and unaware of the social struggle the mother is so concerned with, and Alice who lives mostly in a fantasy world (based upon novels or movies is my guess although that is never even hinted at).
I perhaps have more sympathy for Alice's shifts to maintain a "position in society" than other contemporary readers because she reminded me so much of certain Regency and Victorian heroines. Her efforts are quite pathetic but her belief in them is child-like. At times, this childish behaviour is endearing and at others annoying. Her mother's insistence on keeping up appearances seems to have created in Alice a feeling that appearance is all that is necessary to capture the right man.Sadly, by the time she realizes that a misleading appearance is bound to be discovered by an interested suitor, it is too late.
I have seen the film based upon this book (starring a young Katherine Hepburn as Alice) so I was surprised by some of the events at the end of the book. Overall, while the film is a good adaptation, the book gives more complexity.
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girl whose whole goal in life (egged on by her snobbish and pushing mother) is to marry well - in her mind, in some romantic way swept off her feet by a handsome and rich man. The Adams are a middle class family uneasily teetering on the edge of a changing world; the mother continues to believe in the values and social mores of the 19th century in which she had been raised while the son Walter is a devotee of the Jazz Age just beginning. Between these two extremes are the father, who while more aware than his wife of the realities of their situation financially is ill and unaware of the social struggle the mother is so concerned with, and Alice who lives mostly in a fantasy world (based upon novels or movies is my guess although that is never even hinted at).
I perhaps have more sympathy for Alice's shifts to maintain a "position in society" than other contemporary readers because she reminded me so much of certain Regency and Victorian heroines. Her efforts are quite pathetic but her belief in them is child-like. At times, this childish behaviour is endearing and at others annoying. Her mother's insistence on keeping up appearances seems to have created in Alice a feeling that appearance is all that is necessary to capture the right man.
I have seen the film based upon this book (starring a young Katherine Hepburn as Alice) so I was surprised by some of the events at the end of the book. Overall, while the film is a good adaptation, the book gives more complexity.
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LibraryThing member Pharmacdon
The story is set in a lower-middle-class household in an unnamed town in the Midwest shortly after World War I. The center of the story focuses on the young girl Alice Adams who tries to climb the social ladder and her flirtations with Arthur Russell who belongs to the upper class. But later on
This book won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1922.
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“She breathed more rapidly but knew that he could not have detected it, and she took some pride in herself for the way she had met this little crisis. But to have met it with such easy courage meant to her something more reassuring than a momentary pride in the serenity she had shown. For she found that what she had resolved in her inmost heart was now really true: she was "through with all that!”This book won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1922.
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Subjects
Awards
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Novel — 1922)
Language
Original publication date
1921
Physical description
232 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0451500997 / 9780451500991