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Babbitt

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Babbitt
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Sinclair Lewis
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:384
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreModern and contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780099264712
ClassificationsDewey:813.54
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Vintage Publishing
Imprint Vintage Classics
Publication Date 17 November 1994
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

From the author of It Can't Happen Here, a satirical portrait of a town obsessed by capitalism and the 'values' of the marketplace BY THE AUTHOR OF IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE Businessman George F. Babbitt loves the latest appliances, making money and the Republican party. In fact, he loves being a Solid Citizen even more than he loves his wife. But Babbitt comes to resent the middle class trappings he has worked so hard to acquire. Realising that his life is devoid of meaning, he grows determined to transcend his trivial existence and search for a greater purpose. In the economic boom years of 1920s' America, Babbitt became a symbol of middle-class mediocrity, and his name an enduring part of the American lexicon.

Author Biography

Sinclair Lewis was an American playwright and novelist. Born in 1885, he received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1908 and published his first novel, Hike and the Aeroplane, in 1912. He published Babbitt, perhaps his most famous work, in 1922 and in 1926 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith but rejected it. In 1930 he was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in Rome in 1951 and his last novel World So Wide was published posthumously.

Reviews

Full of vivid satire -- Robert McCrum * Observer * Sinclair Lewis's wonderful demolition of the venal and pusillanimous nature of commercial America, Babbitt * Scotland on Sunday * A satirical masterpiece * Sunday Times * One of the century's most perceptive writers on working life * Observer * His view of America was mordant, yet it was also unexpectedly loving; there is a tenderness in all three of these books that catches the reader unawares, and imbues them with a humanity that makes their satire all the more penetrating. * Washington Post *