Alice Adams (Library of Indiana Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE patient, an old-fashioned man, thought the nurse made a mistake in keeping both of the windows open, and her sprightly disregard of his protests..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Perry, Arthur Russell, Miss Adams (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Over the pictures, the vases, the old brown plush rocking-chairs and the stool, over the three gilt chairs, over the new chintz-covered easy chair and the gray velure sofa over everything everywhere, was the familiar coating of smoke and grime... Yet here was not fault of housewifery; the curse could not be lifted, as the ingrained smudges permanent on the once white woodwork proved. The grime was perpetually renewed; scrubbing only ground it in." from the novel

Product Description

Over the pictures, the vases, the old brown plush rocking-chairs and the stool, over the three gilt chairs, over the new chintz-covered easy chair and the gray velure sofa -- over everything everywhere, was the familiar coating of smoke and grime.... Yet here was not fault of housewifery; the curse could not be lifted, as the ingrained smudges permanent on the once white woodwork proved. The grime was perpetually renewed; scrubbing only ground it in. -- from the novel

This is the story of a middle-class family living in the industrialized "midland country" at the turn of the 20th century. It is against this dingy backdrop that Alice Adams seeks to distinguish herself. She goes to a dance in a used dress, which her mother attempts to renew by changing the lining and adding some lace. She adorns herself not with orchids sent by the florist but with a bouquet of violets she has picked herself. Because her family cannot afford to equip her with the social props or "background" so needed to shine in society, Alice is forced to make do. Ultimately, her ambitions for making a successful marriage must be tempered by the realities of her situation. Alice Adams's resiliency of spirit makes her one of Tarkington's most compelling female characters.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253215935
• ISBN-13: 978-0253215932
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,283,151 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Poor little Alice" surprised me, July 15, 2004

By	tenordan (rural, old fashioned, small town Maine) - See all my reviews

I disagree with the Amazon customer who claims there are no heroes in Alice Adams. The hero is of course the heroine herself. Alice is sweet and lively. Yes, she is overly concerned with the typical "girly" things, especially at the beginning of the book, but she shows promising growth and strength of character.

I have read a few other books by Booth Tarkington. I wouldn't put Alice Adams quite on the same level with The Magnificent Ambersons, but I liked it better than The Turmoil, which has an unconvincing happy ending. I got near the end of Alice Adams, and I started to dread the final chapter. I thought that there would either be another sappy, fake, happy ending, or it would be depressing. I was pleasantly surprised- it was neither!

This is an old fashioned book, of course. You can tell it was written in 1921 by the way African-Americans are spoken about. But that is a reality of the times.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The smell of boiling Brussels sprouts can dissolve any daydream., January 9, 2006

By	Jerry Clyde Phillips (Sutton, Vermont) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The growing pangs experienced by the United States during the first couple decades of the twentieth century provided the literary fodder for a whole new school of American authors. William Dean Howells, Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Poole, Theodore Dreiser and Henry James all added their comments regarding the dissolution of traditional American values by the rise of industrialization, capital accumulation, and the strengthening of a caste system based on wealth rather than on family name. Booth Tarkington treated this subject in his The Magnificent Ambersons, but added an interesting twist: the scene of this novel was not set in the large industrial and financial cities of the East, but in a mid-sized Midwestern city as if to demonstrate the pervasiveness of this social and cultural revolution.

With this novel, Tarkington takes his demonstration one step further by writing about a middle class household in that same mid-sized Midwestern city. The Adams family, although comfortable enough, is excluded from the exclusivity shared by those families that are bound together by either name or wealth. Alice Adams is particularly chagrinned by this fact and atempts to imitate the actions and tastes of this exclusive group but can only act out daydreams in which she achieves the happiness and love that she desperately seeks. When she finally meets Arthur Russell, an elibible bachelor who belongs to that exlusive group, and futhermore, has a genuine affection for Alice, she can only fabricate lies in which she hopes to raise her own social station in his eyes. It is these pitiful, but humorous, attempts that give the novel much of its life and brilliance.

Tarkington does a fine job in developing his characters: the romantic yet incorrigible Alice; her scheming and henpecking mother, who although acting for what she sees as Alice's own betterment, brings the family to ruin; her henpecked father who falls prey to his own duplicity and fanciful ambitions; and her brother who has sense enough to see through the banality of what Alice is trying to do, only to fall victim to his own weaknesses. Although this novel won Takington his second Pulitzer Prize, it is not as well known as The Magnificent Ambersons; however, it is in every way the earlier novel's equal. His depiction of middle class society during the 1920's is judicious, balancing satire with the author's own sympathetic treatment of character. The major highlight of the novel is Tarkington's brilliant description of the dinner at which the Adams family attempts to impress Arthur Russell, a scene which makes the reader simultaneously squirm and laugh out loud.

Without giving away the ending, let it be said that the 1940s Hollywood film of the novel did Tarkington an injustice in that the filmmakers, intent on pleasing a movie audience, completely missed the point of the novel.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Tarkington Novel, January 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice Adams (Hardcover)

One of the better Tarkington tales I've read. An upbeat and at times humorous story about a middle class family and their two early 20-year-old children ( one boy and one girl ). The girl, Alice Adams, is the focus of the story, as she struggles to be liked by the town's society folks. She doesn't have the social prestige nor the money to attract many beaus.

This leads to turmoil, and Mrs. Adams tells her husband to leave the mediocre paying job he's had all his life to start his own company so they can be rich and pay their children "advantages". He does this, after many trepidations, but the basis of his newfound business is a stolen glue formula from his previous employer. This ultimately leads to his demise.

There is a bit more to this story, but all in all, it is a story of class envy, snobbery, and greed. Tarkington's main point, however, seems to be that every dark tunnel of life ultimately has some other exit that inevatibly lead to light -- as even in the Adams's darkest hour their was hope yet.