The flirt [Hardcover]

Booth Tarkington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1913

Subjects: Fiction Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First edition. edition (1913)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00089TUN6
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,180,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone, January 17, 2011

By 

AmyM - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Flirt (Kindle Edition)

I enjoyed this story, in particular the teasing and rivalry between the three siblings. The character development is great, but the story is not for everyone. You feel sorry for poor Laura, living in sister Cora's shadow, but you do have an idea how things will turn out from the get-go, making the ending sort of anti-climatic. It's not so much a love story, as a tale of life in a small town during a period in time when communication with other parts of the world was not as quick, and scam artists were rampant. There are a lot of typos, but they don't interfere with the story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will read MORE !!, May 11, 2011

By 

Wetchua - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Flirt (Kindle Edition)

Discovered this novel by accident, went on and ordered ALL books by Booth Tarkington..so witty, satirical and beautifully written..cannot put it down till finished!!

Great chracter developement..he was a Pulitzer prize winner..I can see why.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Return To The Novel, October 26, 2009

By 

Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The flirt (Hardcover)

After several years of focusing on plays, Booth Tarkington returned to writing novels in 1913 with "The Flirt". Published originally in the Saturday Evening Post, from December 21st 1912 to February 15th 1913, the first of his novels to be serialized in that periodical, "The Flirt" was the first novel published after his return to the United States from Europe and his first novel to be serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. The time of from writing novels appears to have done him good, as this time he does not appear to be writing a variation on a novel he had already written. Though set in a Capitol City, a fictitious small city, like many of his previous efforts, the plot is quite different.

The title character is Cora Madison, the younger of the two Madison sisters. Cora overshadows her older sister, Laura, who is also beautiful, but whose personality is such that she is not noticed when Cora is around. Cora enjoys manipulating men, and the story opens with a new challenge arriving in the form of Valentine Corliss, a man who lived in Capitol City when he was young, but who is returning for the first time in many years. He happens to own the house that the Madison's live in, and he claims to be returning to sell it and gather as many funds as possible to invest in oil fields in southern Italy which have recently been discovered and few know about.

Other key characters include Richard Lindley, who was believed to be Cora's beau at the start of the book, but a man she has grown tired of; Ray Vilas, a former boyfriend of Cora's who has turned to drink in his frustration and still wants to win her back; Mr. Pryor, the one man who knows about Valentine Corliss' past; and Wade Trumble, another would-be suitor of Cora Madison. There is also the rest of the Madison family including Mr. and Mrs. Madison, and Laura and Cora's younger brother Hendrick, who delights in giving Cora grief over her trifling with men's hearts.

Cora manipulates all those around her, including her parents, with the single exception of Hendrick. However, there are others playing games as well. Mr. Corliss is trying to convince as many people as possible to buy shares in the oil fields, Laura is trying to keep peace between her warring siblings, Richard Lindley is trying to reignite Cora's interest in him, and trying to clean-up Ray Vilas.

This is a fairly enjoyable book to read, though there are definite weaknesses, especially at the end where some of the actions taken just don't seem to fit the characters. Still, it is a new type of story for Tarkington, and one which is better than many of those which he wrote earlier, though not as good as his best. Overall I give this three stars, as there were better books by Tarkington from before, and some better ones yet to come as well.