The Magnificent Ambersons

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G.K. Hall, 1995 - Fiction - 427 pages
"The Magnificent Ambersons," by Booth Tarkington, is part of the ""Barnes & Noble Classics""series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of "Barnes & Noble Classics"
  • New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
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  • Footnotes and endnotes
  • Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
  • Comments by other famous authors
  • Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
  • Bibliographies for further reading
  • Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. "Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.Largely overshadowed by Orson Welles s famous 1941 screen version, Booth Tarkington s novel "The Magnificent Ambersons" was not only a best-seller when it first appeared in 1918it also won the Pulitzer Prize.
Set in the Midwest in the early twentieth centurythe dawn of the automobile agethe novel begins by introducing the richest family in town, the Ambersons. Exemplifying aristocratic excess, the Ambersons have everything money can buyand more. But George Amberson Minaferthe spoiled grandson of the family patriarchis unable to see that great societal changes are taking place, and that business tycoons, industrialists, and real estate developers will soon surpass him in wealth and prestige. Rather than join the new mechanical age, George prefers to remain a gentleman, believing that being things is superior to doing things. But as his town becomes a city, and the family palace is enveloped in a cloud of soot, George s protectors disappear one by one, and the elegant, cloistered lifestyle of the Ambersons fades from view, and finally vanishes altogether.
A brilliant portrayal of the changing landscape of the American dream, "The Magnificent Ambersons" is a timeless classic that deserves a wider modern audience.Nahma Sandrow has written extensively about theater and cultural history, including the books "Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater" and "Surrealism: Theater, Arts, Ideas." For many years a professor at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, she has lectured at Oxford University, Harvard University, the Smithsonian, and elsewhere."

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About the author (1995)

Newton Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 29, 1869. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, than spent his first two years of college at Purdue University and his last two at Princeton University. When his class graduated in 1893, he lacked sufficient credits for a degree. Upon leaving Princeton, he returned to Indiana determined to pursue a career as a writer. Tarkington was an early member of The Dramatic Club, founded in 1889, and often wrote plays and directed and acted in its productions. After a five-year apprenticeship full of publishers' rejection slips, Tarkington enjoyed a huge commercial success with The Gentleman from Indiana, which was published in 1899. He produced a total of 171 short stories, 21 novels, 9 novellas, and 19 plays along with a number of movie scripts, radio dramas, and even illustrations over the course of a career that lasted from 1899 until his death in 1946. His novels included Monsieur Beaucaire, The Flirt, Seventeen, Gentle Julia, and The Turmoil. He won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1919 and 1922 for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He used the political knowledge he acquired while serving one term in the Indiana House of Representatives in the short story collection In the Arena. In collaboration with dramatist Harry Leon Wilson, Tarkington wrote The Man from Home, the first of many successful Broadway plays. He wrote children's stories in the final phase of his career. He died on May 19, 1946 after an illness.

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