The Magnificent Ambersons Tapa blanda - 1998

Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons is the second novel in the Growth trilogy, which includes The Turmoil (1915) and The Midlander (1923, retitled National Avenue in 1927). The novel and trilogy trace the growth of the United States through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in an upscale neighborhood, inspired by Tarkington's hometown of Indianapolis and the neighborhood he once lived in, Woodruff Place. Set between the end of the Civil War and the early part of the 20th century, a period of rapid industrialization and socio-economic change in America, the decline of the Ambersons is contrasted with the rising fortunes of industrial tycoons and other new-money families, who derived power not from family names but by action.

The Magnificent Ambersons won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize for novel and is ranked 99th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. In 1942, Orson Welles directed a film version, also titled The Magnificent Ambersons.

This 1919 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the well-heeled Amberson family details their descent from a position in the moneyed aristocracy to the realms of the working class. The protagonist, George Amberson Minafer, was coddled by his parents and grandparents who excused his purposeful indiscretions and refused him nothing. He grew up arrogant and demanding, assured of inheriting the executive duties of his grandfather's business. Yet he had no interest in the management of those responsibilities, and any professional ambition to become the director of the financial affairs was not his desire. His only intent was to spend the rest of his life as a constituent of the idle rich. But while he attempted to maintain his prestige and possessions, his life could not remain static. Around him small towns became cities during the Industrial Revolution, real estate developers turned the land into factories and manufacturing empires that paralleled the upswing of commercial endeavor. Tarkington wanted to convince the reader that even though technological change hadn't necessarily made life better, it also hadn't made it worse. George and his family viewed this situation as loss but others saw opportunity in it. Still, George could bring himself to recognize the fact that he and his relatives had become unconnected to the zealous growth of the United States. When George's grandfather died he understood too late how the acquisition of material goods was a worthless lifetime pursuit. So the Ambersons discovered that their investments had been exhausted as the industrial trends slowly but certainly drove them out of the city.

Detalles

• Título The Magnificent Ambersons
• Autor Booth Tarkington
• Encuadernación Tapa blanda
• Edición Reprint
• Páginas 288
• Volúmenes 1
• Idioma ENG
• Editorial Modern Library, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Fecha de publicación 1998-09-14
• ISBN 9780375752506 / 0375752501
• Peso 0.45 libras (0.20 kg)
• Dimensiones 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 pulgadas (20.07 x 12.95 x 1.78 cm)
• Temas
  • Cultural Region: Midwest
  • Geographic Orientation: Indiana
  • Sex & Gender: Feminine
  • Topical: Coming of Age
  • Topical: Family
• Library of Congress subjects Domestic fiction, Mothers and sons
• Número de catálogo de la Librería del Congreso de EEUU 98019552
• Dewey Decimal Code FIC