The Magnificent Ambersons

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The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington

I've heard people praise this novel quite often, but for some reason I never wanted to read it myself until I happened across it at the library a little while ago.  Guess what, this is a really good novel!  I liked it so much.

The Ambersons are a stupendously wealthy family in a small Midwestern city.  They splash money around like water.  The daughter, Isabel, marries a nice, quiet man who is not her True Love, and has one son--George, who grows up like a prince, worshiped by his mother.  His self-confidence and arrogance are really astounding, and his ambition in life is to be a gentleman on the family fortune.  At the same time, he falls in love with a lovely girl (the daughter of the man Isabel didn't marry), whose father is an up-and-coming automobile manufacturer.  Lucy loves George but has doubts about the wisdom of actually marrying him.  And then, George manages through his pride to destroy the lives of everyone he loves most.

George is really remarkably unlikeable for a very long time.  It's a mystery to me how he can expect Lucy--an active, assertive girl, American through and through--to like the idea of having a 'gentleman' for a husband.  He doesn't want to do anything but be rich.  He's a trust-fund baby.  No wonder she balks at the idea of marrying him.  He is also completely blind to anyone's point of view but his own; he truly cannot understand anyone else's thoughts that don't agree with his.  (In an Agatha Christie novel, it would get him murdered.)

Tarkington handles all these people in such a compassionate, understanding, forgiving way.  George has to pay for his pride, but even as you see the terrible mistakes people are making, Tarkington shows you that they are people doing the best they can, and that the most important thing is to be kind.  It's really nice.

Very good novel--read it sometime.

Comments

  1. CatNovember 9, 2014 at 1:15 PM

    I had this on my CC list but would never have read it so soon except I drew it in a spin. I really enjoyed it too - loved the humour.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LoryNovember 9, 2014 at 3:57 PM

    I have heard the title but that's about it. Didn't Orson Welles or someone do a film? Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the characters' faults are handled in a compassionate and forgiving way. I tend to like that in fiction, being as I hope for forgiveness of my own faults!

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeanNovember 9, 2014 at 5:28 PM

    There is a film, but I don't know anything about it. :) And, me too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jennifer BardsleyNovember 15, 2014 at 11:18 AM

    I believe I've seen both film versions. The Orson Well's version cuts out a whole bunch of the plot. But the PBS mini series version has the red head from Band of Brothers in it, and he's awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JeanNovember 15, 2014 at 9:17 PM

    Oh, a mini-series sounds fun! I should watch that. (Someday...)

    ReplyDelete

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