Overview
Major Amberson had "made a fortune" in 1873 when other people were losing fortunes and the magnificence of the Ambersons began then. Magnificence like the size of a fortune is always comparative as even Magnificent Lorenzo may now perceive if he has happened to haunt New York in 1916; and the Ambersons were magnificent in their day and place.Synopsis
Published in 1918, the Booth Tarkington novel about life in a Midwestern American town was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Tarkington published the novel The Turmoil in 1915. In 1923, The Midlander (later retitled National Avenue, completed the trilogy "Growth," chronicling the social upheaval of industrialism and its effects on people and places in the Midwest. These two novels preceded and then followedThe Magnificent Ambersonsin the trilogy.
Ambersons traces the country's social evolution through the decline of the once-powerful, socially prominent Amberson family. Their fall is contrasted with the rise of new industrial tycoons and land developers, whose power comes not through family connections but through financial dealings and modern manufacturing.
Through it all, the novel's hero and heir to the Amberson fortune, George Amberson Minafer, clings to the ways of the past as the world changes around him.
Library Journal
Though not out of print, this latest offering from Bantam is the least expensive edition currently available. The 1919 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel portrays the decline of the superrich Amberson family, who act as a metaphor for the old society that crumbled after the Industrial Revolution. All fiction collections should own a copy, and all video collections should include Orson Welles's 1942 film version.