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Alice Adams
by Tarkington, Booth
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Fair
- Seller
-
Woodstock, Illinois, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Garden City: Doubleday, 1921. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Fair. Very Good in a Fair jacket, clipped, missing sizable portions of the front and back panels and spine edge, rubbed and toned on what is present. Orange cloth with black ink on the spine and front board. Square and firmly bound, toned on the top edge, foxed on the outer edge, former owner's bookplate inside the front board. Dubbed a "heartening portrait of young American womanhood." Winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize and adapted into the 1935 George Stevens film starring Katharine Hepburn.
Synopsis
This compelling satire details irresistible characteristics of social status in a small Midwestern town. Mr. and Mrs. Adams and their two children are members of the lower middle-class. Their daughter, Alice, wrestles with this economic classification and attempts to make the society folk of the town appreciate her. Because Alice has no social influence nor wealth and her presence is held in disregard by prospective suitors, Mrs. Adams tries to improve the situation by persuading her husband to leave a job he's held all his life and to establish a new career. After much apprehension and in possession of a glue formula stolen from his previous employer, he resigns his mediocre but satisfying employment which puts him in a predicament that leads to his professional downfall. Tarkington's understanding of class rivalries, social condescension, and financial avarice is evident in this tale where his main point indicates that in every joyless moment hope, though unexpected, is attainable. He illustrates how the Adams' laborious efforts are ultimately unsuccessful. Any intrusion by Alice and her mother on the upper class is unlikely and Tarkington's depiction of such is secretly amusing.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Carpetbagger Books, IOBA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1663
- Title
- Alice Adams
- Author
- Tarkington, Booth
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Fair
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Doubleday
- Place of Publication
- Garden City
- Date Published
- 1921
Terms of Sale
Carpetbagger Books, IOBA
All items are returnable for a refund within 30 days of receipt.
About the Seller
Carpetbagger Books, IOBA
Biblio member since 2018
Woodstock, Illinois
About Carpetbagger Books, IOBA
Based in the far northwest reaches of the Chicago suburbs, Carpetbagger Books specializes in literary fiction and modern firsts. Inventory is updated weekly, if not more frequently, so browse often. If you are after something particular, don't hesitate to communicate: not all inventory is uploaded online.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Foxed
- Foxing is the age related browning, or brown-yellowish spots, that can occur to book paper over time. When this aging process...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....
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