Booth Tarkington

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 1:32 pm

Not sure if he should be here or Classics but oh well

I don't recall ever reading him, but stumbled on a few whilst browsing the Kindle freebies and picked a couple up,

The Magnificent Ambersons (which I now discover is a trilogy) so I also picked up free book one The Turmoil. The third book doesn't seem to be available in Kindle yet. This was made into film by Orson Wells, and I believe the book won a Pulitzer. I also snapped up Alice Adams for free, and there's quite a bit more of his work available on ebook format.

Read a bit of TMA last night and very much liked what I saw. Anyone else ever read him?

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 1:43 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]Not sure if he should be here or Classics but oh well

I don't recall ever reading him, but stumbled on a few whilst browsing the Kindle freebies and picked a couple up,

The Magnificent Ambersons (which I now discover is a trilogy) so I also picked up free book one The Turmoil. The third book doesn't seem to be available in Kindle yet. This was made into film by Orson Wells, and I believe the book won a Pulitzer. I also snapped up Alice Adams for free, and there's quite a bit more of his work available on ebook format.

Read a bit of TMA last night and very much liked what I saw. Anyone else ever read him?[/quote]

Yes, I have came across him before I had the Kindle and downloaded PDFs from other sites. I didn't do the Ambersons because the setting is wrong for me but have read others which were OK -- I'm not sure I would count them as classics just not modern.

I think I might have mentioned Monsieur Beaucaire in an earlier post.

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 1:57 pm

I read Alice Adams decades ago. I remember liking it, but not much more about it.

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 2:19 pm

Love The Magnificent Ambersons. Saw the Orson Welles film in college and immediately went out and read the book and have read the book a few times since then (the other books in the Growth trilogy were not available to me back then, so I haven't read them). I think there is an interesting story behind the film as well. Welles hated the cuts the studio made to it, as I understand, but it is well worth watching despite all that. A&E also ran a mini-series of it not quite ten years ago. I only watched a few minutes of it because I hated the casting (Jon Rhys Meyers as Georgie, for example).

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 2:25 pm

BTW, I found this on BT's wik page. The 1922 frontispiece for Gentle Julia. It looks rather familiar

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 8:46 pm

I've read The Magnificent Ambersons and enjoyed it.

Now when you say it's a trilogy does that mean it's three books rolled into one, or that there are two more books out there waiting for me to find them and give them a home?

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 9:43 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]I've read The Magnificent Ambersons and enjoyed it.

Now when you say it's a trilogy does that mean it's three books rolled into one, or that there are two more books out there waiting for me to find them and give them a home?

[/quote]

You have two more books to find. Here's the trilogy info on Goodreads. I believe the original title of National Avenue is The Midlander. The first two can be had free on kindle.

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 10:25 pm

Since the connection between the books in the trilogy is largely thematic, I wondered whether the other two stories would feel repetitive. I never hear people talk about the other books. I think TMA, Alice Adams, and Penrod are his best known works.

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Sun July 10th, 2011, 11:25 pm

I saw the A&E version too. JRM was getting started in his career.