The Magnificent Ambersons

De: Booth Tarkington

Narrado por: Peter Berkrot

Set in the Midwest in the early 20th century - the dawn of the automobile age - The Magnificent Ambersons begins by introducing the Ambersons, the richest family in town. Exemplifying aristocratic excess, the Ambersons have everything money can buy - and more. But George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled grandson of the family patriarch, is unable to see that great societal changes are taking place and that business tycoons, industrialists, and real-estate developers will soon surpass him in wealth and prestige.

Rather than join the new mechanical age, George prefers to remain a gentleman, believing that "being things" is superior to "doing things". But as his town becomes a city, and the family palace is enveloped in a cloud of soot, George's protectors disappear one by one, and the elegant, cloistered lifestyle of the Ambersons fades from view and finally vanishes altogether. The book won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and inspired the Orson Welles film of the same name.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

Great story

Such a great story. If you pay attention you will hear a warning about the terrible effects of pollution on a community. It is not the focus of the story, but it is there and very relevant

Wonderful, classic story

This is a great tale of fortunes one and lost, unchanged love, and personal redemption. Included is the Lorax-like quality of the growth of this midland city, and a glimpse to the building up of America.

Rare find

The story would be greatly more appreciated if one would drive through an old neighborhood seeing a stately mansion sandwiched between apartments and rental housing. "Ahhh, now I understand !" The story brings to life how the collapse of the early 1900s came about. Historically accurate. How arrogance brings calamity and how true love redeems.

Contrived, predictable — a far cry from “Penrod”

As a lifelong admirer of Tarkington’s three “Penrod” books — the truest and funniest books ever written about childhood — I was disappointed in this celebrated novel, which won Tarkington a Pulitzer and is probably best known because Orson Wells adapted it for the screen. That it seems, in fact, tailor-made for the movies is not a point in its favor; every aspect of the story seems obvious and contrived.

The narrative opens with a pleasantly nostalgic survey of life in a small Midwestern city at the end of the 19th century — sort of a slow, gracious “Meet Me in St. Louis” world — but then turns into a somewhat simplistic and didactic fable about the downfall of a wealthy, socially prominent Midwestern family. Every character and plot point seems almost cartoonishly unreal and exaggerated: The family in question, the Ambersons, seems not just wealthy and powerful, but excessively so; the spoiled young protagonist, Georgie Minafer Amberson, seems an unremittingly arrogant, snobbish, repulsive bully (who gets an occasional well-deserved comeuppance in an all-too-neat sitcom way); the beautiful girl he falls in love with seems implausibly wise and clever each time she opens her mouth; her father, a visionary inventor, seems likewise too unendingly wise. I soon grew impatient with these artificial creations.

However, Peter Berkrot’s performance was superb, and — as skillfully as possible — it brought these cardboard characters to life.

Great writing

I did enjoy this book. It was interesting to see the same life themes were present 100 years ago that are present today. Human nature I guess. Good character development and interesting how you eventually grow to like Georgie despite his lofty feel for his own self worth. A story of love in the end.

Great read about a fleeting time

Highly enjoyable. This was my first Tarkington book. Easy to understand why this book won the Pulitzer Prize. Great performance by the narrator as well.