Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
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Babbitt

Author: Sinclair Lewis

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 13 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/13/2010

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, Sinclair Lewis perfectly captures the sound, the feel, and the attitudes of the generation that created the cult of consumerism. With a sharp eye for detail and keen powers of observation, Lewis tracks successful realtor George Babbitt's daily struggles to rise to the top of his profession while maintaining his reputation as an upstanding family man.

On the surface, Babbitt appears to be the quintessential middle-class embodiment of conservative values and enthusiasm for the well-to-do lifestyle of the small entrepreneur. But beneath the complacent façade, he also experiences a rising, nameless discontent. These feelings eventually lead Babbitt into risky escapades that threaten his family and his standing in the community.

Though published eighty years ago, this acerbic depiction of majority Americans, obsessed with success, material comfort, and midlife doubt, still rings true.

About Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, the first American novelist to be so honored. Born in Minnesota, he attended Yale University but left before graduation to work in Upton Sinclair's socialist colony at Helicon Hall in Englewood, New Jersey. Unable to make a living as a freelance writer, he returned to Yale and earned his degree. In 1914, he published his first novel, Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man. But it was not until his sixth novel, Main Street, that he won recognition as an important American novelist. His other major works include Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth, and It Can't Happen Here, which he also wrote as a play. Lewis was a prolific writer, publishing dozens of books and innumerable articles throughout his career.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jon on January 15, 2025

Babbitt reminds me of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb - we spin a cocoon of "becoming" around ourselves and go about our life...but as time goes by the cocoon is not transformative, but binding. At some point in everyone's life the cocoon of what we wanted to "become" becomes the web that traps who we......more