Alice AdamsAlice Adams, the daughter of middle-class parents, wants desperately to belong with the people of "high society" who live in her town. Ultimately, her ambitions are tempered by the realities of her situation, which she learns to accept with grace and style. Alice's resiliency of spirit makes her one of Booth Tarkington's most compelling characters. A fascinating story that won the Pulitzer Prize. |
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Common terms and phrases
Adams's afraid ain't Alice Adams Alice laughed Alice's anyhow Arthur Russell asked began better BOOTH TARKINGTON box-trees Brussels sprouts chair Charley colour course cried dance dang daugh daughter dearie dinner door Dowling down-town exclaimed expect eyes face father feel Frank Dowling funny girl glance glue factory glue-works goin guess hand hear heard Henrietta interrupted J. A. Lamb Joe Lamb keep kind knew Lamb's Listen living-room Lohr look Lordy Malacca Malena mama mean Mildred Mildred's Miss Adams Miss Perry mother Never mind nice night organdie Palmer papa paused perfect creature poor porte-cochère pretty seemed shook her head sighed smile spoke stairs suppose sure talk taxicab tell There's thing thought told tremulous turb turned veranda Virgil Adams voice wait walked Walter Walter Adams What's the matter wonder worry young
Popular passages
Page 154 - O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Page 5 - Owl' cars, bringing in last passengers over distant trolley-lines, now and then howled on a curve; faraway metallic stirrings could be heard from factories in the sooty suburbs on the plain outside the city; east, west, and south, switch-engines chugged and snorted on sidings; and everywhere in the air there seemed to be a faint, voluminous hum as of innumerable wires trembling overhead to vibration of machinery underground.
Page 8 - In spite of noises without, he drowsed again, not knowing that he did; and when he opened his eyes the nurse was just rising from her cot. He took no pleasure in the sight, it may be said. She exhibited to him a face mismodelled by sleep, and set like a clay face left on its cheek in a hot and dry studio.
Page 379 - Let's go in the other room; your fearful duty is almost done, and you can run home as soon as you want to. That's what you're dying to do.
Page 348 - She would have given her life for him any time, and both his and her own for her children. Unconscious of her own heroism, she was surprised to find herself rather faint when she finished her ironing. However, she took heart to believe that the clothes looked better, in spite of one or two scorched places; and she carried them upstairs to her husband's room before increasing blindness forced her to grope for the nearest chair. Then, trying to rise and walk, without having sufficiently recovered,...
Page 362 - No," he said, and again applied the handkerchief to his forehead for an instant. "No, I'll " He paused, and finished lamely: "I'll — not tell - her." Thus reassured, Mrs. Adams set before him some details of her daughter's popularity at sixteen, dwelling upon Alice's impartiality among her young suitors: "She never could bear to hurt their feelings, and always treated all of them just alike. About half a dozen of them were just bound to marry her! Naturally, her father and I considered any such...
Page 434 - Never had she passed without those ominous imaginings of hers: pretty girls turning into old maids "taking dictation" — old maids of a dozen different types, yet all looking a little like herself. Well, she was here at last! She looked up and down the street quickly, and then, with a little heave of the shoulders, she went bravely in, under the sign, and began to climb the wooden steps. Half-way up the shadows were heaviest, but after that the place began to seem brighter. There was an open window...
Page 416 - The other way he was wrong is, that how much a thing means to one man and how little it means to another ain't the right way to look at a business matter." "I suppose it isn't, Mr. Lamb." "No," he said. "It isn't. It's not the right way to look at anything. Yes, and your father knows it as well as I do, when he's in his right mind; and I expect that's one of the reasons he got so mad at me — but anyhow, I couldn't help thinking about how much all this thing had maybe meant to him ; — as I say,...
Page 387 - Her laughter continued as he turned away, but other sounds came from within the house, clearly audible with the opening of a door upstairs — a long and wailing cry of lamentation in the voice of Mrs. Adams. Russell paused at the steps, uncertain, but Alice waved to him to go on. "Oh, don't bother," she said. "We have lots of that in this funny little old house! Good-bye!
Page 433 - She passed the tobacconist's, and before her was that dark entrance to the wooden stairway leading up to Frincke's Business College— the very doorway she had always looked upon as the end of youth and the end of hope.