Booth Tarkington wrote American fiction about social status, family change and the transformation of Midwestern towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Magnificent Ambersons follows a wealthy Indianapolis family whose confidence in inherited position collapses as industry and urban growth reshape the city around them. Alice Adams centres on a young woman trying to appear more prosperous than her family really is, turning courtship into a study of class anxiety and self-presentation. Tarkington also wrote the Penrod stories about boyhood and mischief. His prose is accessible and often satirical, fitting American classics, novels of manners, family decline and small-city social fiction. Read more Less
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