Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Babbitt
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love social comedy and sharp portraits of middle-class conformity, and anyone who works in an office or sales job and sometimes wonders why.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Babbitt is a novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1922. It follows one week-by-week stretch in the life of George F. Babbitt, a forty-six-year-old real estate broker in the booming Midwestern city of Zenith. Lewis had just made his name with Main Street, which mocked the small town. Here he turned to the city, and to the businessman who thinks he runs it.
Lewis wrote the book after long study of the American middle class. He listened to how salesmen talked, how clubs worked, how people spoke of religion, politics and money. The result is a comic and sharp portrait of a man who owns a nice house, a car and a good name, and who is not sure any of it is his own. The book gave English a new word, because Babbitt came to mean a person who follows the crowd and calls it success.
In this summary you will meet Babbitt at home, at work, at his clubs and among his friends. You will see what Zenith values and what it hides. You will also see the first cracks in his comfortable life. Let us start with the city itself, where the book begins.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Zenith is a city built to boastFree
- 2A day begins with gadgets and grumbling
- 3Selling real estate means selling a story
- 4Friends, clubs, and a drink in secret
- 5Family strains show beneath the comfort
- 6Restlessness grows and a trip to Maine
- 7Conformity is the real power in Zenith
- 8Money, religion, and politics serve the same creed
- 9A comic style that sees every detail
Punkt 1 von 9
Zenith is a city built to boast
The novel opens on the towers of Zenith, rising out of the morning mist. Lewis describes them with real admiration at first, as steel and cement and limestone that look strong and light at once. The city is a made-up one, set in the fictional state of Winnemac, and it stands for any fast-growing American place in the early 1920s. It has factories, banks, new office blocks and neat suburbs called things like Floral Heights.
The tone is a little too grand, and that is the first joke. Zenith believes it is the best of everything. Its people count its population, its buildings and its dollars the way other people count blessings. Lewis lets the city speak in its own proud voice, so that the reader hears both the pride and the emptiness behind it.
In this world, a man is judged by what he owns and how loudly he approves of it. Houses are bought on the strength of the neighborhood. Cars are chosen to match a rank. Even opinions seem to arrive ready made, passed from one man to another at lunch tables and in newspapers.
Into this setting Lewis places George F. Babbitt, who sells houses and plots of land. He is not wicked, and he is not stupid. He is a decent, anxious, talkative man who wants to be liked and to be thought a success.
That is the key to the book. Babbitt is not an outsider looking in on Zenith. He is its product and its defender. The story asks what happens when a man so built finds that something in him does not fit.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- George F. Babbitt
- A prosperous Zenith real estate broker, he seeks his neighbors’ approval while feeling dissatisfied with his comfortable life.
- Myra Babbitt
- Babbitt’s patient wife manages their household and attends to his comfort, while he rarely asks her opinion.
- Paul Riesling
- Babbitt’s closest friend sells roofing, regrets his abandoned musical ambitions, and feels trapped in an unhappy marriage.
- Ted Babbitt
- Babbitt’s son enjoys machinery and movies but resists his father’s expectations about school and college.
- Verona Babbitt
- Babbitt’s eldest daughter is a college graduate who questions conventional expectations and remains uncertain about her future.
- Henry Thompson
- Babbitt’s shrewd father-in-law is also his business partner, whose approval matters to the younger man.
- Vergil Gunch
- A hearty businessman and club leader, he reinforces the social expectations governing Babbitt and their friends.
- Seneca Doane
- A liberal lawyer, he stands apart from Babbitt’s business circle through his independent political views.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 129,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h 35 min
- Listening time14 h 20 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Babbitt
What is Babbitt about?
Babbitt is about George F. Babbitt, a middle-aged real estate broker in the city of Zenith. He lives by the rules of business and club life, but a growing restlessness makes him question his comfortable existence.
What does the word Babbitt mean?
The word came from this novel and describes a person who follows middle-class values and fashions without question, often with pride in business success and little interest in art or ideas.
Is Zenith a real city?
No. Zenith is an invented city in the invented state of Winnemac. Lewis modeled it on growing Midwestern cities of the early 1920s, so it feels familiar to many American readers.
When was Babbitt written and why?
Sinclair Lewis published it in 1922, after Main Street. He wanted to portray the American businessman and the pressures of conformity in a booming city, using close observation of how people spoke and lived.
Is Babbitt hard to read today?
It is not hard. The sentences are clear and funny, and the book is rich in period detail, such as prohibition and club culture. Its themes of status and conformity still feel familiar.