9 h 40 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a woman raised for comfort takes the rough road west?
Claire Boltwood has money, good schools behind her, and a restless wish for real adventure. With her father, Mr. Boltwood, she drives across the northern United States toward the Pacific coast. Ahead lie plains, mountains, small towns, and roads that offer little of the comfort they know.
Milt Daggett, a skilled mechanic from Schoenstrom, Minnesota, wants a bigger life. He has little polish but plenty of nerve. As his world meets Claire’s, Sinclair Lewis turns a cross-country journey into a romance and a light comedy about money, manners, and the distance between social classes.
What you’ll discover
- A restless heroine Follow Claire as her hunger for adventure carries her beyond the familiar comforts of wealth.
- Courage without social polish Meet Milt, whose skill and ambition offer a contrast to Claire’s money and standing.
- The rough road west Travel through northern plains and mountains, where unreliable cars make strangers important.
- Manners under pressure Enjoy a comedy that brings class differences into the close quarters of a road journey.
- Lively American voices Hear the humor in ordinary talk through Lewis’s dialogue and quick sketches of people.
Who will love it
For readers who love early road stories, light social comedy and a look at America just after the First World War, with romance and adventures across the open West.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A restless woman leaves the East
- The road is rough and the towns are small
- Class, courage and who counts
- A light touch and a hopeful title
Who’s who
- Claire BoltwoodA wealthy, restless young woman from the East who longs for real adventure and drives west across the country.
- Milt DaggettA skilled, ambitious young mechanic from Schoenstrom, Minnesota, who has little polish but plenty of nerve and wants a bigger life.
- Mr. BoltwoodClaire's father, a well-off man in need of rest, who travels with her and is unused to the rough road.
- Gertie DaggettMilt's sister, who belongs to the small-town world he is tempted to leave behind.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Aire libre
by Sinclair Lewis · 1919
Claire Boltwood drives west, where rough roads and a small-town mechanic put class and courage to the test.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A restless woman leaves the East
The heroine is Claire Boltwood, a young woman from a wealthy family in the East. She has grown up with servants, good schools and a sense of what is proper. Yet she is bored by the world laid out for her, and she wants something more real than drawing rooms.
She sets out west by motorcar with her father, who is in poor health and in need of a change. The trip is a large one for the time. It means leaving the paved comfort of the cities for roads that are often little more than ruts.
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What is Free Air about?
It is a road novel about Claire Boltwood, a rich young woman who drives across the northern United States, and Milt Daggett, a small-town mechanic she meets on the way. It mixes romance, comedy and social observation.
When was Free Air written?
Sinclair Lewis published it in 1919. It is fiction, but it draws on the real experience of long motor trips in the years when American roads were still poor.
What does the title Free Air mean?
It points to open space and freedom on the road, and to the free air offered for tires at roadside garages. The phrase fits a book about early motoring and the open West.
The author
Sinclair Lewis
1885–1951 · American novelist
Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist and the first writer from the United States to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Babbitt, his satire of small-city boosterism and middle-class conformity, added a new word to the American vocabulary.
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