Résumé
Résumé de Dix-sept ans
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love gentle, funny stories about growing up, and for anyone who still winces at memories of being sixteen or seventeen. First love, family chaos, and a sister who sees through every pose bring William's summer to life.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Seventeen is a comic novel by Booth Tarkington, published in 1916. It follows one summer in the life of William Sylvanus Baxter, a boy in a small Midwestern American town. He is seventeen, he is sure he is nearly a man, and he is in love for the first time. Tarkington had already written about boyhood and small-town life, and here he turns that sharp, kind eye on the awkward age between child and adult.
The book gives you a boy's feelings treated with a smile but never with scorn. You meet a household stretched thin by his moods, a visiting young woman who dazzles him, and a sister who sees through every pose. You also get a picture of life in a town before the First World War had reached it, with porches, parties, and strict ideas about manners. Let us begin where William does, with his burning wish to be taken seriously.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A boy who insists he is a manFree
- 2A visitor with a lap dog arrives
- 3The dress suit becomes a symbol
- 4Jane and the war at home
- 5What the story is really about
- 6How Tarkington tells it
Point clé 1 sur 6
A boy who insists he is a man
William Baxter lives in a comfortable house with his father, his mother, and his much younger sister Jane. He is seventeen, and for him that number is a kind of battlefield. Everyone around him seems determined to treat him as a child, and he is just as determined to be treated as a grown man.
Tarkington shows this in small things. William worries about his clothes, his voice, his walk, and the way he is addressed at the dinner table. He wants to be dignified, and the effort makes him fall into every kind of foolishness. The narrator watches him with real affection, which lets us laugh without sneering.
His family is not cruel, only tired and amused. His father, Mr. Baxter, is a practical man who sees a boy where William sees a gentleman. His mother worries and soothes, and sometimes takes his side in secret. The house is a place where every small decision about hats, hours, and money becomes a negotiation.
This opening sets the rule of the whole book. William's feelings are huge and sincere, while the world around him stays ordinary. The gap between those two things is where the comedy lives, and it is also where the tenderness comes from.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Dix-sept ans
What is Seventeen by Booth Tarkington about?
It is a comic novel about William Baxter, a boy in a Midwestern town who spends one summer in love with a visiting young woman named Lola Pratt. His family is drawn into the comedy of his pride and longing.
Who is Lola Pratt in Seventeen?
Lola Pratt is a young visitor to the town, known as the Baby-Talk Lady for her sweet, childish way of speaking. She travels with a small dog named Flopit and attracts the attention of many of the town's young men.
When was Seventeen written and is it a true story?
Seventeen was published in 1916. It is a work of fiction, though Tarkington drew on his close knowledge of small-town Midwestern life and of how young people behave, which gives it a convincing, true-to-life feel.
Why does William care so much about his dress suit?
To William, the dress suit is a badge of manhood. Wearing evening clothes would show that he is no longer a child, so the quarrel over it stands for his wish for independence and respect.
Is Seventeen hard to read?
No. The language is plain and the chapters are short and episodic. The humor and the feelings of the main character remain easy to follow.