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Babbitt
English BooksWhale Edition by Sinclair Lewis
A biting portrait of boosterism, business culture, middle-class anxiety, and rebellion that cannot quite break free.
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Book introduction
Babbitt
Babbitt centers on George F. Babbitt, a real-estate man devoted to success, clubs, slogans, and civic boosterism. Sinclair Lewis turns his life into a satire of consumer aspiration, conformity, political cant, and the uneasy wish for a more authentic self.
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This edition is based on a public domain text and has been prepared for digital reading by BooksWhale.
Public domain basis
Why this edition can be shared
Sinclair Lewis died in 1951, and Babbitt was first published in 1922. These dates support the public-domain basis for the English source text used in this edition.
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Babbitt
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CHAPTER I
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The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of
steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver
rods. They were neither citadels nor churches, but frankly and
beautifully office-buildings.
The mist took pity on the fretted structures of earlier generations: the
Post Office with its shingle-tortured mansard, the red brick minarets of
hulking old houses, factories with stingy and sooted windows, wooden
tenements colored like mud. The city was full of such grotesqueries, but
the clean towers were thrusting them from the business center, and on
the farther hills were shining new houses, homes--they seemed--for
laughter and tranquillity.
Over a concrete bridge fled a limousine of long sleek hood and noiseless
engine. These people in evening clothes were returning from an all-night
rehearsal of a Little Theater play, an artistic adventure considerably
illuminated by champagne. Below the bridge curved a railroad, a maze of
green and crimson lights. The New York Flyer boomed past, and twenty
lines of polished steel leaped into the glare.
In one of the skyscrapers the wires of the Associated Press were closing
down. The telegraph operators wearily raised their celluloid eye-shades
after a night of talking with Paris and Peking. Through the building
crawled the scrubwomen, yawning, their old shoes slapping. The dawn mist
spun away. Cues of men with lunch-boxes clumped toward the immensity of
new factories, sheets of glass and hollow tile, glittering shops where
five thousand men worked beneath one roof, pouring out the honest wares
that would be sold up the Euphrates and across the veldt. The whistles
rolled out in greeting a chorus cheerful as the April dawn; the song of
labor in a city built--it seemed--for giants.
Table of contents
Inside this edition
- 01Full text
- 02CHAPTER I
- 03I
- 04II
- 05III
- 06IV
- 07V
- 08CHAPTER II
- 09I
- 10scene of a salmon expiring upon a pile of oysters) had plugs which
- 11II
- 12CHAPTER III
- 13I
- 14II
- 15III
- 16BABBITT-THOMPSON REALTY CO.
- 17SAY, OLD MAN!
- 18CHAPTER IV
- 19I
- 20II
- 21DO YOU RESPECT YOUR LOVED ONES?
- 22LINDEN LANE
- 23BABBITT-THOMPSON REALTY COMPANY
- 24III
- 25IV
- 26V
- 27CHAPTER V
- 28I
- 29II
- 30III
- 31CHAPTER VI
- 32I
- 33II
- 34III
- 35POWER AND PROSPERITY IN PUBLIC SPEAKING
- 36WHAT WE TEACH YOU!
- 37SHORTCUT EDUCATIONAL PUB. CO.
- 38ARE YOU A 100 PERCENTER OR A 10 PERCENTER?
- 39PROF. W. F. PEET
- 40CAN YOU PLAY A MAN’S PART?
- 41IV
- 42CHAPTER VII
- 43I
- 44II
- 45III
- 46IV
- 47V
- 48VI
- 49CHAPTER VIII
- 50I
- 51II
- 52III
- 53ZEECO!”
- 54CHAPTER IX
- 55I
- 56II
- 57CHAPTER X
- 58I
- 59II
- 60III
- 61A1.”
- 62CHAPTER XI
- 63I
- 64II
- 65III
- 66IV
- 67V
- 68CHAPTER XII
- 69I
- 70II
- 71III
- 72IV
- 73CHAPTER XIII
- 74I
- 75R. E. B.
- 76II
- 77III
- 78IV
- 79V
- 80VI
- 81VII
- 82VIII
- 83IX
- 84X
- 85WROLLICKING WRENS
- 86XI
- 87CHAPTER XIV
- 88I
- 89II
- 90III
- 91IV
- 92CHAPTER XV
- 93I
- 94II
- 95TICKLER NO. 3
- 96III
- 97IV
- 98V
- 99CHAPTER XVI
- 100I
- 101II
- 102III
- 103book-shop and till after midnight he read them and admired.
- 104IV
- 105CHAPTER XVII
- 106I
- 107book-marks and blackboard drawings and so on, but when it comes down to
- 108II
- 109III
- 110IV
- 111V
- 112CHAPTER XVIII
- 113I
- 114II
- 115III
- 116IV
- 117V
- 118CHAPTER XIX
- 119I
- 120II
- 121scene, “He’s here!”
- 122III
- 123IV
- 124V
- 125CHAPTER XX
- 126I
- 127II
- 128CHAPTER XXI
- 129SERVICE AND BOOSTERISM
- 130DAD PETERSEN.
- 131CHAPTER XXII
- 132I
- 133II
- 134III
- 135CHAPTER XXIII
- 136I
- 137II
- 138III
- 139IV
- 140CHAPTER XXIV
- 141I
- 142II
- 143III
- 144IV
- 145CHAPTER XXV
- 146I
- 147II
- 148III
- 149IV
- 150CHAPTER XXVI
- 151I
- 152II
- 153III
- 154CHAPTER XXVII
- 155I
- 156II
- 157III
- 158IV
- 159V
- 160CHAPTER XXVIII
- 161CHAPTER XXIX
- 162I
- 163II
- 164III
- 165IV
- 166CHAPTER XXX
- 167I
- 168II
- 169III
- 170IV
- 171CHAPTER XXXI
- 172I
- 173II
- 174CHAPTER XXXII
- 175I
- 176II
- 177III
- 178IV
- 179V
- 180CHAPTER XXXIII
- 181I
- 182II
- 183CHAPTER XXXIV
- 184I
- 185II
- 186III
- 187IV
- 188V
- 189VI
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