Comments on: The Magnificent Ambersons: The Unheralded Pleasures of Smugness http://alongwithahammer.com/2008/03/31/the-magnificent-ambersons-the-unheralded-pleasures-of-smugness/ Classic books, modern take, no surrender. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:18:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: jwrosenzweig http://alongwithahammer.com/2008/03/31/the-magnificent-ambersons-the-unheralded-pleasures-of-smugness/#comment-389 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:10:33 +0000 http://alongwithahammer.wordpress.com/?p=111#comment-389 This is a very good reflection on Tarkington’s style–but don’t you feel that, in some sense, the 3rd person narrator and Georgie’s personality were fighting for control of the book? The narrator clearly has a different agenda–seems, often, totally unaware that this is the story of one specific young man and his interactions with a small cast of family and “friends”. We go winging out away from that plot the moment the narrator gets some steam, noting the changes in the world, etc. I think this creates the strange, almost schizoid situation in which the novel seems to be both an attack on the old-fashioned aristocracy and an attack on everything the aristocracy hated and was destroyed by.

For me, in the end, Tarkington’s narrator troubled me mostly because I felt it was obvious Booth had more in him than this book, and I kept waiting for him to really get a hold of the story and do what he could with it. We’ll see how I feel about Alice Adams, though. :-)

]]> By: Discuss. : clusterflock http://alongwithahammer.com/2008/03/31/the-magnificent-ambersons-the-unheralded-pleasures-of-smugness/#comment-30 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:27:19 +0000 http://alongwithahammer.wordpress.com/?p=111#comment-30 [...] —”The Magnificent Ambersons: The Unheralded Pleasures of Smugness” by Diablevert at We Came Along with a Hammer: Classic Books, Modern Take, No Surrender. [...]

]]> By: Diablevert http://alongwithahammer.com/2008/03/31/the-magnificent-ambersons-the-unheralded-pleasures-of-smugness/#comment-29 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:01:19 +0000 http://alongwithahammer.wordpress.com/?p=111#comment-29 Oh, It’s not like I thought it was god’s gift or nuthin’, I thought it was just alright. Went down easy for the most part, and I chalk that up as something of an accomplishment with a main character like George. Wharton is a better writer by miles. (And I’ve read Ethan Frome.)

]]> By: Dreadful Penny http://alongwithahammer.com/2008/03/31/the-magnificent-ambersons-the-unheralded-pleasures-of-smugness/#comment-28 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:05:55 +0000 http://alongwithahammer.wordpress.com/?p=111#comment-28 I’ve been basking in the glow of this entry for a while. Right on, d.v… even though you like this book way more than I do.

]]>