BABBITT is a truly remarkable work that offers a devastatingly funny and yet endearing portrayal of George Babbitt, a 46-year-old suburban real estate broker in 1920.

As one delves into the pages of BABBITT, it is both fascinating and disturbing to note how little American business, marriages, and men have changed over the past 91 years. In 1920, gas cost 31 cents a gallon, liquor was illegal but in plentiful supply, and the internet was unthinkable. However, George's emotional blend of bluster, bullying, babyish pouting, and his desperate need for love and admiration seems eternal. He is like Homer Simpson in frameless glasses and a well-cut gray suit.

The world he inhabits, with new suburbs built over old orchards, shady real estate deals, conventions, and lunches where the old boys puff themselves up, drink to excess, and rant about socialist unions, has also changed little. The genius of BABBITT lies in its ability to evoke compassion for the kind of man one might fear and despise in daily life.

BABBITT is often described as an acutely observed but somewhat poorly written novel about business. However, it can also be seen as a brilliantly written novel about American marriage and its extension to the larger framework of American social life. Similar to MAIN STREET and DODSWORTH, BABBITT focuses on the marital power struggle, with one party striving for conformity to a shallow social order and the other seeking a more meaningful life.

In MAIN STREET, the wife was the rebel, while in BABBITT, it is George who longs to escape the boredom of business, church, golf, and middle-aged marriage and run off with a dream girl to the "darkness beyond mysterious groves." His wife, Myra, represents the forces of habit, affection, and convention that hold him back.

Lewis's sympathies in MAIN STREET were with the oppressed artistic woman, but in BABBITT, we get the husband's perspective on marriage, yet Lewis still observes him with an amusingly ironic eye. By the time he wrote DODSWORTH, Lewis had lost his ironic perspective and wholeheartedly defended the alcoholic and overbearing husband. This makes BABBITT, where the author takes no sides in the battle between George and Myra for the upper hand, his masterpiece.

BABBITT was not without its critics. Mark Schorer criticized its "aesthetic crudities," Edith Wharton, to whom it was dedicated, objected to its "excess of slang," and Gore Vidal faulted it for lacking a plot. However, these criticisms may have been due to the radical technical innovations of this best-selling author.

BABBITT's plotless pastiche of voices, including those from social classes not typically considered proper subjects for literature, anticipates the postmodern techniques of writers like William Gaddis, Donald Barthelme, and William Burroughs. Lewis's technique was no accident; as a man who had made money selling plots to Jack London and had his most famous portrait done by Dadaist Man Ray, he knew exactly what he was doing when he structured BABBITT as a series of scenes that reveal George mainly through dialogue and from a succession of cubist angles.

BABBITT does not resolve with a dramatic climax but in an ironic circle. George, who in the first scene complains to his wife of a pain in his side that he thinks might be appendicitis, is ultimately brought back to his marriage and social group by his wife's appendicitis operation. What is truly remarkable about BABBITT is that, despite its technical innovations, it remains highly readable ninety years after its publication.

Oh dear........

I just could not finish this book although I struggled through about half of it.

I really wanted to read Dodsworth, but my used book store didn't have it. So, I settled for this one by the same famous author. However, it turned out to be the wrong choice for me!

Apparently, I am missing something about this book. There is really no plot to speak of. Instead, it is comprised of scenes of conversation among friends and family. For me, these scenes got old really fast.

I am assuming that the author was trying to make a point about business practices and family life in the 1920s. But then again, maybe not. I just wasn't getting it, and I'm feeling rather stupid that I'm missing the point.

Perhaps I need to give this book another chance at a later time, or maybe it's just not the right fit for my reading preferences. Only time will tell.

Well, if that’s what you call being at peace, for heaven’s sake just warn me before you go to war, will you?

Well, Babbitt is the American idea at peace. And it indeed constitutes a warning that we should be taking seriously! It seems that either my memory is becoming more and more nostalgic, or Sinclair Lewis has hit the nail on the head time and time again, in the same frustrating way that Atwood and Orwell did. He managed to see the ugliness before it reached its full extent. We must beware of good-natured American ambition. It can be a killer! And we should be even more cautious of its twin, American morality! It can be a sinner!

Let us be warned, for Lewis got it right. His portrayal of the American mindset through Babbitt serves as a wake-up call. We need to look closely at our own society and values, and not be blind to the potential pitfalls that lie beneath the surface. Only by being aware and vigilant can we hope to avoid the mistakes and excesses that Lewis so vividly described.

A century after its publication, Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt still holds a significant place in our language. It is used to describe a particular kind of self-satisfied, narrow-minded Middle American. This type of person is easily recognizable, even to those who have only briefly glanced at Lewis's books in a Barnes and Noble store.

Like his previous work, Main Street, Babbitt is a study of mediocrity. The title character, George F. Babbitt, is an insufferable egotist. Middle-aged, married with children, a successful businessman, and a committed Republican, he appears to have everything. However, Babbitt gradually comes to resent his "life of barren heartiness." Although he can easily find companionship among his classmates and fellow businessmen, he feels no true connection with them.

His wife often seems distant, his children show no interest in following in his footsteps, and his friends bend the rules of propriety through various means, such as engaging in crooked business practices, having romantic affairs, or drinking bootleg alcohol. After unwittingly provoking a friend to commit a terrible crime, Babbitt embarks on a pitiful little rebellion. This mainly consists of empty flirtations with women, attending the services of a religious crank, and befriending a labor leader to display his "liberal-mindedness."

Lewis presents a pitiful portrayal of a ridiculous man, foreshadowing works like Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Babbitt's vague, persistent dissatisfaction leads him on a fruitless quest for fulfillment. He is too complacent to truly understand what is wrong with his life. He has no interest in art or literature, only a passing, automatic understanding of politics, and his leisure hobbies are empty and unfulfilling.

Yet, all his "rebellion" earns him is the animosity of the community, especially from a vigilante committee organized by the town elders. He also comes to the bitter realization that "I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my life!" While Babbitt may be too gloomy for some readers, those who have the patience for Lewis's cynicism and almost absurdist humor will appreciate this story of a man who is intelligent enough to recognize his failures but lacks the courage or the acumen to do much about them. In essence, it is the ultimate middle-class tragedy.

Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt is an unputdownable classic. Even a hundred years after its initial publication, the themes and subjects it explores remain utterly relevant and true.

Here we have a man, George F. Babbitt, whose life goal was to amass wealth and success from a societal perspective rather than a personal one. His greatest joy in life was to take time away from his successes to chat freely and undisturbed in the wilderness with his oldest and best friend Paul.

Babbitt spent his whole life "settling upwards," playing a minor role in the center of his own life and accepting the impositions of others because "it was the right thing to do." Lewis takes the time to explore how quickly a series of choices made by others and accepted by a "man" (you, in your life journey) can lead to a seemingly fixed path that we cannot happily follow.

Likewise, Lewis delves into the difficulties of accumulated comfort and societal roles. He points out how often we lie to ourselves about life to make those around us more comfortable. The person we become rather than who we are becomes the expected and welcomed social identity. To disrupt this is to upset the balance of things. To be true is to be untrue in the "truth" of society.

Saying more would take away from the book's journey. I can't say whether I should have read this earlier or later in life, but I'm happy I read it now. It's most likely easily available now that it's in the public domain.

- Side note: I finally picked this up because of a Joseph Campbell interview where he mentions a real-life encounter with a Babbitt at a diner.

Babbitt's story is a complex and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition, society, and the search for meaning and authenticity. It makes us question our own lives, the choices we make, and the roles we play.

Throughout the book, we see Babbitt struggle with his desires, his discontentment, and his attempts to break free from the constraints of society. We witness his relationships with his family, friends, and colleagues, and how these relationships shape his identity.

Lewis's writing is vivid and engaging, bringing the characters and the setting to life. His use of dialogue and description allows us to get inside Babbitt's mind and understand his thoughts and feelings.

Babbitt is a must-read for anyone interested in literature, sociology, or the human experience. It challenges us to think critically about our lives and the world around us, and to consider whether we are truly living the lives we want to live.

So, if you haven't already, pick up a copy of Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt and embark on a journey of self-discovery and reflection. You won't be disappointed.

Rating: 9/10

It took a hundred years from the first publication of this classic novel in the United States for it to be translated into Greek and circulate in our country. And it took almost ten months from the time I bought it until I finally sat down to read it and thus come into contact for the first time with the Nobel Prize-winning author, Sinclair Lewis. Obviously, I was waiting until I had the right mood for such a book, or perhaps there are so many wonderful books out there that inevitably many have to wait for a while before I read them...

Well, this is an amazing novel, a sharp parody of American society in the author's era, an extremely clever and spiritual satire on hypocrisy, conformism, materialism, and vanity of the middle class in the United States shortly after the end of World War I. The author portrays with unique quality and finesse the portrait of a characteristic example of his era, middle-aged George F. Babbitt, a real estate agent with a family of three children, a proud member of the Chamber of Commerce and many different clubs, who is not spiritually cultivated but has graduated from college, who doesn't particularly believe in any religion but goes to church because it is required, and who ultimately conforms to the standards of society, although deep down he is not sure if he is living the life he wanted to live and has his doubts. However, of course, this does not mean that he will be able to escape from the beaten path. In fact, they say that in the era when the book was written, the name Babbitt entered the lexicon to denote the materialistic, vain, and complacent citizen who conforms to social standards.

The book is full of characteristic moments and scenes that reveal another era, which in some details of its vices is not so very different from today. The writing is wonderful, holistic, poetic, and extremely easy to read, making the book read particularly quickly and pleasantly while being able to put the reader in the process of thinking about some things about his life, but also in general about the society around him. Yes, I had my expectations before I started it (they say that this book was a major reason why Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Literature) and now that I have finished it, I can say that these expectations were more than met. The only certain thing is that I will read other novels by the author, although it is really a pity that he has not been given the appropriate attention in Greece.

I must admit at the beginning that when I first took a look at the novel and the summary mentioned on the book page of the Nobel Friends Club, I didn't feel excited. And the fact that the available version was electronic almost made me reluctant to read it. But here I am, having finished it with a completely different perspective than before I read it.

The translation is very good, completely devoid of artificiality, just like Babbit exactly. There are many interesting details, and it's not the kind of thing you usually get bored reading on the first few pages until you find yourself enjoying it later and it starts to take shape in front of you exactly as the author intended. (Note: I found myself seeing things around me differently, full of details. During my walk outside today, I started to observe the buildings, the cars, and the street, and there was a small Sinclair Lewis in my head describing everything I saw.)

The reality of the novel made me feel a kind of depression because Sinclair Lewis not only failed to describe a certain stage that American society went through in the 1920s, but it is also a stage that many conservative societies go through after a boom in other eras, a boom of wealth, openness to others, diversity of cultures, and prosperity. I was reading ideas, attitudes, and situations that perhaps we are experiencing now in our conservative and traditional societies (with of course different external appearances).

I really think that George F. Babbit exists around us in different forms and perhaps also inside us. The dear Babbit, with his false ambitions and double standards, the Babbit who has a revolution inside him that he suppresses so as not to lose the security of belonging and the safety of superiority. Lewis is creative in Babbit's inner dialogues: his pride and vanity in the appearances of prosperity around him, his contempt for himself for his desire to break free from the constraints of his work and family, his feelings when he was excluded from the clique. The detailed description of how to start conversations with new people amazed me. In fact, there are details about things that I don't think any other writer would notice, let alone describe, analyze, and present them in this enjoyable way.

It is really a wonderful novel.

Here we have another classic that was penned nearly 100 years ago. People persist in classifying it as something that reveals how time has truly not altered much over the years. Many assert that it appears so contemporary.

On the final page, our protagonist, George Babbitt, remarks to his young son, who has just eloped and married and has no desire to continue his life as a university student, "I have not accomplished much in my life that I truly wished to do. So, I want to back you in your decision to pursue your desires."

The era depicted in this book is shown to be anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-immigrant. Sadly, perhaps things haven't changed significantly. George occasionally strays into corruption within his real estate business and also engages in some brief skirt chasing. He briefly strays into liberalism and anti-Christianity until he returns to the fold of conservatism. His ultimate hope for his son to have a different life than his own is perhaps the sole optimism in the book.

I found the writing style to be rather simple and direct. There isn't much that is fancy or elegant about it. The swearing was restricted to "golly," although "nigger" was seemingly an accepted term. That is probably telling. And our hero slept in a bed separate from his wife.

Another re-read of a high school book.

My current paperback is actually the same edition/cover as the one I read way back when, so I had to choose a different one, also Signet from 1961. So far it's pretty easy to read, but dated, obviously. One balks at the portrayal of the family and its Patriarch. However, Sinclair Lewis (SL) grew up in the midwest (Zenith = St. Paul/Minneapolis... Des Moines... Cincinnati etc.), so he gets the benefit of the doubt. This society-history portrait goes back a bit less than a hundred years. George is about the age of my grandparents.

Moving slowly so far, but will speed up now that I'm done with "Three Tales." SL continues to paint a picture of George Babbitt, the discontented middle-class striver and money-maker. George's life is missing that certain something (romance/sex, transcendence), and I suspect he'll be pursuing those dreams shortly. So far, the author's need to tell his reader how he feels about this stuff is front and center, prose-wise. This is pretty much typical Sinclair Lewis, as I recall. He can't seem to help himself and just write the story. He MUST tell us what he thinks about it all as things develop. Still, this is not a reason to avoid reading Lewis. His target is middle-class, middle west, hard-working white collar America. Republican through and through. It's obvious that the story of George Babbitt, as with those of all Sinclair Lewis "heroes," will (one way or another) be a vehicle to explore and uncover the spiritual/emotional shortcomings of a society based on a capitalist economy.

This is turning out to be a bit better than I thought it would be. I'm upping my rating to 4* for now.

My first read of this book took place some time during high school 54+ years ago (ouch!). My memory of the plot is pretty sketchy, but a bit more of it is leaking back into my memory now. Babbitt is developing a sort of career as a Republican blowhard windbag. His defects of character will put a stop to that. He's a blatant and clueless hypocrite, for one thing, and this is one big point that SL is making about these money-loving, self-congratulatory Christian strivers. Does he have any compassion for them? So far, not much, but there seems to be a bit leaking in here and there. His big target is American white culture in general, the kind of culture whose wobbly current status in the face of the rise in political and economic power of minorities and women has made enough people crazy-desperate enough to have voted for an out-and-out scumbag like Donald Trump; the present day Great White Chief of the G.O.W.P.P. (Grand Old White People's Party)... God help us all - hint: don't count on it.

- One thing made clear in this book is the very spotty development of a positive adult character and personality in George. In many ways he's a big, spoiled self-adoring/self-hating baby.

- Does Sinclair Lewis, a definite Lefty, politically speaking, stack the rhetorical deck a bit in his portrayal of Republican "values," (and prejudices) as expressed in the many texts of speeches he presents? Hard to say, since I wasn't there in Omaha (or wherever) in the 1920's. There was plenty of nativism and bigotry coming from that side back then. It receded a bit over the years, but has never gone away. American Nazis, Ku Klux Klan-ism etc...

The plot... the "conflict"... will (I assume) be kicking in pretty soon. Running out of pages.

The stage is being set for George's brief walk on the wild side with his rather abrupt "conversion" to political liberalism. Mainly he seems to be lonely and bored (and horny).

Finished up last night as George tries to slip the bonds of mid-west, middle-class, narrow-minded conformity but fails miserably and in the end is mostly happy to be back in the bosom of acceptance by his mercantile peers. Too scary to be out on the edges. That's where the sixties happened. It took an even bigger war and an economic catastrophe to get things going in the late 50's. Then it was Katie bar the door. What we have now is an incoherent mish-mash. No "national culture" at all. We still love stuff and money, though. The afterword by Mark Shorer was very interesting and helpful. I usually don't get into the lit history and analysis that much, preferring the subjective to the objective in my response to a read, but this was enlightening about the author's approach. I still say that if Mr. Lewis was aiming for farce and humor, that his heavy hand with irony was not exactly helpful. The same thing happens in "Dodsworth." Still, very much worth reading. A quote from Mr. Shorer, a leading literary critic (and a short story writer) of his times (the sixties), former chairman of the English Dept. at Cal-Berkeley...

"The drift of our commercial culture in the forty years since "Babbitt" suggests that Lewis did little to alter it, perhaps; but he was the first novelist to tell us explicitly into what stupid, and finally devastating, social damnation we were drifting. Have we landed?"

- 3.75 rounds up to 4*

Though written in the 1920s, this book could easily pass for a contemporary work. I was truly amazed by how relatable and familiar it felt. Lewis masterfully captures a yearning that I believe many people experience. In his pitiable and unlikable hero, he vividly descries the fate of modernity.

I would much rather have read this book than "The Great Gatsby" in high school. However, it's possible that I wouldn't have fully understood it at that time.

The tone, irony, and poignancy in this book really made a profound impact on me. I'm so inspired that I want to write a paper about it!

Definitely, this is one book that I will have to revisit in a few years. I'm eager to see how my perspective and understanding of it might change with the passage of time and the acquisition of more life experiences.

Sinclair Lewis, an American playwright and novelist, truly deserves your sincere respect as a reader. After watching the film "Elmer Gantry," which is adapted from a novel by Sinclair Lewis, starring the Hollywood giants Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons, I was deeply impressed. In this film, Sinclair Lewis explores the religious debate and the religious awakening that prevailed in that era. I recalled reading a critical article that ridiculed those who claim that Lewis exposes and mocks his society. However, this is not what I have concluded from this novel and the film. The religious dialogue atmosphere in the film, such as "The Lord moves in mysterious ways" or "Do the best you can and leave the rest to the Lord," seems to be in contradiction with this novel written by another pen. The focus is on the description of materials, as if human vision is confined to what one possesses and is born to possess! In this novel, we find the power of economic power influencing and actually governing a country like America, as if it is the only power and there is no other power. Just as the religious power did in the film, and both lack the power of reason... This difference undoubtedly shows Lewis's ingenuity and, more importantly, his deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature for his creation of new types of characters with a sense of humorous satire. It is enough to be proud that characters like Elmer Gantry and George F. Babbitt are of literary imagination.

The important thing here is the surprise that the mention of Sinclair Lewis in those religious dialogues in the film, through the mouth of Elmer Gantry, as a heretical and immoral writer, increased the importance of the film in my eyes. And the main character here, George F. Babbitt, appeared there as a secondary character, the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in Zenith, the capital of the American Midwest, as described, to enhance his economic position. He was there a successful businessman who asked for the help of the revival group (Elmer Gantry and Sister Sharon Falconer) to come to the city of Zenith, whose churches had become empty of believers despite its prosperity, which warns of danger. Of course, this man has more than one successful, accessible, and enterprising side. The question that haunts me as a reader - and even bores me to death - is whether there are such bridges that will intersect in his works that I have not yet understood their dimensions?

There are many opinions that have linked Sinclair Lewis's view in this novel about a business leader, an administrative and economic figure, with the rise of Trump to power, and there have been articles dedicated to this prophecy that preceded its time by 80 years. And this view is detailed in Lewis's novel "It Can't Happen Here," which caused public outcry about a business leader with strange behaviors and even stranger views. It has not been translated into Arabic yet, as I believe, but it is widely known and gained more popularity during the days of Trump's election campaigns. Generally, it is not uncommon in literature to present such prophecies before their time. This is evidence that the writer does not write from an ivory tower but studies his society and is good at predicting where it will go and setting off with it. That is, the intellectual security that Lewis embraces to navigate these difficult waters and raise questions before their time, all of which is a conviction that his people are capable of confronting such difficulties and that he leads them in his role. He leads them by presenting the vivid picture from a different angle each time without neglecting the picture. So you will not find a single view of Lewis that imposes a different point of view from the source of the characters' thinking in the novel. They were all Babbitts until Lewis was no longer interested in reforming them... If you are looking for a novel whose author's voice is completely absent, then this is it. For the situation itself speaks and the author's compassion drips as he guides how it goes... And I think this is the reason for the turmoil it caused in American society at that time.

The physical description and the thought structure of the character - Babbitt - are very similar to the great Gatsby, and this is very noticeable and natural because the novel was written about "the Jazz Age," as Fitzgerald himself named it for his great novel. The Jazz Age does not only include the type of music that spread at that time but also the age of inventions such as the car, the telephone, the radio, and the age of the unexpected economic boom and the lightness *frivolity* after the slump left by World War I.

What is unique about the character of George F. Babbitt? Perhaps it is that he is very human and puts his trousers on one leg at a time, so there is no place for perfection in his thinking and actions. As long as he breathes, he will not ultimately decide his matter about something. He raises his own madness before ours... He is a real man, no matter what men say about him. This does not represent us, but Babbitt gives the concerns of men around the world, even the most noble goals that a person flees from and accepts as a reader, gives him excuses, and circulates with him in the circles of his concerns and the concerns of those who matter to him.

The translation is excellent and deserves attention.

"How could he have endured all these years of his life..."


"The building was large - and Babbitt respected size in everything."


"If people don't like prison, then let them behave well so that they stay out of it."


"The morality of most people is a little warped, so they expect a person to lie to them in advance."


"All we do is that one of us cuts the throat of the other and then makes the public pay for it!"


"What do you expect? Do you think we came to this world to walk in it in a nice moment - what is this?... Do you think we came to sleep on a bed of flowers? Do you think that man was created to be only happy?"



"For many minutes, for many hours, for an eternity of empty, sad time, Babbitt lay asleep, awake, restless, turning to his simple mind, realizing that he had won freedom, wondering what he could do with something he did not know to this extent... Freedom that drives him to this degree."

"You sometimes have to beautify things in order to be able to influence some people."

Nobel Literature Prize winner Sinclair Lewis, the first American to receive this honor, introduced the character of Babbitt to literature. His novel critiques American society and culture, especially the middle class and its value judgments. Babbitt is a white, middle-class real estate agent who regularly attends church for social status. He is married with two children. In the post-World War II era, as industrialization accelerated and society became a consumer society, he, like most middle-class Americans, lives to make more money and gain more. His city center, where the buildings designed by architects increasingly lack charm and the squares rise, reflects the profit-oriented mindset of the era. Babbitt's car, the decoration of his house (Lewis describes the furniture in the house at length, reminiscent of Georges Perec's "Things"), and the clubs where he dines are all due to his social status. Lewis skillfully weaves in the deep cultural erosion, the imposition of ideas and political views through the media, the growing devaluation of education, and the popularity of making money quickly. I both laughed and was surprised that life coaching had become a 'career' even then. More generally, Lewis has painted a successful portrait of the United States with its social and political issues of the era, such as the communist hunt and racism. In this context, we read the adventures of a character who becomes alienated from himself, his surroundings, and nature.

Because it describes a lifestyle, the book is not event-driven and thus seems static. Lewis has a simple and classic narrative style, and the novel was published in 1922. In this regard, in addition to what he describes, I have read many excellent novels that are also extraordinary in terms of language, narrative, and plot, such as "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "The Narrow Road to the Deep North." It is not fair to compare, but when I read other works that had a great impact on me on the same topic in a short period, unfortunately, Babbitt seemed a bit dimmed. But it is undoubtedly a beautiful classic. I especially recommend it to those who want to read a classic that offers a pleasant yet successful social criticism without being overly forceful. The book was previously published in Turkey by Altın Kitaplar under the name "İbret."