George F. Babbitt resides and undertakes his work in the vibrant (albeit fictional) midsize Midwestern town of Zenith, Winnemac (loosely modeled after real-life Cincinnati, Ohio) in the year 1920.

He functions as a middleman, engaged in the sale of real estate, often persuading customers to pay more than they can actually afford. Every day, he turns to the most esteemed local newspaper to obtain his daily dose of opinions, yet not always comprehending the origin of those viewpoints. Babbitt attended a State University and relies on his underpaid secretary to rectify the spelling and grammatical mistakes in his sales letters.

His social circle predominantly consists of his former classmates from State U, his fellow World War One veterans, and other middle-aged Americans within Zenith's business community, with these groups being nearly indistinguishable. The narrative unfolds in a rather predictable (albeit satirical under Sinclair Lewis' pen) middling chaos until Babbitt's wife departs town to care for a family member, and suddenly, the once orderly life takes an unexpected turn.

This American literary classic, published in 1922, might not be stylistically avant-garde (as Hemingway griped in a letter to a friend that Lewis wrote "shitily"), but it is replete with profound insights into the unyielding vitality and energy of the 1920s American business culture and the predicament of an ordinary man who discovers himself feeling lonely amidst a crowd. Sensationalist news reporting, evangelists invited by the business community ostensibly to "sell" religion but实则 to suppress labor unrest, and even "church-growth campaigns" – all are lampooned here. All of this and more remain integral parts of middle America. I wholeheartedly recommend this novel. Read Lewis's MAIN STREET to envision how America was, but read BABBITT to understand how America evolved into what it is today.

updated June 14, 2018

Regarding

When the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1930 for the first time to a writer from the New World - the American Sinclair Lewis - the Swedish Academy justified this choice of Sinclair Lewis by saying that it was "for his powerful and graphic description, and his ability to create a new type of characters with all their richness and lightness of shadow."

This description was very accurate. By that time, Sinclair Lewis had created, with all his might, characters that are unforgettable, from Martin Arrowsmith in the novel "Arrowsmith" - which was presented by the National Center for Translation in 2009 with a translation by Mahmoud Aziz Moussa - to Elmer Gantry in the eponymous novel, which unfortunately has not been translated, to Carol Milford in the novel "Main Street" - which was presented by the Nahdat Misr Publishing House in 1967 with a translation by Aminah El-Saei - and finally George Babbitt in the novel "Babbitt" - which was presented by Dar Al-Tanweer in 2015 with a wonderful translation by Harth Al-Nabhani. All these characters that Sinclair Lewis captured and presented with a scathing satire, once of the middle class, another of the scientific community, and a third of the religious fanatics. Sinclair Lewis, in all this, was following a keen American tradition in discovering and revealing unforgettable human characters. We all know very well the poor lover Jay Gatsby, the confused teenager Holden Caulfield, the crazy old man Humbert Humbert, the ethical lawyer Atticus Finch, the old fisherman Santiago, the dull academic William Stoner, and many other characters that were invented by American novelists.

In "Babbitt," we get to know George Babbitt, a middle-aged man, married with a son and two daughters, working as a real estate agent in the city of Zenith in the 1920s. Lewis uses the character of Babbitt and his ideas and actions to satirize and harshly criticize the American middle class. For this reason, his winning the Nobel Prize was a shock to the Americans, because they considered it a European caricature of the image he presented of them through Sinclair Lewis's characters. But Lewis doesn't care about all this. He even refuses, several years before the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize that was offered to him for his novel "Arrowsmith."

But Babbitt is not a completely fictional image. He exists among us. He is more like a symbol of the middle class not only in the time period in which the novel was written but even in our time, almost a century after the novel was written. For this reason, we can easily, starting from the novel, coin the term "Babbittism" to describe all these social individuals who act in their work, family, and social lives based on the fairness of facts and mountains of assumptions. The Babbitt is a fictional person at his core, superficial, verbose, with an exaggerated idea of himself and his social values. The Babbitt loves big words and is enthusiastic about new ideas even if he doesn't understand them. We can summarize the Babbitt by saying that he thinks he is living in a fantasy that he will later collide with the facts.

One of the most beautiful events in the novel that shows this Babbittian trait begins when George Babbitt goes on a solo mountain trip to collect the remains of his deceased friend. Babbitt decides on the way that the mountains are for men, and he is a tough man like the guide. So he decides to take a long walk with his guide. It is a heroic trip in which they penetrate the forest on foot. Babbitt imagines the heroic glory that the distance, walking, and heroic feeling will bring him. The guide tries to convince him to take a boat on a river trip that will shorten a lot of the distance to the camp, as many non-Babbitts do. But Babbitt refuses because this definitely goes against his imagined heroism and destroys the carefully drawn illusions. The guide surrenders, and they end up lost in the middle of the forest, with their feet hurting and no heroic conversations. This is how the Babbitt acts and lives his life, and this is how his beliefs, convictions, and political views are.

Lewis tries, in the enjoyable chapters, to explore what would happen if Babbitt tried to break free from his Babbittian state. We see George Babbitt influenced by the ideas of a university professor about workers and their rights. He begins to try to understand what is going on around him instead of being proud of his imagined ideas. He also begins to flee from the boredom of his married life and the burden of society and its dull social occasions. But society is tough and takes responsibility for returning him to the fold. Society always builds itself on thousands of Babbitts, and there is no place in it for those who are outside of Babbittism. So society takes care to make Babbitt feel alienated, rejected, and worthless. This reminds us somewhat of the situation that Albert Camus described in his novel "The Stranger" when Meursault is judged not because of what he did but because of his difference and strangeness. But unlike Meursault, society leaves a door open for Babbitt to return through, which he does happily. This is how Babbitt returns to be even more Babbittian and more miserable.

A classic novel was published in 1922.

The novel describes the capitalist social system that is based on the accumulation of wealth and the privileged social position at the expense of the individual's personality, his ambitions, and his personal life.

The novel tells the story of a character named Babt, who is a successful real estate agent in terms of work and society. He has a successful career, a family, financial security, and a privileged social position. However, Babt experiences a period of boredom, fatigue, and a sense of meaninglessness in his life due to his ordinary and limited life.... He goes through a period of self-evaluation of his life and nature, during which he rebels against social customs, putting his life, reputation, social position, and family at risk.

This novel caused chaos at the time of its publication because it described the prevailing system in American society, which encourages the accumulation of wealth and raises the value of social position at the expense of the individual and his personality, so that the individual is obliged to do what this society wants from him....

I think that evaluating a translation without comparing it to another translation is not fair... but we evaluate a translation based on the translator's ability to clarify the picture for the reader and convey the idea in a simple and uncomplicated way. Therefore, I consider the translation here to be simple, easy, unpretentious, with ideas that are arranged, clear, and related in the course of the novel....

The reasons for the turmoil that the novel caused upon its publication, I think, are due to the author's ability to describe American society in that period through the relationships that connect the members of society, the emergence of classes in society based on the individual's income, which determines his social position. Even the educated and those with privileged positions were interested in attracting those who could meet their interests for a limited period, and this was evident through the differences in the relationships of the businessman Babt with different classes of the educated, the businesspeople, the politicians, and those who looked down on the other classes of society.

What I really want to point out is the great author's ability to describe the characters and places with high accuracy and ease in description without exaggeration, the structure of the novel or the course of events, as well as creating new characters along with the course of the novel and describing these characters in great depth.

The novel ends with a conversation between Babt and his son Ted, who goes against the traditions of society, marries whom he wants, and leaves the university to work in a job below his social level in order to achieve what he wants, not what his society and reputation expect of him.

My favorite book is a truly remarkable piece of literature that has captured my heart and imagination.

It takes me on a thrilling journey through different worlds and introduces me to a cast of unforgettable characters.

The story is filled with excitement, adventure, and moments of great emotion that keep me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.

The author's writing style is engaging and descriptive, painting vivid pictures in my mind and making me feel as if I am right there in the story.

Whether I am reading it for the first time or revisiting it for the umpteenth time, I always discover something new and wonderful.

This book has become a constant companion in my life, bringing me joy and inspiration whenever I pick it up.

It is not just a book to me, but a source of endless entertainment and a gateway to a world of limitless possibilities.

I will always cherish this book and recommend it to anyone who loves a good story.

Satire on capitalism with almost a century but of blatant actuality.

Babbit inhabits a world homogenized by the will of those who measure the most diverse values by quantity (even if it is that of the price).

We have in this head of the family - a caricatural result of his circumstances - an ironic model not far from the brilliant minds that create the IL memes, but being endowed with the just and necessary account for the minimum Olympic levels of empathy that guarantees the maintenance of the reader's interest.

Delicious and unmissable. This satirical work offers a scathing critique of the capitalist system, highlighting its flaws and the ways in which it shapes our society. Babbit's world is a reflection of our own, where consumerism and materialism reign supreme. The author uses humor and irony to expose the absurdities of this world, making us laugh while also making us think. Despite its age, the book remains relevant today, as we continue to grapple with the consequences of a capitalist economy. It serves as a reminder that we need to question the values that underpin our society and strive for a more just and equitable world.

”... a very rare phenomenon occurred in his life: he doubted his own perfection.”

Nearly thirty years after its establishment, in 1930, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded for the first time to an American writer: Sinclair Lewis.
In the speech he gave at the ceremony, he said:

"In America, most of us — not only readers, but also writers — still have a fear of literature that is not a glorification of everything that is American, an exaltation of our defects as well as our virtues", and that the United States is "the most contradictory, depressing, exciting country in the world today".

This was somewhat the essence of his work.
“Babbitt” (1922), in particular, is a satirical novel that mocks the standardization of the American way of life.

The story takes place in the fictional city of Zenith, a name that makes it evident that it is an emblematic place through which to observe the way of life and thought of many other American cities.
George Babbitt runs a real estate agency and leads a respectable life according to the standards accepted by his community:
a wife, two children, a house furnished according to the model of many others, state-of-the-art electronic appliances.
A life watched over and confined within rigid frameworks behind which to hide one's insecurities:
the God of Progress, the Uniform of the Good Bourgeois, the imperative of Production, the Love for the Automobile (a well-known extension of virility), in short, a Good American Citizen and a Good Person who, of course, has blind faith in the Republican Party and all that follows from it.
At forty-seven years old, he is completely immersed in routine, and it takes little to make him doubt.
A small restlessness that, day by day, grows until it demands to be heard and gives birth to the suspicion that he is not such a Successful Man after all.

Structured in thirty-four short chapters (as I love short chapters!), it suffers from some repetition but is essentially an excellent novel that tells us about the mediocrity of the arrivistes, which remains the same after a hundred years.
It would be nice if Lewis were dusted off, perhaps with a more modern translation...

\\"And then the incredible thing happened; Babbitt growled: - How I'd like to give him a kick and throw him into the middle of the street! And lie around all day with my belly in the air! And tonight go back to Gunch's and swear like a Turk and drink a hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer!\\"

Peppy All-American Booster Weathers Mid-Life Crisis

Sinclair Lewis and Thomas Hart Benton, the artist, were around the same age. They both focused on the American Heartland. As I read Lewis, I notice they had something else in common. They both tended to draw cartoonish characters.

George F. Babbitt is the main character of a satire with the same name. You might even laugh out loud in some parts. Lewis is skillful, but sometimes heavy-handed. He has depicted an average Joe of 1920, the pep- and vim-obsessed go-getting businessman who was the foundation of our industrial age. He is hypocritical, materialist, crooked, conformist, and even proto-fascist.

Babbitt is a real estate agent and a family man surrounded by the wealth of material goods provided by thriving industrial capitalism. He enthusiastically and unquestioningly belongs to any organization dedicated to preserving his and his family's easy access to those goods, such as professional groups (realtors association), Boosters, church, and a set social circle. He spouts meaningless platitudes on every subject, knows nothing except the price of real estate and methods of collusion, and ignores his feelings, his family, and the rest of humanity, all while believing that his city, state, and country are the best in the world.

The first 90-odd pages of BABBITT are pure genius. It's one of the best character portraits you're likely to find in American literature, but it's a caricature after all. Lewis' choice of names emphasizes his cartoonish delight in writing this brilliant novel, like Vergil Gunch, Professor Pumphrey, Chet Laylock, Matt Penniman, Muriel Frink, Opal Mudge, Carrie Nork, and Miss McGoun. These names could have been used by MAD magazine years later!

"Babbitt" has long been a word in American English, meaning a conforming materialist citizen without an independent mind. Perhaps this isn't entirely fair.

George experiences a mid-life crisis and rebels against his static, materialistic life with its ignorant attitudes, moral certainties, and boring routines. His closest friend (aren't there certain unspoken homosexual undertones?) commits a despicable act, breaking George's heart. "On the rebound," he meets the fantastically named Tanis Judique, a femme fatale in the Midwest. Certain consequences follow, and Lewis brings in his ever-present fear of American fascist tendencies. There's a rather hopeful ending, also in the American tradition, even if it's not entirely justified.

If you're looking for a starting point to read Sinclair Lewis, BABBITT is an excellent choice. If you already know other Lewis novels, don't miss this one. I would say that along with "Main Street," "Elmer Gantry," and "Dodsworth," BABBITT is at the solid gold core of Sinclair Lewis' work. He definitely deserved that Nobel Prize.

Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
is placed on the 279th place on the Greatest Books of All Time list.

I have had the pleasure of encountering Sinclair Lewis in a literary sense when I read Main Street. I rated it but have not yet reviewed it on Goodreads. Main Street has been included in The Modern Library top 100 books of the 20th century. It should be noted that this list refers only to books written in English. For example, Le Monde has a rather different opinion and list. Babbit has Sinclair Lewis integrated into another category, that of the 50 funniest American writers. So far, I have liked what I've read from Sinclair Lewis, but it wasn't the humor that took me aback. It is difficult to assess as these are the fifty funniest... The fact is that from a humorous perspective, I enjoyed the story of the Red Chief more. Babbit's humor, as I see it, is more restrained. It delves into the intricacies of the club, local, and social arrangements. And coming back to Main Street, I found it much more rewarding. It is a bit of a disappointment, which makes sense, to read humor and funny stories after completing 90% of the lists of best books and find that humor is not such a thrill after all. I do laugh at P. G. Woodhouse and Evelyn Waugh, but I also did when I read Waugh's works listed among the crème de la crème, not just the funniest. Maugham is humorous and the best. So I would rather stick with the best than look for sometimes easy, light entertainment.

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A moment in time - the 1920's in a mid-sized city in Middle America. George Babbit, who is just over 45, has been married for over 20 years and has 3 kids. His daughter has just graduated from college, his teenage son will soon graduate from high school, and the youngest is 10 years old. They live in a 5-year-old house in a suburb of Zenith. George, a realtor, is quite good at his job. He is in a partnership with his father-in-law, who appears almost retired but still engages in a few "shady" deals.

George is going through a middle-age crisis. He is dissatisfied with his life yet doesn't know how to change it. His best friend from college, Paul, is in a similar state of mind. Paul suffers a huge setback in his life, which greatly affects George. George tries to "run away" but soon finds himself back home, still unhappy. Suddenly, he starts acting like a liberal, causing concern among his colleagues who think he's gone to the "dark side." His wife goes out of town to care for a sick relative, and he takes up with a widow and her crowd, drinking, dancing, and carrying on. When his wife returns, he has to restrict his new social life, leading to fights. Then something happens to her that scares George, and he "shapes up," repairing his relationships with the conservatives and once again conforming.

I've read that as a result of this book written in 1920, the term "Babbittry" was coined to mean "behaviour and attitudes characteristic of or associated with the character George F. Babbitt; esp. materialistic complacency and unthinking conformity." However, I don't view George Babbitt in this way. I believe he thought a great deal about his life. By the end of the book, he was certainly not "unthinking" in his conformity. In the beginning, he was indeed materialistic. He showed some courage but then backed down because he decided against destroying his family. He resigned himself to the life of a businessman. But then, he is only 49 when the book ends, and I think there is hope for George. At the very least, he will support his son to do what he wants, rather than what is "expected" of him.

This seems to be an excellent depiction of society in the 1920's, a society very much divided into classes. George belongs to the middle class. We see how the classes interact and the desire of the middle and upper classes to keep the workers in their place. The author uses the language of the time, making the audio a delight to listen to.

**Original Article**: The importance of recycling cannot be overemphasized. It helps reduce waste, conserve natural resources, and protect the environment. Recycling also has economic benefits as it creates jobs in the recycling industry.

**Expanded Article**:

The importance of recycling truly cannot be overemphasized. It plays a crucial role in multiple aspects. Firstly, it significantly helps in reducing waste. By recycling materials such as paper, plastic, and metal, we can prevent them from ending up in landfills, which are already filling up at an alarming rate.

Secondly, recycling is essential for conserving natural resources. For example, recycling paper can save trees, which are vital for maintaining ecological balance. Similarly, recycling metals like aluminum and steel can reduce the need for mining, thereby conserving precious minerals and reducing the environmental impact of mining activities.

Moreover, recycling has significant economic benefits. It creates jobs in the recycling industry, from collection and sorting to processing and manufacturing of recycled products. This not only provides employment opportunities but also contributes to the growth of the economy.

In conclusion, recycling is a win-win situation for both the environment and the economy. We should all make an effort to recycle as much as possible and encourage others to do the same.

**Title: The Enduring Relevance of "Babbitt"**

Babbitt stands as a powerful and enduring critique of the American business establishment. It looms large like a nemesis or an SEC indictment, challenging the very foundation of the business ethic that pervades American society. In a country where warships and spacecraft are named after the concept of free enterprise, the career of George F. Babbitt serves as a sharp rebuke to the early 20th-century American business ethic.

Sinclair Lewis, hailing from the small Midwestern community of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, emerged as a fearless satirist of American life. His works, including Babbitt, painted a vivid and often scathing picture of the middle-class American experience. Set in the fictional city of Zenith, Babbitt follows the life of the eponymous character, a man trapped in a world of dull routine and spiritual emptiness.

Babbitt's life is filled with modern conveniences, yet he lacks true fulfillment. His relationships are strained, and his marriage has become a soulless institution. The mechanical gadgets that surround him symbolize the mechanization of his life, where joy, passion, and wisdom have been replaced by material possessions. Lewis mercilessly exposes the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of Prohibition-era middle-class American life, highlighting the gap between what people claim to believe and how they actually live.

Despite his initial attempts at rebellion, Babbitt ultimately succumbs to the pressure of conformity. However, his final act of siding with his son Ted offers a glimmer of hope. Even in a world that values capital acquisition and fitting in, there is still the possibility of change and growth. One hundred years after its composition, Babbitt remains as relevant as ever, challenging readers to question the norms of our own business culture and to strive for a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

A real classic, moving, and truly written for and into today. Great praise for the translation by Bernhard Robben, which surely has its share in it! Toxic masculinity in deep crisis, but also the terrible solution out of it. One gets to know America and its mentality, but also much more, because it is about existential questions, narcissism, vanities, illusions, and non-communication.

This book offers a profound exploration of the human condition. It delves into the complex issues surrounding toxic masculinity, showing how it can lead to a downward spiral of crisis. However, it also presents a glimmer of hope with the possibility of finding a way out.

Through the story, readers are not only introduced to the unique aspects of American society and its mentality but also confronted with universal themes that resonate on a deeper level. The examination of existential questions forces us to reflect on our own lives and the choices we make.

The portrayal of narcissism, vanities, and illusions serves as a reminder of the importance of self-awareness and authenticity. And the lack of communication highlights the significance of genuine connection and understanding in our relationships. Overall, this is a thought-provoking and engaging read that leaves a lasting impression.