Alice Adams: Illustrated

Alice Adams is a 1921 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Booth Tarkington. It was adapted as a film in 1923 by Rowland V. Lee and, more famously, in 1935 by George Stevens. The narrative centers around the character of a young woman, Alice Adams, who aspires to climb the social ladder and win the affections of a wealthy young man named Arthur Russell. The story is set in a lower-middle-class household in an unnamed town in the Midwest shortly after World War I. Alice Adams is the only daughter in a middle-class family living in the industrialized "midland country" at the turn of the 20th century. It is against this dingy backdrop that Alice Adams seeks to distinguish herself. She goes to a dance in a used dress, which her mother attempts to renew by changing the lining and adding some lace. She adorns herself not with orchids sent by the florist but with a bouquet of violets she has picked herself. Alice Adams's resiliency of spirit makes her one of Tarkington's most compelling female characters.