A prosperous, conformist real-estate booster in the Midwestern city of Zenith grows restless with middle-class convention, briefly rebels, then returns to the fold.
Books mentioned in Babbitt (7)
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler: “He was reading a book called "The Way of All Flesh."”
The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: “He ambled up to Verona's room, sat on her maidenly blue and white bed, humming and grunting in a solid-citizen manner as he examined her books: Conrad's "Rescue," a volume strangely named "Figures of Earth," poetry (quite irregular poetry, Babbitt thought) by Vachel Lindsay, and essays by H.”
Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell: “He ambled up to Verona's room, sat on her maidenly blue and white bed, humming and grunting in a solid-citizen manner as he examined her books: Conrad's "Rescue," a volume strangely named "Figures of Earth," poetry (quite irregular poetry, Babbitt thought) by Vachel Lindsay, and essays by H.”
The Three Black Pennys by Joseph Hergesheimer: “He noted a book, “The Three Black Pennies,” by Joseph Hergesheimer. Ah, that was something like it!”
The Bird of Paradise by Richard Walton Tully: “There were two especially distinguished guests: the leading man of the "Bird of Paradise" company, playing this week at the Dodsworth Theater, and the mayor of Zenith, the Hon.”
If— by Rudyard Kipling: “It's one of the classic poems, like “If” by Kipling, or Ella Wheeler Wilcox's “The Man Worth While””
The Man Worth While by Ella Wheeler Wilcox: “It's one of the classic poems, like "If" by Kipling, or Ella Wheeler Wilcox's "The Man Worth While"; and I always carry this clipping of it in my note-book:”
Books that mention Babbitt (3)
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell: “Have you ever read Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt?”
The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand: “The theme of Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt is the characterization of an average American small businessman.”