Read4MaxClassics Browse library
Cover of Babbitt

Classic Fiction

Babbitt

The novel offers a satirical description of the American middle class around 1920.

First published
1922
Length
123,628 words
Reading time
About 8 hr 36 min
Language
English (US)

About the book

George F. Babbitt is a middle-aged realtor, family man, and resident of Zenith, a fictitious Midwestern city. His main preoccupation is to climb the social ladder by conforming to the norms of his environment. The novel depicts his daily routines and occasional misadventures in an unorthodox writing style, where the protagonist appears altogether foolish, funny, and pathetic.

This work was both celebrated as an incisive satire of American culture and criticized as an exaggeration, but was ultimately influential in Sinclair Lewis being awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature.

First published 1922; the Read4Max reading text contains approximately 123,628 words arranged in 34 navigable sections.

About the author

Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) is described by Wikidata as American writer and playwright (1885–1951), with citizenship or national association recorded as United States.

Recorded occupations include novelist, playwright, journalist, and writer. Languages recorded for Sinclair Lewis include American English and English. The structured record associates Sinclair Lewis with literary realism. Wikidata lists It Can't Happen Here and Babbitt among Sinclair Lewis's notable works. Open Library identifies Babbitt as a leading work in its author record. Open Library catalogs 237 works under this author record. The Read4Max catalog currently includes Babbitt and Main Street under Sinclair Lewis's authorship.

Reading options

  • A complete text with direct section navigation in the browser reader.
  • A downloadable EPUB for phones, tablets, desktop reading apps, and compatible ereaders.
  • Book and contributor metadata are checked against the source edition before indexing.

Themes and ideas

  • Satire
  • Psychological fiction
  • Businessmen
  • Middle-aged men
  • Conformity

Table of contents

Open reader
Show all 34 sections
  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII
  14. Chapter XIV
  15. Chapter XV
  16. Chapter XVI
  17. Chapter XVII
  18. Chapter XVIII
  19. Chapter XIX
  20. Chapter XX
  21. Chapter XXI
  22. Chapter XXII
  23. Chapter XXIII
  24. Chapter XXIV
  25. Chapter XXV
  26. Chapter XXVI
  27. Chapter XXVII
  28. Chapter XXVIII
  29. Chapter XXIX
  30. Chapter XXX
  31. Chapter XXXI
  32. Chapter XXXII
  33. Chapter XXXIII
  34. Chapter XXXIV