Other editions of book Babbitt

Babbitt (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle-class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in literature to Lewis in 1930. The word "Babbitt" entered the English language as a "person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards".

A satiric look at American society following the First World War, Babbitt is one of Sinclair Lewis's best-known works. Real estate agent George Babbitt says all the right things, has all the right friends, and belongs to all the right clubs. Though he's a man on the rise, Babbitt finds his days empty and yearns for romance and an escape from his tightly ordered life.

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Sinclair Lewis’ George F. Babbitt is a complicated and conflicted character. When you think you have his next move figured out, he surprises you. As you begin to like him, he does something to evoke the “what a rat” response. Male menopause wasn’t a pre-Great Depression term, but you could say George has all the symptoms. At a pudgy, balding 46, he looks at his life, wife, family, and business. He sees himself as a pretty successful business man, but when Tanis, the lonely widow, has a leaky roof, he sees an opportunity for perhaps a more fulfilling relationship then he has at home. Add to Tanis a foray into radical politics, and we are about to witness an emotional and financial train wreck with Babbitt at the throttle.