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Dodsworth
Yielding to the wishes of his spoiled wife, a wealthy American industrialist abandons his ideals to enter the frivolous world of European high society
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
128 people are currently reading
1673 people want to read
About the author
Sinclair Lewis
510 books1,119 followersNovelist Harry Sinclair Lewis satirized middle-class America in his 22 works, including
Babbitt
(1922) and
Elmer Gantry
(1927) and first received a Nobel Prize for literature in 1930.
Middle-class values and materialism attach unthinking George F. Babbitt, the narrow-minded, self-satisfied main character person in the novel of Sinclair Lewis.
People awarded "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."
He knowingly, insightfully, and critically viewed capitalism and materialism between the wars. People respect his strong characterizations of modern women.
Henry Louis Mencken wrote, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade...it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclai...
Middle-class values and materialism attach unthinking George F. Babbitt, the narrow-minded, self-satisfied main character person in the novel of Sinclair Lewis.
People awarded "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."
He knowingly, insightfully, and critically viewed capitalism and materialism between the wars. People respect his strong characterizations of modern women.
Henry Louis Mencken wrote, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade...it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclai...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
April 21, 2019
”Oh...I suppose America terrifies me. I feel insecure there. I feel everybody watching me, and criticizing me unless I’m buzzing about Doing Something Important--uplifting the cinema or studying Einstein or winning bridge championships or breeding Schnauzers or something. And there’s no privacy, and I’m an extravagant woman when it comes to the luxury of privacy.” Edith Cortright
Walter Huston plays Sam Dodsworth in the 1936 movie.
Sam Dodsworth made a small fortune building up an automobile company and then selling it to one of his rivals. At the age of 50, thinking it would please his wife, he decides that they need to take advantage of this point of idleness to take a grand tour of Europe. Fran is 41, but looks and usually acts much younger. He fell in love with her at first sight.
”If she was an angel, she was an angel of ice; slim, shining, ash-blonde, her self-possessed voice very cool as she parried the complimentary teasing of half a dozen admirers; a crystal candle-stick of a girl among black-and-white lumps of males.”
Ruth Chatterton plays Fran Dodsworth in the excellent film adaptation of the book.
By contrast Samuel Dodsworth:
”was the American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariff and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in prohibition and the Episcopal Church. He was the president of the Revelation Motor Company; he was a millionaire, though decidedly not a multimillionaire; his large house was on Ridge Crest, the most fashionable street in Zenith; he had some taste in etchings; he did not split many infinitives; and he sometimes enjoyed Beethoven.”
It is interesting to read those two descriptions which are humorous, but laced with satire. As you have probably read in other novels from the 1920s the upper set of society drank as much if not more during prohibition as they did before prohibition. Now the problem is that the two of them have made a good life for themselves, but they have been so busy making money, raising kids, and taking care of all those daily trials and tribulations that they really haven’t had to spend a lot of time together. We are seeing the Baby Boomer generation starting to retire and also seeing divorce rates of people over 55 skyrocketing. When they finally have time to spend with their spouse, unfortunately, they are finding out that they really don’t like them very much.
Opposites do attract, but only if both parties focus on what they agree on more than what they disagree on. In the case of Sam and Fran his bumbling, overanxious, Americanism rubs up against her suave, cultured, faux-Europeanism making for many points of friction which for the first half of the book I found to be more amusing than provoking.
The Traveling American's faithful companion.
”In every phase Fran was an incalculable about ‘sight-seeing’ as about liking his business associates. One day she was brazen enough to be discovered with the tourists’ badge, the red Baedeker, unconcealed; the next she wouldn’t even sit with him at a sidewalk cafe--at the Napolitain or the Closerie-des-Lilas.
‘But why not?’ he protested. ‘Best place to see the world go by. Everybody goes to ‘em.’
‘Smart people don’t.’
‘Well, I’m not smart!’
‘Well, I am!’
‘Then you ought to be smart enough to not care what anybody thinks!’
‘Perhaps I am...But I don’t care to be seen sitting with a lot of trippers in raincoats.’
‘But you sat in a cafe yesterday, and enjoyed it. Don’t you remember the begger that sang--’
‘Exactly! I’ve had enough of it! Oh, if you want to go and yearn over your dear American fellow tourists, by all means go, my dear Samuel! I am going to the Crillon and have a decent tea.’
‘And yearn over the dear fellow American tourists that happen to be rich!’
‘Is it necessary for you always to quarrel with me because I want to do what I want to do? I’m not keeping you from sitting on your sidewalks. Don’t go to the Crillon! Go to one of your beloved American bars, if you want to, and scrape up acquaintance with a lot of drunken businessmen--’
They compromised on going to the Crillon.”
They have to leave London in rather a hurry because Fran is involved in a scandal with a young man. They have to leave Paris in even more of a hurry because of yet another scandal with a young man. The fighting is no longer two strong willed people having an argument that creates the proper chemistry for a relationship, but two people who are really starting to not like each other. Sam continues to give in to Fran, tries not to be jealous, and tries to keep his mouth in bounds, but we all know there is only so much grinding any human being can take before it evolves from being a teasing conflict to outright war. In Berlin Fran meets Count Obersdorf and she has visions of being a Countess, a broke Countess, but still royalty.
That tears it.
Or does it?
”She was lovely quicksilver, but quicksilver is hard for a thick hand to hold.”
Sam storms away back to Paris and meets a girl by the name of Nande.
”She darned his socks and made him drink less cognac, she cooked snails for him so that he actually liked them, she taught him new ways of love, and when she found that he did not know them, she laughed at him, but affectionately. For the first time in his life he began to learn that he need not be ashamed of the body which God had presumably given him but which Fran had considered rather an error. He found in himself a power of intense passion such as, all his life, he had guiltily believed himself to lack; and sometimes Nande’s flat seemed to him the Bower of Eden.”
The whole time Sam can’t stop feeling like he is cheating on Fran. The poor sap. And for those of you that haven’t added “French girlfriend” to your bucket list you might want to make a note of that now.
Sinclair Lewis, looking so thoughtful. How about a smile?
Ok bad idea you are looking creepy and insane...no smiling...stop smiling. I'm serious!!
Dodsworth (1929) is the fifth book in what is considered the most productive years of Sinclair Lewis’s life. His breakthrough book was Main Street in 1920 followed by Babbitt in 1922, Arrowsmith in 1925 and Elmer Gantry in 1927. These five books were what earned him the Nobel Prize in 1930 with most of the emphasis given to the influence of Babbitt on literature. He wrote in what I feel is golden age of American Literature with Fitzgerald, Wolfe, Hemingway, Wharton, Cather, Dos Passos, and Faulkner all churning out literature that is admired and emulated today; and yet, Sinclair Lewis would not make most of those lists. In his day he was wildly popular, his biting satire of American culture was lapped up by a generation in love with America, but looking to Europe for inspiration in their writing, their artistry, their vision. They had to stand on a foreign shore to really see America and in many cases make peace with it.
Maybe as a nation we do not have the tolerance for Lewis’s way of satirizing America. Are our shoulders not as broad? Are our minds not as open to what the world can teach us? Maybe we just don’t feel as invulnerable as we once did. Criticism now stings instead of producing reflective laughter.
I’ve had the pleasure of traveling through Europe several times and every time I come back with a refreshed perspective. For one thing my work that creates so much stress and strain on my life over there represents a piece of sand, something I can easily hold in my hand, rather than a mountain filled with boulders and treacherous overhangs. The world, when you travel, seems too big to be worried about something so small.
I will be reading more Sinclair Lewis and for sure I will bring him along the next time I’m in Naples.
”They came home, dusty from Naples, for tea in the dim huge room looking on the bay. The late-afternoon glow over the piled hill of Naples faded to misty blue. The last highlight in the scene was the smoke of Vesuvius, a fabulous flamingo hue in the vanishing sunlight, As the bay turned to a blue fabric woven with silver threads, the lights of braziers came out cheerfully in the little fishing boats”
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Walter Huston plays Sam Dodsworth in the 1936 movie.
Sam Dodsworth made a small fortune building up an automobile company and then selling it to one of his rivals. At the age of 50, thinking it would please his wife, he decides that they need to take advantage of this point of idleness to take a grand tour of Europe. Fran is 41, but looks and usually acts much younger. He fell in love with her at first sight.
”If she was an angel, she was an angel of ice; slim, shining, ash-blonde, her self-possessed voice very cool as she parried the complimentary teasing of half a dozen admirers; a crystal candle-stick of a girl among black-and-white lumps of males.”
Ruth Chatterton plays Fran Dodsworth in the excellent film adaptation of the book.
By contrast Samuel Dodsworth:
”was the American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariff and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in prohibition and the Episcopal Church. He was the president of the Revelation Motor Company; he was a millionaire, though decidedly not a multimillionaire; his large house was on Ridge Crest, the most fashionable street in Zenith; he had some taste in etchings; he did not split many infinitives; and he sometimes enjoyed Beethoven.”
It is interesting to read those two descriptions which are humorous, but laced with satire. As you have probably read in other novels from the 1920s the upper set of society drank as much if not more during prohibition as they did before prohibition. Now the problem is that the two of them have made a good life for themselves, but they have been so busy making money, raising kids, and taking care of all those daily trials and tribulations that they really haven’t had to spend a lot of time together. We are seeing the Baby Boomer generation starting to retire and also seeing divorce rates of people over 55 skyrocketing. When they finally have time to spend with their spouse, unfortunately, they are finding out that they really don’t like them very much.
Opposites do attract, but only if both parties focus on what they agree on more than what they disagree on. In the case of Sam and Fran his bumbling, overanxious, Americanism rubs up against her suave, cultured, faux-Europeanism making for many points of friction which for the first half of the book I found to be more amusing than provoking.
The Traveling American's faithful companion.
”In every phase Fran was an incalculable about ‘sight-seeing’ as about liking his business associates. One day she was brazen enough to be discovered with the tourists’ badge, the red Baedeker, unconcealed; the next she wouldn’t even sit with him at a sidewalk cafe--at the Napolitain or the Closerie-des-Lilas.
‘But why not?’ he protested. ‘Best place to see the world go by. Everybody goes to ‘em.’
‘Smart people don’t.’
‘Well, I’m not smart!’
‘Well, I am!’
‘Then you ought to be smart enough to not care what anybody thinks!’
‘Perhaps I am...But I don’t care to be seen sitting with a lot of trippers in raincoats.’
‘But you sat in a cafe yesterday, and enjoyed it. Don’t you remember the begger that sang--’
‘Exactly! I’ve had enough of it! Oh, if you want to go and yearn over your dear American fellow tourists, by all means go, my dear Samuel! I am going to the Crillon and have a decent tea.’
‘And yearn over the dear fellow American tourists that happen to be rich!’
‘Is it necessary for you always to quarrel with me because I want to do what I want to do? I’m not keeping you from sitting on your sidewalks. Don’t go to the Crillon! Go to one of your beloved American bars, if you want to, and scrape up acquaintance with a lot of drunken businessmen--’
They compromised on going to the Crillon.”
They have to leave London in rather a hurry because Fran is involved in a scandal with a young man. They have to leave Paris in even more of a hurry because of yet another scandal with a young man. The fighting is no longer two strong willed people having an argument that creates the proper chemistry for a relationship, but two people who are really starting to not like each other. Sam continues to give in to Fran, tries not to be jealous, and tries to keep his mouth in bounds, but we all know there is only so much grinding any human being can take before it evolves from being a teasing conflict to outright war. In Berlin Fran meets Count Obersdorf and she has visions of being a Countess, a broke Countess, but still royalty.
That tears it.
Or does it?
”She was lovely quicksilver, but quicksilver is hard for a thick hand to hold.”
Sam storms away back to Paris and meets a girl by the name of Nande.
”She darned his socks and made him drink less cognac, she cooked snails for him so that he actually liked them, she taught him new ways of love, and when she found that he did not know them, she laughed at him, but affectionately. For the first time in his life he began to learn that he need not be ashamed of the body which God had presumably given him but which Fran had considered rather an error. He found in himself a power of intense passion such as, all his life, he had guiltily believed himself to lack; and sometimes Nande’s flat seemed to him the Bower of Eden.”
The whole time Sam can’t stop feeling like he is cheating on Fran. The poor sap. And for those of you that haven’t added “French girlfriend” to your bucket list you might want to make a note of that now.
Sinclair Lewis, looking so thoughtful. How about a smile?
Ok bad idea you are looking creepy and insane...no smiling...stop smiling. I'm serious!!
Dodsworth (1929) is the fifth book in what is considered the most productive years of Sinclair Lewis’s life. His breakthrough book was Main Street in 1920 followed by Babbitt in 1922, Arrowsmith in 1925 and Elmer Gantry in 1927. These five books were what earned him the Nobel Prize in 1930 with most of the emphasis given to the influence of Babbitt on literature. He wrote in what I feel is golden age of American Literature with Fitzgerald, Wolfe, Hemingway, Wharton, Cather, Dos Passos, and Faulkner all churning out literature that is admired and emulated today; and yet, Sinclair Lewis would not make most of those lists. In his day he was wildly popular, his biting satire of American culture was lapped up by a generation in love with America, but looking to Europe for inspiration in their writing, their artistry, their vision. They had to stand on a foreign shore to really see America and in many cases make peace with it.
Maybe as a nation we do not have the tolerance for Lewis’s way of satirizing America. Are our shoulders not as broad? Are our minds not as open to what the world can teach us? Maybe we just don’t feel as invulnerable as we once did. Criticism now stings instead of producing reflective laughter.
I’ve had the pleasure of traveling through Europe several times and every time I come back with a refreshed perspective. For one thing my work that creates so much stress and strain on my life over there represents a piece of sand, something I can easily hold in my hand, rather than a mountain filled with boulders and treacherous overhangs. The world, when you travel, seems too big to be worried about something so small.
I will be reading more Sinclair Lewis and for sure I will bring him along the next time I’m in Naples.
”They came home, dusty from Naples, for tea in the dim huge room looking on the bay. The late-afternoon glow over the piled hill of Naples faded to misty blue. The last highlight in the scene was the smoke of Vesuvius, a fabulous flamingo hue in the vanishing sunlight, As the bay turned to a blue fabric woven with silver threads, the lights of braziers came out cheerfully in the little fishing boats”
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
November 1, 2023
In this work - Dodsworth - the author points out that the values of old Europe confronted those of the young American civilization in a debate that culminates in a strange, improbable, and ambivalent symbiosis of primitivism and scholarship.
September 4, 2019
There are some books that one finds just plain fascinating because they speaks volumes on life and what one should take or accept, Sinclair Lewis' Dodsworth is the perfect story for evaluating life for Samuel Dodsworth and lessons learned for the reader but one does not heed or do they? I had seen the 1936 movie with Walter Huston years ago and loved it.
Below from Wikipedia-
"Dodsworthis a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, and Mary Astor. Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his 1934 stage adaptation of the1929 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis. Huston reprised his stage role. Dodsworth
Theatrical release poster Directed by William Wyler Produced by Samuel Goldwyn
Merritt Hulburd Written by Sidney Howard Based on Dodsworth 1934 play
by Sidney Howard
Dodsworth 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis
Starring
Walter Huston-Sam Dodsworth
Ruth Chatterton-Fran Dodsworth
Paul Lukas- Arnold Iselin
Mary Astor-Edith Cortright
David Niven-Captain Lockert
Gregory Gaye- Kurt Von Obsersdorf
Mme. Maria Ouspenskaya- Baroness Von Obserdorf
Odette Myrtil- Renee Dr Penable
Spring Byington- Marry Pearson
Harlan Briggs - Tubby Pearson
Kathryn Marlowe-Emily
John Howard Payne- Harry
Samuel Goldwyn Productions Distributed by United Artists
Release date
September 23,1936
Running time 101 minutes.
The center of the film is a study of a marriage in crisis. Recently retired auto magnate Samuel Dodsworth and his narcissistic wife Fran, while on a grand European tour, discover that they want very different things out of life, straining their marriage. "
The book was written in 1929, quite an interesting time in the world, the movie came out pre word war 2. I loved the movie but almost always the book is the better treasure. The movie sticks fairly close to the book but what you miss in not reading the printed words, which goes further into the characters, comments on travelling, American ideas verses European attitudes and lifestyles. Lewis brings both the American and the European ways under fire and to me not letting either off with being better with the use of satire. The grass is always greener applies, those that think life better else where and find out life is not cracked up to what we imagined. Not being a traveler, but if I traveled I suppose I would be the typical traveler, looking at the sites of interest. This book being older, the thoughts on Prohibition were he mentioned it fairly, often. Sinclair Lewis' take on the different cultures and especially his take on Americans.
I do not know enough about Sinclair except this book but his description of Germany post world war 1 does not show a bleak picture which I was expecting and clearly does not criticize the politics but makes it seem like life there shows no signs of trouble, which of course we know the history coming up.
I knew how this would all turn out but the struggle in this man shows us that it is not so easy to change and changing for love with one side confirming to the other, will bring resentment to a relationship.
This has a Mrs. Skeffington feel, trying to be younger though one grows older, needing others to tell us our worth and beauty, instead of looking in ourselves. Trying to stay young is admirable but there comes a time when growing old gracefully and accepting the inevitable.
The story in brief, A business man and his wife look to travel but she has her own ideas.
"And in this beastly country--In Europe, a woman at forty is just getting to the age where important men take a serious interest in her. But here, she's a grandmother. The flappers think I'm as venerable as the bishop's wife. And they MAKE me old, with their confounded respectfulness--and their CHARMING rejoicing when I go home from a dance early--I who can dance better, yes, and longer, than any of them--"
"Because of the British fetish of unannotated introductions, Sam never did learn the profession of Mr. Alls (if that was his name) and naturally, to an American, the profession of a stranger is a more important matter than even his income, his opinion of Socialism, his opinion of Prohibition, or the make of his motor car."
"He wanted to weep over the bedraggled small-town bride who for the moment forgot that she had not found honeymooning quite so glorious, nor the sea so restful. And he saw as pitiful the fact that Fran expected to find youth again merely by changing skies."
"I do not!" Sam was suddenly and thoroughly angry; suddenly free of whatever diffidence he had before this formal society. "I never was much of a flag-waver. I don't suppose America is perfect, not by a long shot. I know we have plenty of fools and scoundrels, and I don't mind roasting them. But if you'll excuse me for differing with you--"
"Strikes me that one-half or maybe two-thirds of the American people are the best fellows on earth--the friendliest and the most interested in everything and the jolliest. And I guess the remaining third are just about the worst crabs, the worst Meddlesome Matties, the most ignorant and pretentious fools, that God ever made. Male AND female! I'd be tickled to death to live in America IF. If we got rid of Prohibition, so a man could get a glass of beer instead of being compelled to drink gin and hootch. If we got rid of taking seriously a lot of self-advertising, half-educated preachers and editors and politicians, so that folks would develop a little real thinking instead of being pushed along by a lot of mental and moral policemen."
"It was Sheila who six months ago had demanded the Hispano-Suiza, but this summer she was in a socialist stage. Sam was a little annoyed because all through dinner she kept asking why the workers should not take from Sam and her father all their wealth."
"He still had a war psychosis. He had expected to find in Germany despotic and "sabre-clanking" officials and hateful policemen; had worked up an adequate rage in anticipation. He was nearly disappointed when he found the customs officials friendly, when he asked questions of a Berlin policeman and was answered with a salute and directions in English, and when their room waiter at the Adlon remembered having seen them at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago! Now he admitted that in all of Europe, however interesting other nationals, however merry the Italians and keen the French, he found only the British and the Germans his own sort of people. With them alone could he understand what they thought, how they lived, and what they wanted of life."
I had decided it was time to read "Dodsworth" after hearing the OTR, (Old Time Radio) program, which is fairy close to the book. The link below from LUX Radio Theater, October 4, 1937.
https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com...
I look forward to reading Sinclair Lewis again and this story has a spot on my favorite shelf.💙💖
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠 SPOILER ALERT💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 The radio version has several changes_ Sam is upset when he returns home for reunion and takes it out on his daughter, in the book, he never has a cross word with Emily. On the boat ride to England, Mrs. Cortright is on the ship, she did not appear until they were in Paris. Fran's relationships with friends, male and females plus the travels are different. Sam character is quite different in a sense.
Below from Wikipedia-
"Dodsworthis a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, and Mary Astor. Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his 1934 stage adaptation of the1929 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis. Huston reprised his stage role. Dodsworth
Theatrical release poster Directed by William Wyler Produced by Samuel Goldwyn
Merritt Hulburd Written by Sidney Howard Based on Dodsworth 1934 play
by Sidney Howard
Dodsworth 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis
Starring
Walter Huston-Sam Dodsworth
Ruth Chatterton-Fran Dodsworth
Paul Lukas- Arnold Iselin
Mary Astor-Edith Cortright
David Niven-Captain Lockert
Gregory Gaye- Kurt Von Obsersdorf
Mme. Maria Ouspenskaya- Baroness Von Obserdorf
Odette Myrtil- Renee Dr Penable
Spring Byington- Marry Pearson
Harlan Briggs - Tubby Pearson
Kathryn Marlowe-Emily
John Howard Payne- Harry
Samuel Goldwyn Productions Distributed by United Artists
Release date
September 23,1936
Running time 101 minutes.
The center of the film is a study of a marriage in crisis. Recently retired auto magnate Samuel Dodsworth and his narcissistic wife Fran, while on a grand European tour, discover that they want very different things out of life, straining their marriage. "
The book was written in 1929, quite an interesting time in the world, the movie came out pre word war 2. I loved the movie but almost always the book is the better treasure. The movie sticks fairly close to the book but what you miss in not reading the printed words, which goes further into the characters, comments on travelling, American ideas verses European attitudes and lifestyles. Lewis brings both the American and the European ways under fire and to me not letting either off with being better with the use of satire. The grass is always greener applies, those that think life better else where and find out life is not cracked up to what we imagined. Not being a traveler, but if I traveled I suppose I would be the typical traveler, looking at the sites of interest. This book being older, the thoughts on Prohibition were he mentioned it fairly, often. Sinclair Lewis' take on the different cultures and especially his take on Americans.
I do not know enough about Sinclair except this book but his description of Germany post world war 1 does not show a bleak picture which I was expecting and clearly does not criticize the politics but makes it seem like life there shows no signs of trouble, which of course we know the history coming up.
I knew how this would all turn out but the struggle in this man shows us that it is not so easy to change and changing for love with one side confirming to the other, will bring resentment to a relationship.
This has a Mrs. Skeffington feel, trying to be younger though one grows older, needing others to tell us our worth and beauty, instead of looking in ourselves. Trying to stay young is admirable but there comes a time when growing old gracefully and accepting the inevitable.
The story in brief, A business man and his wife look to travel but she has her own ideas.
"And in this beastly country--In Europe, a woman at forty is just getting to the age where important men take a serious interest in her. But here, she's a grandmother. The flappers think I'm as venerable as the bishop's wife. And they MAKE me old, with their confounded respectfulness--and their CHARMING rejoicing when I go home from a dance early--I who can dance better, yes, and longer, than any of them--"
"Because of the British fetish of unannotated introductions, Sam never did learn the profession of Mr. Alls (if that was his name) and naturally, to an American, the profession of a stranger is a more important matter than even his income, his opinion of Socialism, his opinion of Prohibition, or the make of his motor car."
"He wanted to weep over the bedraggled small-town bride who for the moment forgot that she had not found honeymooning quite so glorious, nor the sea so restful. And he saw as pitiful the fact that Fran expected to find youth again merely by changing skies."
"I do not!" Sam was suddenly and thoroughly angry; suddenly free of whatever diffidence he had before this formal society. "I never was much of a flag-waver. I don't suppose America is perfect, not by a long shot. I know we have plenty of fools and scoundrels, and I don't mind roasting them. But if you'll excuse me for differing with you--"
"Strikes me that one-half or maybe two-thirds of the American people are the best fellows on earth--the friendliest and the most interested in everything and the jolliest. And I guess the remaining third are just about the worst crabs, the worst Meddlesome Matties, the most ignorant and pretentious fools, that God ever made. Male AND female! I'd be tickled to death to live in America IF. If we got rid of Prohibition, so a man could get a glass of beer instead of being compelled to drink gin and hootch. If we got rid of taking seriously a lot of self-advertising, half-educated preachers and editors and politicians, so that folks would develop a little real thinking instead of being pushed along by a lot of mental and moral policemen."
"It was Sheila who six months ago had demanded the Hispano-Suiza, but this summer she was in a socialist stage. Sam was a little annoyed because all through dinner she kept asking why the workers should not take from Sam and her father all their wealth."
"He still had a war psychosis. He had expected to find in Germany despotic and "sabre-clanking" officials and hateful policemen; had worked up an adequate rage in anticipation. He was nearly disappointed when he found the customs officials friendly, when he asked questions of a Berlin policeman and was answered with a salute and directions in English, and when their room waiter at the Adlon remembered having seen them at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago! Now he admitted that in all of Europe, however interesting other nationals, however merry the Italians and keen the French, he found only the British and the Germans his own sort of people. With them alone could he understand what they thought, how they lived, and what they wanted of life."
I had decided it was time to read "Dodsworth" after hearing the OTR, (Old Time Radio) program, which is fairy close to the book. The link below from LUX Radio Theater, October 4, 1937.
https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com...
I look forward to reading Sinclair Lewis again and this story has a spot on my favorite shelf.💙💖
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠 SPOILER ALERT💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 The radio version has several changes_ Sam is upset when he returns home for reunion and takes it out on his daughter, in the book, he never has a cross word with Emily. On the boat ride to England, Mrs. Cortright is on the ship, she did not appear until they were in Paris. Fran's relationships with friends, male and females plus the travels are different. Sam character is quite different in a sense.
May 22, 2009
I should begin by saying I love, ardently, William Wyler's 1936 film adaptation of Dodsworth. Now having read the book, I just marvel at the film more, and can't say that I'm aware of any more efficient and elegant translation of novel to screenplay, nor of a cast who has more successfully captured the spirit of their literary alter egos, without being a bit restrained by the text—very few lines straight from Lewis appear in the film.
Which isn't a pity since they couldn't play conversationally, but Lewis' command of words, words, words is often staggering. He irks, in attempting to capture dialect and slang, in insisting that people speak parenthetically (parenthetically, I'm convinced people speak exclusively in dashes), in asserting that people think in elaborate and well-constructed theses. But over and over his ability to just get it so astonishingly right has a way to cut through all manner of frills to simple, accurate, truthful human nakedness.
Strange that I should be so much more a partisan of Fran in reading the novel than watching the film (I'd expect it in the film, that is, always being a partisan of Ruth Chatterton). In the film, Sam's final choice seems both inevitable and right. Fran seems so certainly wrong. But in the novel, set beside her increasingly obvious ghastliness, there is so purely and faithfully Sam's love for her to contend with. "Have I remembered to tell you I adore you?" begins as youthful flirtation, becomes rote, becomes desperate, serves to cement their real affection despite it all, turns bitter and final... It is not banal shorthand but cuts a little deeper every time. He loves her; what else for the reader to feel but love? The ending doesn't feel so right. In fact it feels horrifyingly wrong—nothing inevitable in it but that no matter what Sam does for himself now he has lost.
But the film is fairer to Fran, or Chatterton makes her more human than Lewis cares to. I'm disappointed that her selfishness and pretentiousness and haughtiness is carried to inhuman extreme by the end—it goes beyond slowly revealing her for what she is as Sam slowly discovers it and turns her into a really unrecognizable monster, only redeemed by his baffling adoration for her—making the ending all the more troubling perhaps, but seriously damaging her credibility as a character. Besides I like Fran. I like the Fran of the first three hundred pages who acted reprehensibly but still turned and said "Have I remembered to tell you I adore you?" and you could almost positively convince yourself she means it.
It is a brilliant book—oh, I'm uninterested in the travelogues and endless debates about what it means to be European and American—but at core it is a terribly sad story about opening one's eyes to life, love, and self for the first time at fifty. It is a love tragedy about two people who love ardently without knowing one another—for I will insist upon viewing Fran that humanly, and crediting her with that much. I will be haunted, as Sam always will be, by the thought of her, a desolate wraith, flitting off to another adventure, head high, and terrified. Finding oneself feels like no great gain at all.
Which isn't a pity since they couldn't play conversationally, but Lewis' command of words, words, words is often staggering. He irks, in attempting to capture dialect and slang, in insisting that people speak parenthetically (parenthetically, I'm convinced people speak exclusively in dashes), in asserting that people think in elaborate and well-constructed theses. But over and over his ability to just get it so astonishingly right has a way to cut through all manner of frills to simple, accurate, truthful human nakedness.
Strange that I should be so much more a partisan of Fran in reading the novel than watching the film (I'd expect it in the film, that is, always being a partisan of Ruth Chatterton). In the film, Sam's final choice seems both inevitable and right. Fran seems so certainly wrong. But in the novel, set beside her increasingly obvious ghastliness, there is so purely and faithfully Sam's love for her to contend with. "Have I remembered to tell you I adore you?" begins as youthful flirtation, becomes rote, becomes desperate, serves to cement their real affection despite it all, turns bitter and final... It is not banal shorthand but cuts a little deeper every time. He loves her; what else for the reader to feel but love? The ending doesn't feel so right. In fact it feels horrifyingly wrong—nothing inevitable in it but that no matter what Sam does for himself now he has lost.
But the film is fairer to Fran, or Chatterton makes her more human than Lewis cares to. I'm disappointed that her selfishness and pretentiousness and haughtiness is carried to inhuman extreme by the end—it goes beyond slowly revealing her for what she is as Sam slowly discovers it and turns her into a really unrecognizable monster, only redeemed by his baffling adoration for her—making the ending all the more troubling perhaps, but seriously damaging her credibility as a character. Besides I like Fran. I like the Fran of the first three hundred pages who acted reprehensibly but still turned and said "Have I remembered to tell you I adore you?" and you could almost positively convince yourself she means it.
It is a brilliant book—oh, I'm uninterested in the travelogues and endless debates about what it means to be European and American—but at core it is a terribly sad story about opening one's eyes to life, love, and self for the first time at fifty. It is a love tragedy about two people who love ardently without knowing one another—for I will insist upon viewing Fran that humanly, and crediting her with that much. I will be haunted, as Sam always will be, by the thought of her, a desolate wraith, flitting off to another adventure, head high, and terrified. Finding oneself feels like no great gain at all.
January 3, 2024
Sinclair Lewis's final masterpiece of the 1920s, Dodsworth is about a middle-aged American businessman who's persuaded to travel to Europe by his worldly wife. Sam Dodsworth starts as a complacent businessman with no greater thoughts outside of his business and his hometown; after spending time in London, Paris, Berlin and Venice he finds his life turned upside, his preconceptions shattered and his marriage ended. Lewis's book feels like a reflective blush on his earlier Main Street, with its excoriating portrait of small town America, adding nuances to that book's strong but often simplistic characters. Here, he finds virtues in the small-town American man he formerly scorned as ignorant and self-satisfied; he also finds faults in the worldly woman, whose desire for adventure proves selfish rather than edifying. Sam is no simple Babbitt, devoured by dimwitted complacency; he finds much to admire, or at least respect in European culture, and admits that Paris and London have experiences he couldn't find at home. But he doesn't see Europe's mere existence a reason to renounce his own American background or identity, either, as those old cultures have their own faults and hypocrisies. Fran, on the other hand, comes off as the classic American with an inferiority complex: constantly beguiled by titles and sights, wooed by European men and eager to prove her own sophisticated to others - not least her husband. Lewis's points are well-taken and his characterizations rich and nuanced; the novel takes on a depressing caste as the Dodsworths' marriage unravels, but Sam finds rejuvenation in his break from Fran, and a love match with a broadminded expatriate in Venice, suggesting that if travel broadened his mind it was to the shortcomings in his own life and mindset. Adapted into a marvelous film with Walter Huston in 1936.
March 25, 2025
What a hidden gem! I highly recommend this to anyone who loves Edith Wharton. There are lots of similar themes, but Lewis has his own style and approach to his topics. Sam Dodsworth is such a lovable character. Lewis captures his interior voice perfectly. Thank you to Melissa for suggesting it for our buddy read! I can't wait to watch the movie now.
June 6, 2022
ধ্রুপদী বইয়ের কাছে ফিরতেই হয়। মানব চরিত্র বিশ্লেষণে সিনক্লেয়ার লুইসের দক্ষতা অনবদ্য।মেলোড্রামা গল্পে কতো অনায়াসে ও অপরিহার্যরূপে ব্যবহার করা যায় তা-ও দেখিয়েছেন লেখক। ইউরোপ আমেরিকা জুড়ে বিস্তৃত গল্পে নতুন পুরনোর দ্বন্দ্ব, নতুন সমাজব্যবস্থার সাথে প্রথাগত সংস্কার ও বিশ্বাসের বিবাদ আর মানুষের দুর্দমনীয় বাসনার রসায়ন খুবই উপভোগ্য ও গভীর।
May 1, 2022
“There are no second acts in American lives.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald was wrong. There are indeed second acts, not to mention third and fourth ones, but no guaranty that they all won’t be flops.
Sam Dodsworth, a successful, fifty-something auto manufacturer and his attractive forty-something wife Fran, appear to be living the American Dream ca. 1925, until a mid-life crisis threatens to turn their dream into a nightmare. Sam accepts an automotive conglomerate’s generous offer for his business; the deal includes a job as a senior executive that would make the already wealthy Sam even richer. But money isn’t a problem for the Dodsworths. Sam isn’t quite sure what he wants to do with the rest of his life and their bourgeois Middle-American lifestyle bores Fran. She longs for the “sophistication” and “culture” of Café Society.
Fran sells ambivalent Sam on the idea of an extended European sojourn as an adventurous cure for middle-aged malaise. Across the pond, they enter a world of shady American expatriates and Europeans; their marriage begins its inevitable decline. About halfway down the marital drain Sam realizes: “He was not very well pleased to see that after twenty- four years of living with Fran he had not in the least come to know her.”
My introduction to “Dodsworth” was by way of the 1936 film directed by William Wyler and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor. The film, adapted from a popular play based on the novel, is quite good; some consider it a classic of Hollywood’s Golden Era. From my perspective, it was good enough to interest me in the novel, although it took me many years to get around to it.
The story’s themes, plot and characters brought to mind an article I read comparing the works of Mark Twain and Henry James. The article appeared in The Nation shortly after Twain’s death. Here’s a brief, relevant excerpt:
“Mark Twain and Henry James have apparently gone as far as it is possible to go in diametrically opposite directions. Yet there is a point at which their talents meet. Both are essentially frontiersmen. Mark Twain is the chronicler par excellence of the palpable frontier of robust America; Henry James is the scrupulous analyst of that spiritual frontier which unrobust and nostalgic America established in the old country. Each has brought to his chosen material a singular expertness and fidelity. If Mark Twain has stretched his muscles and spent his sympathy from the Mississippi to the Sierras, Henry James has no less lived strenuously through the more somber spiritual adventure of the American in Europe.”
The Nation, April 28, 1910
What if Mark Twain and Henry James, the oddest of literary odd couples, had collaborated on a novel? The product of that highly improbable, if not absurdly impossible collaboration, might have been Sinclair Lewis’s Dodsworth. Twain and James, though quite different in literary style and approach to the subject, were both honest and bold enough to observe the American and European societies of their day critically, praising what they believed was good, and rejecting the bad. Lewis did the same, but from his own, Roaring Twenties point of view. Here are a couple of references in “Dodsworth” to Mark Twain and Henry James.
“In story-books parroting the Mark Twain tradition, the American wife still marches her husband to galleries from which he tries to sneak away; but in reality, Sam’s imagination was far more electrified by blue snow and golden shoulders and dynamic triangles than was Fran’s. Probably he would have balked at the blurs of Impressionism and the jazz mathematics of Cubism, but it chanced that the favorite artist just this minute was one Robinoff, who did interiors pierced with hectic sunshine hurled between the slats of Venetian blinds, or startling sun-rays striking into dusky woodlands, and at these (while Fran impatiently wanted to get on to tea) Sam stared long and contentedly, drawing in his breath as though he smelled the hot sun.”
“Mr. Endicott Everett Atkins was reputed to resemble Henry James. He had the massive and rather bald head, the portly dignity. He spoke—and he spoke a good deal—in a measured voice, and he had a small bright wife who was believed to adore him. He also was blessed, and furthered in his critical pursuits, by having no sense of humor whatever, though he knew so many sparkling anecdotes that one did not suspect it for hours. He came from South Biddlesford, Connecticut, and his father, to whom he often referred as “that dear and so classical a bibliophile,” had been an excellent hat- manufacturer. He owned a real house in Paris, with an upstairs and down, and he spoke chummily of the Ambassador.”
I won’t give anything away about the ending except to say that it’s quite different, more cynical and less optimistic, than the Hollywood film version.
Fitzgerald was wrong. There are indeed second acts, not to mention third and fourth ones, but no guaranty that they all won’t be flops.
Sam Dodsworth, a successful, fifty-something auto manufacturer and his attractive forty-something wife Fran, appear to be living the American Dream ca. 1925, until a mid-life crisis threatens to turn their dream into a nightmare. Sam accepts an automotive conglomerate’s generous offer for his business; the deal includes a job as a senior executive that would make the already wealthy Sam even richer. But money isn’t a problem for the Dodsworths. Sam isn’t quite sure what he wants to do with the rest of his life and their bourgeois Middle-American lifestyle bores Fran. She longs for the “sophistication” and “culture” of Café Society.
Fran sells ambivalent Sam on the idea of an extended European sojourn as an adventurous cure for middle-aged malaise. Across the pond, they enter a world of shady American expatriates and Europeans; their marriage begins its inevitable decline. About halfway down the marital drain Sam realizes: “He was not very well pleased to see that after twenty- four years of living with Fran he had not in the least come to know her.”
My introduction to “Dodsworth” was by way of the 1936 film directed by William Wyler and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor. The film, adapted from a popular play based on the novel, is quite good; some consider it a classic of Hollywood’s Golden Era. From my perspective, it was good enough to interest me in the novel, although it took me many years to get around to it.
The story’s themes, plot and characters brought to mind an article I read comparing the works of Mark Twain and Henry James. The article appeared in The Nation shortly after Twain’s death. Here’s a brief, relevant excerpt:
“Mark Twain and Henry James have apparently gone as far as it is possible to go in diametrically opposite directions. Yet there is a point at which their talents meet. Both are essentially frontiersmen. Mark Twain is the chronicler par excellence of the palpable frontier of robust America; Henry James is the scrupulous analyst of that spiritual frontier which unrobust and nostalgic America established in the old country. Each has brought to his chosen material a singular expertness and fidelity. If Mark Twain has stretched his muscles and spent his sympathy from the Mississippi to the Sierras, Henry James has no less lived strenuously through the more somber spiritual adventure of the American in Europe.”
The Nation, April 28, 1910
What if Mark Twain and Henry James, the oddest of literary odd couples, had collaborated on a novel? The product of that highly improbable, if not absurdly impossible collaboration, might have been Sinclair Lewis’s Dodsworth. Twain and James, though quite different in literary style and approach to the subject, were both honest and bold enough to observe the American and European societies of their day critically, praising what they believed was good, and rejecting the bad. Lewis did the same, but from his own, Roaring Twenties point of view. Here are a couple of references in “Dodsworth” to Mark Twain and Henry James.
“In story-books parroting the Mark Twain tradition, the American wife still marches her husband to galleries from which he tries to sneak away; but in reality, Sam’s imagination was far more electrified by blue snow and golden shoulders and dynamic triangles than was Fran’s. Probably he would have balked at the blurs of Impressionism and the jazz mathematics of Cubism, but it chanced that the favorite artist just this minute was one Robinoff, who did interiors pierced with hectic sunshine hurled between the slats of Venetian blinds, or startling sun-rays striking into dusky woodlands, and at these (while Fran impatiently wanted to get on to tea) Sam stared long and contentedly, drawing in his breath as though he smelled the hot sun.”
“Mr. Endicott Everett Atkins was reputed to resemble Henry James. He had the massive and rather bald head, the portly dignity. He spoke—and he spoke a good deal—in a measured voice, and he had a small bright wife who was believed to adore him. He also was blessed, and furthered in his critical pursuits, by having no sense of humor whatever, though he knew so many sparkling anecdotes that one did not suspect it for hours. He came from South Biddlesford, Connecticut, and his father, to whom he often referred as “that dear and so classical a bibliophile,” had been an excellent hat- manufacturer. He owned a real house in Paris, with an upstairs and down, and he spoke chummily of the Ambassador.”
I won’t give anything away about the ending except to say that it’s quite different, more cynical and less optimistic, than the Hollywood film version.
February 10, 2018
"Trophy Wife Dumps Hubby for Euro-Glitz"
No doubt, this one is for your 'must read' list. When you put it down, you will feel you've lost contact with some great characters, that you've really got inside a marriage, that you've seen life the way it can be.
Samuel Dodsworth is an automobile magnate in the early years of the business. When his company is bought-out, he's left free at age 50, to do whatever he wants. But he has a slick, steel-willed, glamorous socialite for a wife and she has ambitions of climbing. He had always been "too busy to be discontented, and he managed to believe that Fran loved him.""(p.11) Sam gets roped into an extended European tour. Turns out, he's just an escort and backdrop for her movie. He experiences rising discomfort as she worms her way into European high society (or what she takes to be such). The trip gives both of them the first chance in decades to find out who they are---the common motif in literature and life of travelling to discover yourself---and they realize that they don't have much in common. Their European experiences transform them. On a visit back to the States, Dodsworth finds that he has changed; he can't regard his old friends, their old routines and concerns, and their ways with the same equanimity. They have become provincial and empty in his eyes, but what has he become ? He slowly comes to the conclusion that he's cut loose from all the went before, but has no direction for the future. He takes up several possibilities, but is caught among the rocks of loving the wayward Fran, wanting to do something useful in the world, and needing love himself. It's a long haul, but he makes it. Lewis skillfully keeps the psychological tension going to the very last page. Great stuff ! As for Fran, you'll have to read the book.
DODSWORTH is a psychological study of the first order, sincere, unpretentious and so well-written. It is not a satire on the lines of "Main Street", "Babbitt" or "Elmer Gantry", but a serious novel in the full sense of the word. Samuel Dodsworth comes across as a solid man of conservative nature who may have once been in a rut, but learns to think far more than people ever give him credit for, particularly his wife. He becomes flexible and learns to live, while Fran only continues to consume and demand. The plot plays itself out amidst a background of constant discussion as to what makes an American, what makes a European and what are the differences ? While this theme fascinated Henry James and numbers of other writers, it seems a bit passé in this day of the Web, 7 hour flights across 'the pond', massive tourism, MBAs in Europe and great museums in America. Still, it's part of the ambiance of the 1920s when this novel was written. The slow dissolution of the marriage, the contradictions of personality, the existence of strengths and weaknesses, aggressive and passive roles in both husband and wife, the psychological disintegration and re-building of a man's self-image-these are the main themes of DODSWORTH. It's one of the great American novels.
No doubt, this one is for your 'must read' list. When you put it down, you will feel you've lost contact with some great characters, that you've really got inside a marriage, that you've seen life the way it can be.
Samuel Dodsworth is an automobile magnate in the early years of the business. When his company is bought-out, he's left free at age 50, to do whatever he wants. But he has a slick, steel-willed, glamorous socialite for a wife and she has ambitions of climbing. He had always been "too busy to be discontented, and he managed to believe that Fran loved him.""(p.11) Sam gets roped into an extended European tour. Turns out, he's just an escort and backdrop for her movie. He experiences rising discomfort as she worms her way into European high society (or what she takes to be such). The trip gives both of them the first chance in decades to find out who they are---the common motif in literature and life of travelling to discover yourself---and they realize that they don't have much in common. Their European experiences transform them. On a visit back to the States, Dodsworth finds that he has changed; he can't regard his old friends, their old routines and concerns, and their ways with the same equanimity. They have become provincial and empty in his eyes, but what has he become ? He slowly comes to the conclusion that he's cut loose from all the went before, but has no direction for the future. He takes up several possibilities, but is caught among the rocks of loving the wayward Fran, wanting to do something useful in the world, and needing love himself. It's a long haul, but he makes it. Lewis skillfully keeps the psychological tension going to the very last page. Great stuff ! As for Fran, you'll have to read the book.
DODSWORTH is a psychological study of the first order, sincere, unpretentious and so well-written. It is not a satire on the lines of "Main Street", "Babbitt" or "Elmer Gantry", but a serious novel in the full sense of the word. Samuel Dodsworth comes across as a solid man of conservative nature who may have once been in a rut, but learns to think far more than people ever give him credit for, particularly his wife. He becomes flexible and learns to live, while Fran only continues to consume and demand. The plot plays itself out amidst a background of constant discussion as to what makes an American, what makes a European and what are the differences ? While this theme fascinated Henry James and numbers of other writers, it seems a bit passé in this day of the Web, 7 hour flights across 'the pond', massive tourism, MBAs in Europe and great museums in America. Still, it's part of the ambiance of the 1920s when this novel was written. The slow dissolution of the marriage, the contradictions of personality, the existence of strengths and weaknesses, aggressive and passive roles in both husband and wife, the psychological disintegration and re-building of a man's self-image-these are the main themes of DODSWORTH. It's one of the great American novels.
August 21, 2018
Sam Dodsworth is a middle-aged retired automobile tycoon. He sold his medium-sized auto factory in Midwestern Zenith, State of Winnemac, USA, and is now in possession of a medium-sized fortune and little more than a vague idea of what to do with it. Sam and his wife venture to Europe in an attempt to acquire culture and save their foundering marriage.
This 1929 novel ranks among Sinclair Lewis's "Big Five" books from the Twenties along with MAIN STREET, BABBITT, ARROWSMITH and ELMER GANTRY. If MAIN STREET was a farewell to the mixed joys of Midwestern prairie life; BABBITT and ELMER GANTRY raucous Twenties satires; and ARROWSMITH a life story of a young doctor facing ethical complexities, DODSWORTH* asks the more existential question: if a man is defined by his achievement, then suddenly loses his career, what is left? In my opinion DODSWORTH is a very good novel but not among Lewis's very best, yet it may actually be his most profound.
__________
* Not to be confused with the much more recent series of kids' books by Tim Egan.
Although DODSWORTH was Sinclair Lewis's least commercially successful 1920s novel, it was made into a successful stage play in 1934 and then a critically acclaimed 1936 motion directed by William Wyler, starring Walter Huston in the title role and co-starring Ruth Chatterton as his complex but dissatisfied wife. In fact, its current IMDb rating outstrips even the much better known screen adaptation of ELMER GANTRY (1959). Readers of the 21st Century can be forgiven for seeing the influential and thoughtful film of DODSWORTH first, and then moving on to the book if time and interest permit.
This 1929 novel ranks among Sinclair Lewis's "Big Five" books from the Twenties along with MAIN STREET, BABBITT, ARROWSMITH and ELMER GANTRY. If MAIN STREET was a farewell to the mixed joys of Midwestern prairie life; BABBITT and ELMER GANTRY raucous Twenties satires; and ARROWSMITH a life story of a young doctor facing ethical complexities, DODSWORTH* asks the more existential question: if a man is defined by his achievement, then suddenly loses his career, what is left? In my opinion DODSWORTH is a very good novel but not among Lewis's very best, yet it may actually be his most profound.
__________
* Not to be confused with the much more recent series of kids' books by Tim Egan.
Although DODSWORTH was Sinclair Lewis's least commercially successful 1920s novel, it was made into a successful stage play in 1934 and then a critically acclaimed 1936 motion directed by William Wyler, starring Walter Huston in the title role and co-starring Ruth Chatterton as his complex but dissatisfied wife. In fact, its current IMDb rating outstrips even the much better known screen adaptation of ELMER GANTRY (1959). Readers of the 21st Century can be forgiven for seeing the influential and thoughtful film of DODSWORTH first, and then moving on to the book if time and interest permit.
March 16, 2021
Sam and Fran Dodsworth are relatively wealthy members of the upper crust of Zenith, Winnemac, Sinclair Lewis' fictive midwestern state. They are empty-nesters after WWI and each dealing with their middle-age crises. The breaking point is the purchase of Sam's Revolution Auto Works by a more agile, larger group as Sam and Fran head to Europe, and things in their relationship deteriorated from there. Being an ex-pat in Europe for 25 years now, I really enjoyed how Lewis perceives the differences between American culture and European culture, the "ugly American" ex-pats, and a look at pre-WWII Paris, Berlin, Venise, and London were lots of fun.
Especially recommended for those in their 40s and 50s who have been over here in Europe. A wonderful book.
Especially recommended for those in their 40s and 50s who have been over here in Europe. A wonderful book.
October 16, 2012
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this review, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
(CCLaP's rare-book service [cclapcenter.com/rarebooks] recently auctioned off a first edition, first printing copy of Sinclair Lewis' 1929 Dodsworth. Below is the write-up I did for the book's description.)
Poor Sinclair Lewis! Once one of the most celebrated writers on the planet, for an unprecedented string of commercial hits in the 1920s making vicious fun of the bored, corrupt, empty-headed middle class of the American Midwest, all of them turned into bestsellers precisely by the self-hating middle-classers he was making fun of, Lewis' career went quickly sour upon the start of the Great Depression, when these suddenly broke middle-classers found themselves being punished enough by life in general, and no longer needed his finger-wagging to produce the painless punishment that was assuaging their guilt throughout the "Roaring Twenties." But now that we're about to approach the centennial celebrations of these early hits, it's time that a new cultural assessment of Lewis be made, and that he be acknowledged as a sharp futurist who has a lot to say about our own times; because in reality you can strongly argue that he was the Jonathan Franzen of his times, a critically adored author (the first American writer in history to win the Nobel Prize, for example) who nonetheless heavily employed the pop culture and slang of his day in order to create devastating indictments against the consumerism, celebrity worship and herd mentality surrounding him, eaten up in the millions by the very people most guilty of the behavior, because they're able to recognize in these indictments every single person they know besides themselves, the problem that led to the Great Depression just as surely as it did in our own times to the 2008 Economic Meltdown.
Dodsworth was the last of these great hits, released just a few months before the stock market crash of 1929, and in a nutshell can be called "Lewis meets Henry James;" centered around Sam Dodsworth, the fifty-something founder of the hugely successful car manufacturer in Zenith* who has just sold the entire thing to a thinly disguised General Motors, now that he's "retired" his forty-something wife convinces him to go on an old-fashioned Grand Tour of Europe, just like rich Americans have been doing since the Victorian Age if they want to consider themselves truly cultured. (And note, by the way, that this would be the last period in history that this would be true, one of the many elements that makes this almost more important now as a historical document than as a piece of popular fiction; after the destruction of Europe and the ascendency of America at the end of World War Two, the global headquarters of culture quickly shifted to the US and specifically New York, and it suddenly became passe among rich Americans to take European grand tours anymore.) The simple plot, then, follows the same structure as so many of Lewis' novels from the '20s; our narrator starts as the living embodiment of whatever Lewis is trying to criticize (in this case, the business-focused, proudly ignorant American, forced on an unending parade of interchangeable cathedral visits and appalled by the lack of modern creature comforts now taken for granted in nearly every large American city), but after being exposed to the good things from that new environment (including, as always, the potential love of an enticingly independent modern woman) he slowly becomes a convert, just to be shunned by his former peers as pressure to "return to the fold."
And as mentioned, this is perhaps why collectors are best off thinking of this as an important historical document, rather than to focus on its admittedly only so-so quality as a novel; because given that Sam's payment for Dodsworth Motors would've likely been just a little cash but a whole lot of stock, it's fascinating to realize that in the real world, he would've been bankrupted just a few months after the events of this book take place, and that he suddenly would have a whole lot more to worry about than pompous Brits, brash expats, and how all those dirty artists in the Left Bank were always getting in his way. That's the treasure of this book in general, that it's a snapshot of a moment in history right before an unexpected period of tremendous upheaval, with none of the characters (nor even the author) even remotely aware that such upheaval is about to take place; note for example Sam's ho-hum attitude towards the pre-power Fascists he meets in Europe, or how one of the biggest sources of conflict is whether Sam is going to accept the high-powered VP position of the new conglomerate at home next year, or blow another million on staying at five-star hotels across the Continent for yet another year, a much more historically naked treat than any revisionist "winds of change" novel written after the fact. Lewis' fans in his own lifetime turned on him for this, but it's time that we restore the respect and fame he deserves for being such an astute prognosticator; and with this copy of Dodsworth being auctioned at a deliberately low starting bid to encourage an actual sale, this is a fine choice for a collector who wishes to "beat the odds" before this re-lionization of Lewis takes place next decade.
*For those who don't know, Lewis set many of his novels in the fictional Midwestern state of Winnemac, which was supposed to be sorta southish of Michigan and sorta northish of Indiana and Ohio; and Winnemac's version of Detroit or Cleveland or St. Louis was the industrial powerhouse of Zenith, where so many of his stories specifically take place. In fact, in Dodsworth Lewis makes almost a science-fiction author's amount of insider references to his now expansive alt-reality, name-dropping in casual conversations such former characters as George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry.
(CCLaP's rare-book service [cclapcenter.com/rarebooks] recently auctioned off a first edition, first printing copy of Sinclair Lewis' 1929 Dodsworth. Below is the write-up I did for the book's description.)
Poor Sinclair Lewis! Once one of the most celebrated writers on the planet, for an unprecedented string of commercial hits in the 1920s making vicious fun of the bored, corrupt, empty-headed middle class of the American Midwest, all of them turned into bestsellers precisely by the self-hating middle-classers he was making fun of, Lewis' career went quickly sour upon the start of the Great Depression, when these suddenly broke middle-classers found themselves being punished enough by life in general, and no longer needed his finger-wagging to produce the painless punishment that was assuaging their guilt throughout the "Roaring Twenties." But now that we're about to approach the centennial celebrations of these early hits, it's time that a new cultural assessment of Lewis be made, and that he be acknowledged as a sharp futurist who has a lot to say about our own times; because in reality you can strongly argue that he was the Jonathan Franzen of his times, a critically adored author (the first American writer in history to win the Nobel Prize, for example) who nonetheless heavily employed the pop culture and slang of his day in order to create devastating indictments against the consumerism, celebrity worship and herd mentality surrounding him, eaten up in the millions by the very people most guilty of the behavior, because they're able to recognize in these indictments every single person they know besides themselves, the problem that led to the Great Depression just as surely as it did in our own times to the 2008 Economic Meltdown.
Dodsworth was the last of these great hits, released just a few months before the stock market crash of 1929, and in a nutshell can be called "Lewis meets Henry James;" centered around Sam Dodsworth, the fifty-something founder of the hugely successful car manufacturer in Zenith* who has just sold the entire thing to a thinly disguised General Motors, now that he's "retired" his forty-something wife convinces him to go on an old-fashioned Grand Tour of Europe, just like rich Americans have been doing since the Victorian Age if they want to consider themselves truly cultured. (And note, by the way, that this would be the last period in history that this would be true, one of the many elements that makes this almost more important now as a historical document than as a piece of popular fiction; after the destruction of Europe and the ascendency of America at the end of World War Two, the global headquarters of culture quickly shifted to the US and specifically New York, and it suddenly became passe among rich Americans to take European grand tours anymore.) The simple plot, then, follows the same structure as so many of Lewis' novels from the '20s; our narrator starts as the living embodiment of whatever Lewis is trying to criticize (in this case, the business-focused, proudly ignorant American, forced on an unending parade of interchangeable cathedral visits and appalled by the lack of modern creature comforts now taken for granted in nearly every large American city), but after being exposed to the good things from that new environment (including, as always, the potential love of an enticingly independent modern woman) he slowly becomes a convert, just to be shunned by his former peers as pressure to "return to the fold."
And as mentioned, this is perhaps why collectors are best off thinking of this as an important historical document, rather than to focus on its admittedly only so-so quality as a novel; because given that Sam's payment for Dodsworth Motors would've likely been just a little cash but a whole lot of stock, it's fascinating to realize that in the real world, he would've been bankrupted just a few months after the events of this book take place, and that he suddenly would have a whole lot more to worry about than pompous Brits, brash expats, and how all those dirty artists in the Left Bank were always getting in his way. That's the treasure of this book in general, that it's a snapshot of a moment in history right before an unexpected period of tremendous upheaval, with none of the characters (nor even the author) even remotely aware that such upheaval is about to take place; note for example Sam's ho-hum attitude towards the pre-power Fascists he meets in Europe, or how one of the biggest sources of conflict is whether Sam is going to accept the high-powered VP position of the new conglomerate at home next year, or blow another million on staying at five-star hotels across the Continent for yet another year, a much more historically naked treat than any revisionist "winds of change" novel written after the fact. Lewis' fans in his own lifetime turned on him for this, but it's time that we restore the respect and fame he deserves for being such an astute prognosticator; and with this copy of Dodsworth being auctioned at a deliberately low starting bid to encourage an actual sale, this is a fine choice for a collector who wishes to "beat the odds" before this re-lionization of Lewis takes place next decade.
*For those who don't know, Lewis set many of his novels in the fictional Midwestern state of Winnemac, which was supposed to be sorta southish of Michigan and sorta northish of Indiana and Ohio; and Winnemac's version of Detroit or Cleveland or St. Louis was the industrial powerhouse of Zenith, where so many of his stories specifically take place. In fact, in Dodsworth Lewis makes almost a science-fiction author's amount of insider references to his now expansive alt-reality, name-dropping in casual conversations such former characters as George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry.
Read
March 9, 2025DNF
July 9, 2015
I'd never read anything by this author, so thought I'd start here. The societal observation is so keen that at times I nearly forgot it wasn't set in current time (although the casual anti-Semitism was pretty tough). As a book, it was largely frustrating, and often tedious, dealing with a protagonist in a one-sided relationship, where everyone knows it's over, but him. Recommended for those who've enjoyed other Lewis works and/or those with a fascination for the interwar period.
June 15, 2014
My next book in between the Potter series. Gotta clean the palate! My edition is a paperback from a ways back(Signet 1967 - 99 cents!). I've read Babbitt, Elmer Gantry and It Can't Happen Here(all long ago in prep school) and Arrowsmith more recently.
Sam and spouse are in England now and he's opening up to the experience of moving closer to a more authentic self. Very interesting to read Lewis' words on the now-fashionable "authentic self" thing. Meanwhile the wife is beginning to reveal her shortcomings. Cute but shallow...
This is supposed to be a "comedy" but it isn't so far. Not a tragedy either. It might be too much of a challenge for SL to be funny. Breezy - yes - but more than "somewhat amusing" I'm not sure. It's my understanding that the Hollywood movie is very good but also serious(I thought).
Not much time for reading last night but the annoying Fran continues to exasperate. Oh well... she's shallow, self-absorbed and immature. Her vision for living "better" is a shallow one and I'm wondering if SL is pointing at American women in general. He's certainly spent plenty of words to describe the limitations of the middle-class American male doer. And(back to the wife) from what I've gathered is coming she's untrustworthy as well. But... she's a human too and deserving of compassion. She's doing her best to try to be happy I suppose; and... she's the one who got Sam out of Zenith to begin with!
Continued slow going due to work taking up too much time. Especially since I work in the evening most of the time. Anyway... the going is getting gradually stickier for Sam and Fran. He's finding himself more and more intrigued with "experiencing" the old world while Fran's ability to do the same is limited. Problems are cropping up regularly. Problems of incompatibility that've been hidden by the business of marriage and life in Zenith. Notes...
- Sam loves looking at art; Fran likes walking through museums. I'm familiar with the problem!
- Women's aims(back then and conventionally) were less lofty than men's. More revolving around romance - emotional stimulation. I'm familiar with the problem - more incompatibility.
- Plenty of both pro- and anti-American rumination from Lewis, who once famously said "I love my country but sometimes I don't like it very much."
- So far this is a very white story. The negatives about minority treatment in the USA haven't been mentioned.
- The classic conflict is here between the male satisfactions of all-male companionship and the female need for a more blended picture and particularly(in Fran's case) specific butt-kissing attention from a smooth-talker. In the middle-class marriages of the 20th century there was a lot of isolation and dead-ending(after the kids) for women.
Still moseying along on my limited reading opportunities. Sam and Fran are now physically serparated. Uh-oh! She's shown her limited capacity for personal growth. Maybe it'll get better - later - after some more serious unpleasantness. Notes
- A gay character! Referred to as a "lily" by Sam...
- It's beginning to seem a bit draggy and boring. One problem is SL's lack of writing skill. WHAT he writes about is interesting but he doesn't have the chops of Austen, Dickens or Hardy, to name a few. His prose is gee-whizzy rather than inspired and inspiring.
- Now there's more pro- and anti-American stuff. It IS interesting and the "Old" Europe - Young America divide is still there. Just ask Rumsfeld! I'm familiar with the "coming home" syndrome. I did it while in the Navy: One year in Vietnam and back home... two years in Hawaii and back home... three months in the the SW Colorado/4 corners area camping and then home... three months in Europe and then home... four months in Europe and Africa and then home. ALWAYS with mixed emotions.
Well into the second half now(this edition has only 350 pages) and Sam's headed back to Europe to see what's up with his child-bride. He's finally figured out what ails her... IMMATURITY! Oh well; of course there's the artificial plot set-up of the two of them separating so she can get her butt into trouble trying to live on her own like one of the Old World Gentry. Notes...
- Ross Ireland becomes SL's mouthpiece for pro- vs anti-America. Back and forth. It looks like Dodsworth's not so sure about the USA either. Neither was the author.
- Lynching finally mentioned on p. 158.
- Sinclair Lewis seems to have a bit of a "Jew" problem!
Still "working on" this one. I has become just a bit tedious as SL's uninspired prose wears a bit thin. The two topics(men and women in marriage and Europe vs. America) are dragging too. So MUCH speechifying/pontificating goes on. The Berlin dinner party spiel of the Professor about the values of old Europe ring just a BIT hollow considering what was to come about ten years later. America had to bail the fools out - again!
- The Fran-focus makes me think about my mother - a child woman...
- That gay bar in Berlin... Shocking!!!(except to Fran) That Sam IS a
stiff!
Finished last night after a bit of skimming over the last 50 pages or so. I'd had enough of the blah-blah. This book gets a 4* for content(though repetitive) and a 2* for prose mastery. Don't bore me!
- The plane ride was pretty good!
- The final(not) train parting WAS a bit sad.
- Finally! Sam finds a hot babe in Paris. Not many like her in Zenith...
- SL talks about the pioneer virtue of shooting Indians - ICK!
- WAY too much time is spent inside the brain of stolid Sam.
- The Europe vs. America continues right to the end.
- The last line's pretty funny. Poor Sam is heavily afflicted with codependency. I get it after being in Alanon for umpteen years.
- The final rating's a 3* but it'd be a solid 4* with better writing.
Sam and spouse are in England now and he's opening up to the experience of moving closer to a more authentic self. Very interesting to read Lewis' words on the now-fashionable "authentic self" thing. Meanwhile the wife is beginning to reveal her shortcomings. Cute but shallow...
This is supposed to be a "comedy" but it isn't so far. Not a tragedy either. It might be too much of a challenge for SL to be funny. Breezy - yes - but more than "somewhat amusing" I'm not sure. It's my understanding that the Hollywood movie is very good but also serious(I thought).
Not much time for reading last night but the annoying Fran continues to exasperate. Oh well... she's shallow, self-absorbed and immature. Her vision for living "better" is a shallow one and I'm wondering if SL is pointing at American women in general. He's certainly spent plenty of words to describe the limitations of the middle-class American male doer. And(back to the wife) from what I've gathered is coming she's untrustworthy as well. But... she's a human too and deserving of compassion. She's doing her best to try to be happy I suppose; and... she's the one who got Sam out of Zenith to begin with!
Continued slow going due to work taking up too much time. Especially since I work in the evening most of the time. Anyway... the going is getting gradually stickier for Sam and Fran. He's finding himself more and more intrigued with "experiencing" the old world while Fran's ability to do the same is limited. Problems are cropping up regularly. Problems of incompatibility that've been hidden by the business of marriage and life in Zenith. Notes...
- Sam loves looking at art; Fran likes walking through museums. I'm familiar with the problem!
- Women's aims(back then and conventionally) were less lofty than men's. More revolving around romance - emotional stimulation. I'm familiar with the problem - more incompatibility.
- Plenty of both pro- and anti-American rumination from Lewis, who once famously said "I love my country but sometimes I don't like it very much."
- So far this is a very white story. The negatives about minority treatment in the USA haven't been mentioned.
- The classic conflict is here between the male satisfactions of all-male companionship and the female need for a more blended picture and particularly(in Fran's case) specific butt-kissing attention from a smooth-talker. In the middle-class marriages of the 20th century there was a lot of isolation and dead-ending(after the kids) for women.
Still moseying along on my limited reading opportunities. Sam and Fran are now physically serparated. Uh-oh! She's shown her limited capacity for personal growth. Maybe it'll get better - later - after some more serious unpleasantness. Notes
- A gay character! Referred to as a "lily" by Sam...
- It's beginning to seem a bit draggy and boring. One problem is SL's lack of writing skill. WHAT he writes about is interesting but he doesn't have the chops of Austen, Dickens or Hardy, to name a few. His prose is gee-whizzy rather than inspired and inspiring.
- Now there's more pro- and anti-American stuff. It IS interesting and the "Old" Europe - Young America divide is still there. Just ask Rumsfeld! I'm familiar with the "coming home" syndrome. I did it while in the Navy: One year in Vietnam and back home... two years in Hawaii and back home... three months in the the SW Colorado/4 corners area camping and then home... three months in Europe and then home... four months in Europe and Africa and then home. ALWAYS with mixed emotions.
Well into the second half now(this edition has only 350 pages) and Sam's headed back to Europe to see what's up with his child-bride. He's finally figured out what ails her... IMMATURITY! Oh well; of course there's the artificial plot set-up of the two of them separating so she can get her butt into trouble trying to live on her own like one of the Old World Gentry. Notes...
- Ross Ireland becomes SL's mouthpiece for pro- vs anti-America. Back and forth. It looks like Dodsworth's not so sure about the USA either. Neither was the author.
- Lynching finally mentioned on p. 158.
- Sinclair Lewis seems to have a bit of a "Jew" problem!
Still "working on" this one. I has become just a bit tedious as SL's uninspired prose wears a bit thin. The two topics(men and women in marriage and Europe vs. America) are dragging too. So MUCH speechifying/pontificating goes on. The Berlin dinner party spiel of the Professor about the values of old Europe ring just a BIT hollow considering what was to come about ten years later. America had to bail the fools out - again!
- The Fran-focus makes me think about my mother - a child woman...
- That gay bar in Berlin... Shocking!!!(except to Fran) That Sam IS a
stiff!
Finished last night after a bit of skimming over the last 50 pages or so. I'd had enough of the blah-blah. This book gets a 4* for content(though repetitive) and a 2* for prose mastery. Don't bore me!
- The plane ride was pretty good!
- The final(not) train parting WAS a bit sad.
- Finally! Sam finds a hot babe in Paris. Not many like her in Zenith...
- SL talks about the pioneer virtue of shooting Indians - ICK!
- WAY too much time is spent inside the brain of stolid Sam.
- The Europe vs. America continues right to the end.
- The last line's pretty funny. Poor Sam is heavily afflicted with codependency. I get it after being in Alanon for umpteen years.
- The final rating's a 3* but it'd be a solid 4* with better writing.
June 4, 2024
Sinclair Lewis introduces us to Babbit's fellow citizens of Zenith in "Dodsworth". Sam Dodsworth is in the automotive industry and has made a small fortune with his sleek car design. When his company is bought by a large conglomerate, he takes his wife Fran on a well-deserved extended European vacation. The problem is that they have very different ideas about what to do there. Sam wants to see the sights and Fran wants to immerse herself in the high society. They learn more about themselves and each other in a few months than they ever did in their marriage. Both characters are alternately sympathetic and contemptible as their relationship sours. Eventually they must decide whether to lead separate, more satisfying, lives or stay together.
While the story of their relationship is interesting, I found myself more interested in the Europe vs America conversations. The USA is seen as young and energetic, Europe more mature and relaxed. The same could be said now. Also eerily similar is the noted rise of fascism and populist movements. Deja vu!
While the story of their relationship is interesting, I found myself more interested in the Europe vs America conversations. The USA is seen as young and energetic, Europe more mature and relaxed. The same could be said now. Also eerily similar is the noted rise of fascism and populist movements. Deja vu!
January 23, 2011
If Sinclair Lewis wasn't the greatest author of the twentieth century, he was damn close. Like his earlier works, Dodsworth is a biting indictment of American society at the turn of the twentieth century, in this case epitomized by captain of industry Samuel Dodsworth and his social-climbing wife. Although lacking much of the punch of such earlier works as Babbit and Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth is a must-read for any fan of this now sadly-overlooked author.
April 8, 2019
Sinclair Lewis is a terrific writer, and Dodsworth is as good as any of his books. Sam Dodsworth and his wife Fran are both deeply flawed but also interesting and attactive characters. In the end, he comes off better than she does, but there is much that is good and attactive about both of them, so that their love for each other is totally believable. But I could also see how the flaws in each of them could have been pushed to the background in twenty years of marriage, career building and raising a family, only to burst forth as open sores in the context of their new life of leisure in Europe, after Sam sells his successful car manufacturing business.
The story of uncultured, socially maladroit Americans in Europe had been done many times before the Dodsworths came along, most notably by Henry James. The Dodsworths, like James' character Christopher Newman in "The American" embody the energy and freshness of the New World and have a reasonable amount of sophistication and appreciation of culture, but still they just can't quite fit in or be completely accepted. It's a bit cliched, but I expect that the cliche had a lot of truth in reflecting the differences between Europe and America in the era that is portrayed here.
Near the end of the book when Dodsworth has sunk to his lowest ebb, he is finally able to find some peace and to begin his emotional and psychological recovery in a visit to a villa near Sorrento, overlooking the Bay of Naples. By coincidence, I have a trip planned to that exact area in two weeks, so I am looking forward to finding some of the same healing and relaxation that made this place so magical for Dodsworth.
The story of uncultured, socially maladroit Americans in Europe had been done many times before the Dodsworths came along, most notably by Henry James. The Dodsworths, like James' character Christopher Newman in "The American" embody the energy and freshness of the New World and have a reasonable amount of sophistication and appreciation of culture, but still they just can't quite fit in or be completely accepted. It's a bit cliched, but I expect that the cliche had a lot of truth in reflecting the differences between Europe and America in the era that is portrayed here.
Near the end of the book when Dodsworth has sunk to his lowest ebb, he is finally able to find some peace and to begin his emotional and psychological recovery in a visit to a villa near Sorrento, overlooking the Bay of Naples. By coincidence, I have a trip planned to that exact area in two weeks, so I am looking forward to finding some of the same healing and relaxation that made this place so magical for Dodsworth.
April 1, 2023
This satirical yet affectionate portrait of an American in Europe in the 1920s was interesting on many levels. The fish out of water, the rocky marriage, the different attitudes to how life should be lived. All were well drawn and I laughed in places too.
August 17, 2018
Lewis applies his trademark mix of social satire and humanist empathy to Americans abroad with their ridiculous notions of Europe.
January 10, 2020
I discovered Sinclair Lewis at the right place and the right time. I was living in a small Midwestern town and finding it very difficult and I read Lewis' book, Main Street, which was a comfort to me, as the attitude of the small town Midewesterners in the book matched those I was dealing with.
The 1936 film based on this book is superb, one of the most psychologically complex of the era. So I was anxious to read the book. I was very disappointed, though. In the film, both Sam and Fran Dodsworth come off as complex with both good and bad traits. In the book, Fran is made a total femme fatale with no redeeming qualities and Sam comes off as a bully. The story rambles quite a bit and in many places reads more like a travelogue of Europe than a story (which might have interested audiences at the time more than now, since international travel was less available then). Also one of the issues I have with all of Lewis' work is that he is probably one of the most ineloquent writers I've read. His dialogue tends to be outdated - very, very outdated. It's the kind of "golly gee, gosh darn" dialogue you would expect in 1920's slang.
I would recommend if you're trying Lewis' work that you read Babbit or Main Street rather than this book.
The 1936 film based on this book is superb, one of the most psychologically complex of the era. So I was anxious to read the book. I was very disappointed, though. In the film, both Sam and Fran Dodsworth come off as complex with both good and bad traits. In the book, Fran is made a total femme fatale with no redeeming qualities and Sam comes off as a bully. The story rambles quite a bit and in many places reads more like a travelogue of Europe than a story (which might have interested audiences at the time more than now, since international travel was less available then). Also one of the issues I have with all of Lewis' work is that he is probably one of the most ineloquent writers I've read. His dialogue tends to be outdated - very, very outdated. It's the kind of "golly gee, gosh darn" dialogue you would expect in 1920's slang.
I would recommend if you're trying Lewis' work that you read Babbit or Main Street rather than this book.
March 13, 2016
While one of Lewis' most well-known novels, Dodsworth isn't as ambitious or funny as some of his other classics, like Babbitt or Elmer Gantry. Instead, it's a half break-up/ half tour of Europe novel, with only one area being successful (hint: it's the former. For me anyway). Sam Dodsworth is the retired head of a successful auto company and he travels around Europe with his annoying wife, Fran. But here's the thing. While I hate Fran since Lewis made it impossible not to, I find it hard to actually condemn her actions. It's 2016, and Fran represents the modern woman. It's all about "me, me, me" all the time, time, time, and i think Fran fits a lot more into this time period than I'm sure she did back in the 20s. Either way, Dodsworth as a whole was slow at times and much longer than it needed to be. I think I'm done with Sinclair Lewis now. Six books is more than enough.
August 1, 2021
4.5 stars. An entertaining, engaging, enjoyable novel about Sam Dodsworth, an amiable 50 year old millionaire who successfully ran a car manufacturing business in Zenith, USA. A Republican, believer in high tariffs, is married to Fran and they have two grown up independent children. Fran persuades Sam to sell his interest in the auto company and travel to Europe in early 1926. Fran loves Europe and wants to stay indefinitely whereas Sam prefers to go back to Zenith where he has strong connections. Sam tends to agree to do whatever Fran wants. Their marriage goes through some rocky moments.
A very satisfying reading experience. This is my fourth Sinclair Lewis novel and I found it to be nearly as good a read as Lewis’s ‘Main Street’ and ‘Babbit’, both of which I rated as five star reads!
This book was first published in 1929.
A very satisfying reading experience. This is my fourth Sinclair Lewis novel and I found it to be nearly as good a read as Lewis’s ‘Main Street’ and ‘Babbit’, both of which I rated as five star reads!
This book was first published in 1929.
February 13, 2013
I've never read anything by Sinclair Lewis, but I read this because I really like the 1936 movie adaptation of this novel. The book is very good. Told from the standpoint of Sam Dodsworth, a 50ish car magnate who has just retired and his younger wife Fran (well, 10 years younger) wants to travel around Europe and live the good life. Sam is game and goes along with Fran until Fran's attempts to be eternally young and romantically cherished as one of the beautiful people really cause a lot of soul-searching and agony. I love Sam even more than the movie character, which can't quite flesh him out as much as a 400-page book.
July 24, 2019
I discovered Sinclair Lewis years ago and wanted to read more. This book has been nothing but a traveling experience with people I know! Written in 1929, I love going back and finding out people have not changed a bit! The relationship and bickering between this upper class American couple with empty nest syndrome traveling overseas is spot on--I know these people, or maybe it sounds a bit like my life you say to yourself. What a perfect novel in all ways. I would read it again, but he has more for me to read! And, it seems that "motoring fast" was a big sport back in 1929, the faster you went, the more athletic you were!
August 20, 2007
I thought the plot was drab and the people bland -- but intentionally so. Sinclair Lewis is underappreciated now, but he was a genius at serving up the realities of his time.
June 26, 2022
Extremely clever, of course, but not quite Babbitt, or Main Street, etc.
May 28, 2023
I am a serial reader: I read one book at a time, from beginning to end at a fairly quick pace, then go on to the next one. So, this was very unusual for me - it took me over a month to read, and I read two other books in the middle of that reading time. Some of that was logistics; book club books needed to be read by their deadlines, but also I found I didn't want to rush this. I slowly read every word.
I've been a Lewis fan my entire adult reading life and I now only have one of his "Big Six" left to read - Main Street. I loved this one so much (and it might be my favorite, even over Elmer Gantry) because his skewering and satire are present, but more nuanced this time. Where George Babbitt had little to redeem him, Sam Dodsworth is different. Lewis gifts us with a man who mostly recognizes his own cluelessnes, despises it, and wants to change, but that is not an easy or consistently successful inner journey. Lewis also gives us Fran Dodsworth, a character so unlikable I hissed every time she showed up on the page. And finally, Lewis presents us with The American, in the form of many characters, and invites us to ponder exactly who and what that means. What. A. Book.
I've been a Lewis fan my entire adult reading life and I now only have one of his "Big Six" left to read - Main Street. I loved this one so much (and it might be my favorite, even over Elmer Gantry) because his skewering and satire are present, but more nuanced this time. Where George Babbitt had little to redeem him, Sam Dodsworth is different. Lewis gifts us with a man who mostly recognizes his own cluelessnes, despises it, and wants to change, but that is not an easy or consistently successful inner journey. Lewis also gives us Fran Dodsworth, a character so unlikable I hissed every time she showed up on the page. And finally, Lewis presents us with The American, in the form of many characters, and invites us to ponder exactly who and what that means. What. A. Book.
November 2, 2022
I had decided to check out Sinclair Lewis. Keep in mind Dodsworth was published 1922 and I could still relate to his story and their characters. I was absolutely comfortable with Sinclair Lewis’ writing style, it kept me completely engaged. I never felt disconnected from the situation, era or did I feel unable to understand what these characters were conveying? For me personally the absolute best parts of this read were the long soliloquies and monologues throughout the novel. They were absolutely well written and they were memorable, for me I especially felt the one about New York City had me clapping my hands with joy. NYC is always getting kicked around and it always survives. I’m absolutely thrilled I took a chance on this one.
BTW: I saw Tom Hanks as Dodsworth. Just saying…
BTW: I saw Tom Hanks as Dodsworth. Just saying…
November 25, 2024
One of those rare books that I believe is inferior to the movie version. Just slightly, mind you, but I wouldn't have read this 1929 classic if it wasn't for the fine 1936 film that followed. One of the best movies about married life made in the 30's, in my opinion.
In a nutshell, a middle aged businessman retires early and takes his spoiled wife on an extended tour of Europe and the contrasts between American and European life become apparent to him, as well as the flaws in his relationship.
Sinclair Lewis created an interesting plot but he had a poor ear for dialogue, and the movie version improved his work by miles in that regard. It also made the ending more interesting and uplifting.
In a nutshell, a middle aged businessman retires early and takes his spoiled wife on an extended tour of Europe and the contrasts between American and European life become apparent to him, as well as the flaws in his relationship.
Sinclair Lewis created an interesting plot but he had a poor ear for dialogue, and the movie version improved his work by miles in that regard. It also made the ending more interesting and uplifting.
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