Penrod Schofield was neither overwhelmingly bad nor the complete little gentleman. He was an ordinary 12-year-old boy growing up in early twentieth-century America. With his gang members Sam, Herman, and Verman and his long-suffering dog Duke, he romps through adventures and misadventures.

A dry snow had fallen steadily throughout the still night, so that when a cold, upper wind cleared the sky gloriously in the morning the incongruous Indiana town shone in a white harmony-roof, ledge, and earth as evenly covered as by moonlight. There was

What does it mean to be popular? Is it a mark of good character, or merely a sign that you're well-regarded among an influential group of elites? The hero in Booth Tarkington's tale The Conquest of Canaan has achieved a strange kind of popularity -- he's seen as a prince among those who are down on their luck, but to the upper classes and the powerful, he might as well be invisible. Will Joe Loudon be able to channel his limited influence to make some much-needed changes in his community?

The winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize in literature and the subject of several well-received film adaptations, Alice Adams is regarded as one of Booth Tarkington's most accomplished novels. The tale follows the exploits of the plucky young protagonist, who disregards her family's low social standing and pursues love with the well-heeled young man of her dreams.

In American author Booth Tarkington's best-known novels and stories, he describes the changing of the cultural guard in the United States as the moneyed aristocracy gave way to the up-and-coming robber barons and titans of industry. In The Guest of Quesnay, Tarkington casts his social scrutiny on a different continent, using the figure of an American painter in Paris as a lens through which to explore relationships between European and American attitudes and ideals.

Penrod Schofield was neither overwhelmingly bad nor the complete little gentleman. He was an ordinary 12-year-old boy growing up in early twentieth-century America. With his gang members Sam, Herman, and Verman and his long-suffering dog Duke, he romps through adventures and misadventures.

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1918, The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The protagonist of Booth Tarkington's great historical drama is George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled and arrogant grandson of the founder of the family's magnificence. Eclipsed by a new breed of developers, financiers, and manufacturers, this pampered scion begins his gradual descent from the midwestern aristocracy to the working class. 

Today The Magnificent Ambersons is best known through the 1942 Orson Welles movie, but as the critic Stanley Kauffmann noted, "It is high time that [the novel] appear again, to stand outside the force of Welles's genius, confident in its own right."

"The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps Tarkington's best novel," judged Van Wyck Brooks. "[It is] a typical story of an American family and town--the great family that locally ruled the roost and vanished virtually in a day as the town spread and darkened into a city. This novel no doubt was a permanent page in the social history of the United States, so admirably conceived and written was the tale of the Ambersons, their house, their fate and the growth of the community in which they were submerged in the end."

The Magnificent Ambersons is the epic story of an American family's traumatic tumble from the dizzying heights of fame and fortune. A dynasty spanning three generations, the Ambersons' pre-eminence as society's elite is threatened--not only by a hungry new breed of industrial entrepreneurs--but from its own arrogance and greed. At the center of the story is George Amberson Minafer, the pampered but pitiful, scion of the clan upon whose shoulders the fate of the family fortune will be won...or lost.

At once an exciting chronicle of a family's rise to fortune and its tortured downfall, it is also a fascinating portrait of the forces that shaped American society.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Christmas--the very word conjures up memories of the most wondrous childhood holiday of all--filled with the glitter of colorfully-wrapped presents, family visits, carols, photographs, decorating the tree, attendance at church to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, and tummy-stuffing dinners tucked with treats seen at no other time of the year.

But the yule holiday has been celebrated for at least two centuries in North America, and our writers have been producing memorable stories about this unique day for almost as long. Here are 29 Christmas stories old and new, tales to delight, to entrance, to beguile, and even to sadden a whole new generation of readers. From C. C. MacApp's view of a Christmas future to Jacob A. Riis's gut-wrenching portraits of the holiday in the 1890s slums of New York to William J. Locke's reenactment of the tale of the Three Wise Men, we experience every possible facet of this most precious day of the year. So sit back and relive your memories once again, as recreated through the eyes of some of the finest writers of their time!

Included in this volume:

INTRODUCTION, by Robert Reginald
THE BLOSSOMING ROD, by Mary Stewart Cutting
AND ALL THE EARTH A GRAVE, by C.C. MacApp
A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS, by Meredith Nicholson
BEASLEY’S CHRISTMAS PARTY, by Booth Tarkington
A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY: THE STORY OF THREE WISE MEN, by William John Locke
BETTY’S BRIGHT IDEA, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF NEW ENGLAND, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
THE LADY ERMETTA; or, The Sleeping Secret
MR. KRIS KRINGLE: A CHRISTMAS TALE, by S. Weir Mitchell
ROSEMARY: A CHRISTMAS STORY, by C. N. & A. M. Williamson
THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, by Hesba Stretton
THE LITTLE GRAY LADY, by F. Hopkinson Smith
THE ROMANCE OF A CHRISTMAS CARD, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
MR. BAMBOO AND THE HONORABLE LITTLE GOD, by Fannie C. MacAulay
MRS. BUDLONG’S CHRISTMAS PRESENTS, by Rupert Hughes
THE OAK TREE’S CHRISTMAS GIFT, by Julian Hawthorne
THE LONG HILLSIDE: A CHRISTMAS HARE-HUNT IN OLD VIRGINIA, by Thomas Nelson Page
CANDLE AND CRIB, by K. F. Purdon
TOLD AFTER SUPPER, by Jerome K. Jerome
NIBSY’S CHRISTMAS, by Jacob A. Riis
WHAT THE CHRISTMAS SUN SAW IN THE TENEMENTS, by Jacob A. Riis
SKIPPY OF SCRABBLE ALLEY, by Jacob A. Riis
UNCLE NOAH’S CHRISTMAS INSPIRATION, by Leona Dalrymple
THE TRUCE OF GOD, by Mary Roberts Rinehart
THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, by O. Henry
THE LITTLE MIXER, by Lillian Nicholson Shearon
THE POTATO CHILD, by Mrs. Charles J. Woodbury
A STORY THAT NEVER ENDS, by Mrs. Charles J. Woodbury
A NAZARETH CHRISTMAS, by Mrs. Charles J. Woodbury

And don't forget to search this ebook store for "Megapack" to see other volumes in the series, from science fiction to ghost stories to mysteries...and many more!

Booth Tarkington’s humorous take on youth, imagination, and the seemingly endless font of adult foolishness

Penrod Schofield is the epitome of a precocious twelve-year-old: crafty in his dealings developing a business and mischievous in his interactions at the local grammar school. He is neither a rascal nor a paragon of virtue, but rather an ordinary boy growing up in a rural early-nineteenth-century Indiana town. In these comic sketches by Booth Tarkington, it is up to Penrod, along with his dog, Duke, and friends Sam, Herman, and Verman, to rescue themselves from countless scrapes and humiliations—usually of the adults’ making.  
 
Penrod is deliriously effective in its evocation both of an earlier era and of the unfettered joy of being a young man in a world of bikes, cap guns, and cranky authority figures. Tarkington’s heartwarming story highlights the naiveté of youth—and the hypocrisy of adulthood.
 
This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

The follow-up to the beloved Penrod, this novel from acclaimed author Booth Tarkington focuses on the relationship between best pals Penrod Schofield and Sam Williams as they navigate the pitfalls of adolescence and fumble toward adulthood. Though originally written for a young adult audience, Penrod is an eminently memorable character who will entertain readers of every age.

Booth Tarkington's wildly successful novel Seventeen satirizes the vagaries of American adolescence. Though 17-year-old protagonist William Sylvanus Baxter is awkward, tactless, and often less than likable, Tarkington's insightful -- and hilarious -- take on teenage life and love is sure to please readers who appreciate top-notch humor writing.

In Penrod and Sam, the imaginative adventures of Tarkington's 10-year-old Penrod Schofield continue. Penrod's sidekick is Samuel Williams, and together they improvise, causing general mischief and disorder wherever they go. In picaresque fashion, a fencing battle takes them all through the neighborhood; they narrowly escape serious injury while making boastful demonstrations with a loaded gun; they indulge in dubious "'nishiation" practices for their secret society; they steal food for the starving horse concealed in the Schofields' empty stable; they attempt to fish a cat out of a cistern using a pair of trousers; and they cause general chaos at Miss Amy Rennsdale's dance. Familiar characters from the earlier Penrod volume -- Maurice Levy, Georgie Basset, Roddy Bitts, Herman and Verman, and Marjorie Jones -- make their appearance in Penrod and Sam. This is a delightfully nostalgic look at Tarkington's turn-of-the-century Indiana.

A timeless novel in the spirited tradition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

One of the most popular American authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Pulitzer Prize winner Booth Tarkington was acclaimed for his novels set in small Midwestern towns. Penrod tells of a boy growing up in Indianapolis at the turn of the twentieth century. His friends and his dog accompany him on his many jaunts, from the stage as “the Child Sir Lancelot,” to the playground, to school. They make names for themselves as “bad boys” who always have the most fun. Nearly a century after it was first published to incredible popularity and acclaim, Penrod remains wildly funny and entertaining to adults and children alike.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Booth Tarkington has an amazingly deft touch with characterization, and the tense relationship between town flirt Cora Madison and her quieter sister Laura is so compelling that the story has been the basis for a number of filmed versions. As with Tarkington's later novel The Magnificent Ambersons, The Flirt is a thoroughly entertaining portrait of a dysfunctional but ultimately loving family.

American novelist Booth Tarkington's life spanned the period 1869-1946, giving him a unique insight into the United States as its culture underwent a number of rapid changes. In the humorous novel Harlequin and Columbine, Tarkington explores the cult of celebrity that began to flower in earnest in the early decades of the twentieth century, using the character of an egotistical actor, Talbot Potter, as the focus of his gentle but hilariously spot-on satire.

Compiled in one book, the essential collection of books by Booth Tarkington
Alice Adams
Beasley's Christmas Party
The Beautiful Lady
The Conquest of Canaan
The Flirt
Gentle Julia
The Gentleman From Indiana
The Gibson Upright
The Guest of Quesnay
Harlequin and Columbine
His Own People
In the Arena
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Man from Home
Monsieur Beaucaire
Penrod
Penrod and Sam
Ramsey Milholland
Seventeen
The Turmoil
The Two Vanrevels

Penrod sat morosely upon the back fence and gazed with envy at Duke, his wistful dog. A bitter soul dominated the various curved and angular surfaces known by a careless world as the face of Penrod Schofield. Except in solitude, that face was almost always cryptic and emotionless; for Penrod had come into his twelfth year wearing an expression carefully trained to be inscrutable. Since the world was sure to misunderstand everything, mere defensive instinct prompted him to give it as little as possible to lay hold upon. Nothing is more impenetrable than the face of a boy who has learned this, and Penrod's was habitually as fathomless as the depth of his hatred this morning for the literary activities of Mrs. Lora Rewbush—an almost universally respected fellow citizen, a lady of charitable and poetic inclinations, and one of his own mother's most intimate friends. Mrs. Lora Rewbush had written something which she called "The Children's Pageant of the Table Round," and it was to be performed in public that very afternoon at the Women's Arts and Guild Hall for the benefit of the Coloured Infants' Betterment Society. And if any flavour of sweetness remained in the nature of Penrod Schofield after the dismal trials of the school-week just past, that problematic, infinitesimal remnant was made pungent acid by the imminence of his destiny to form a prominent feature of the spectacle, and to declaim the loathsome sentiments of a character named upon the programme the Child Sir Lancelot.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - The maple-bordered street was as still as a country Sunday; so quiet that there seemed an echo to my footsteps. It was four o'clock in the morning; clear October moonlight misted through the thinning foliage to the shadowy sidewalk and lay like a transparent silver fog upon the house of my admiration, as I strode along, returning from my first night's work on the "Wainwright Morning Despatch." I had already marked that house as the finest (to my taste) in Wainwright, though hitherto, on my excursions to this metropolis, the state capital, I was not without a certain native jealousy that Spencerville, the county-seat where I lived, had nothing so good. Now, however, I approached its purlieus with a pleasure in it quite unalloyed, for I was at last myself a resident (albeit of only one day's standing) of Wainwright, and the house - though I had not even an idea who lived there - part of my possessions as a citizen. Moreover, I might enjoy the warmer pride of a next-door-neighbor, for Mrs. Apperthwaite's, where I had taken a room, was just beyond.

This epic tale recounts the triumphs and tribulations of an upper-class American clan as they navigate the challenges of life in the aftermath of the Civil War and the birth of the Industrial Revolution. The basis for Orson Welles' renowned 1942 film of the same name, this richly detailed novel is a must-read for lovers of historical fiction.

"The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps Tarkington's best novel," wrote critic Van Wyck Brooks. "[It is] a typical story of an American family and town--the great family that locally ruled the roost and vanished virtually in a day as the town spread and darkened into a city."
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize after it was first published in 1918, Tarkington's powerful social commentary traces America's economic growth through the declining fortunes of three generations of the successful and socially prominent Amberson family. Set in a fictional Midwestern town during the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--the epic story follows the Ambersons' downward spiraling fortunes during a period of rapid industrialization and socio-economic change in America.
George Amberson Minafer, the arrogant heir to the family's wealth, illustrates the corrupting influence of greed and materialism at a time when the swiftly turning wheels of industry and commerce are overtaking old ways. Definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty are also changing. Almost overnight the prestige of the Ambersons irreversibly changes as well. An exciting chronicle of one family's accumulation of wealth and subsequent downfall, the book also paints a fascinating portrait of the forces that shaped modern American society.

This story of the first love experience of William Sylvanus Baxter shows an insight into the emotions and mental processes of the adolescent boy.

The coming of age adventures of two friends growing up at the turn of the century.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

One of the most popular novels of the early twentieth century, Booth Tarkington's The Two Vanrevels is a gripping and entertaining romp that effortlessly weaves together many of the elements that define the author's oeuvre, including a passionate love triangle, a case of mistaken identity, and a look at how political and social events can often intrude on the personal sphere.

Many people who are traveling abroad take the opportunity to forge a new, albeit temporary, identity for themselves. In his quest to be welcomed among the upper crust in Europe, American Robert Russ Mellin creates a moneyed, cultured alter ego. However, before long, Mellin happens to encounter a man who is the embodiment of everything that he himself aspires to be. Will he survive this collision of the real and the imaginary?

This story of the first love experience of William Sylvanus Baxter shows an insight into the emotions and mental processes of the adolescent boy.

Another collection of tales about Penrod Schofield and his playmate Sam. Together, the two of them get into more trouble than Dennis the Menace and the Little Rascals combined.

"Penrod for girls in the form of Florence, the bratty younger cousin of luminous Julia Atwater, enlivens this romantic comedy set in Tarkington's Indiana of the early 20th Century."--LibriVox.

Industrialist James Sheridan, Sr., once a laborer, insists on moulding the careers of his three sons; however, he loses James, Jr., in a flood disaster, and Roscoe suffers a mental breakdown. Realizing his mistake, he begins to insure the happiness of the third son, Bibbs, by bringing him together with Mary, the girl he loves.

Mr. Lewis Waller's season, Daly's Theatre, now playing. Lewis Waller as "Monsieur Beaucaire," a romantic comedy in four acts by Booth Tarkington and E.G. Sutherland. Produced under the personal supervision of Mr. Waller. Dances arranged by Mr. Eille Norwood.