The Magnificent Ambersons

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Winner of the 1919 Pulitzer Prize, 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.

This novel no doubt was a permanent page in the social history of the United States.

In 1942 Orson Welles wrote and directed an acclaimed film adaptation of the book.