Babbit

La novela que creó un nuevo arquetipo en la literatura estadounidense y le valió a su autor el Premio Nobel de Literatura.
 
En esta novela imprescindible de la narrativa americana, Sinclair Lewis nos presenta a George F. Babbit, un agente inmobiliario bullicioso, arrogante y siempre preocupado por su reputación. Babbit es el epítome de una nueva figura en la literatura estadounidense: el conformista total, un personaje que piensa y siente lo mismo que la multitud. O eso quiere creer. En grandes escenas satíricas, lo vemos participar en reuniones, actos sociales y viajes de negocios que capturan toda la agitación de la cultura comercial de su país. Sin embargo, Lewis estudia también las grietas de su personalidad, y el retrato de sus dudas acaba mostrando la cara oculta de un periodo de la historia de Estados Unidos en que el mito de la prosperidad ilimitada estaba por dar paso a la era de la ansiedad.
 
«No conozco una novela americana que represente de manera tan precisa la América real».  —H.L. Mencken
 
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The novel that created a new archetype in American literature and earned its author the Nobel Prize for Literature.
 
It is a tale of the emptiness of materialism in the roaring twenties that applies today to those wanting a simpler life. A satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle-class life and the social pressure toward conformity.
 
Prosperous and socially prominent, George Babbitt appears to have everything a man could wish: good health, a fine family, and a profitable business in a booming Midwestern city. But the middle-aged real estate agent is shaken from his self-satisfaction by a growing restlessness with the limitations of his life. When a personal crisis forces a reexamination of his values, Babbitt mounts a rebellion against social expectations — jeopardizing his reputation and business standing as well as his marriage.
 
Widely considered Sinclair Lewis's greatest novel, this satire of the American social landscape created a sensation upon its 1922 publication. Babbitt's name became an instant and enduring synonym for middle-class complacency, and the strictures of his existence revealed the emptiness of the mainstream vision of success. His story reflects the nature of a conformist society, in which the pressures of maintaining propriety can ultimately cause individuals to lose their place in the world.
 
Babbitt ranks among the important 20th-century works addressing the struggles of people caught in the machinery of modern life, and it remains ever-relevant as a cautionary tale against clinging to conventional values.

SINCLAIR LEWIS (Minnesota, 1885-Roma, 1951) fue un escritor estadounidense que satirizó a la burguesía y sus inquietudes mercantiles y religiosas. Fue el primer escritor estadounidense y americano en obtener el Premio Nobel de Literatura.