Reading Order
Sinclair LewisSinclair Lewis's American Satires Reading Order
Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt (1922) is the great American satire of the conformist middle class — George Babbitt, a Zenith City real estate man who belongs to all the right clubs, votes Republican, and briefly, unsuccessfully, rebels. Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1930), wrote Babbitt as the second novel in an informal trilogy of American social satire that began with Main Street (1920) and continued with Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), and Dodsworth (1929). The word 'Babbitt' entered the English language as a term for a complacent businessman with conventional values; no other American satirical novel has given the language a common noun. There are no sequels to Babbitt itself, but the other Lewis satires of the same decade each tackle a different American institution.
Where to start
Babbitt
Complete Sinclair Lewis Book List
- 1Buy
Babbitt
Sinclair Lewis·1922·The main novel — George F. Babbitt, his conformity, his brief rebellion, his return to the fold, the satire of American boosterism that gave the language a word. - 2Buy
Main Street
Sinclair Lewis·1920·The predecessor — Carol Kennicott in Gopher Prairie, the satire of small-town Midwestern conformity that preceded Babbitt and made Lewis famous. - 3Buy
Arrowsmith
Sinclair Lewis·1925·The Pulitzer winner Lewis declined — Martin Arrowsmith the idealistic doctor in a world of medical compromise, Lewis at his most earnest alongside his satire. - 4Buy
Elmer Gantry
Sinclair Lewis·1927·The most scandalous Lewis — the evangelical minister as con man and hypocrite, the religious satire that made Lewis notorious in the American South and Midwest. - 5Buy
Dodsworth
Sinclair Lewis·1929·The late Lewis — Samuel Dodsworth in Europe, a more sympathetic portrait of the American businessman than Babbitt, the novel often considered Lewis's most fully human work.
Sinclair Lewis — Frequently Asked Questions
Should I read Main Street or Babbitt first?
Babbitt is the better novel and the more culturally central — read it first. Main Street is the predecessor and provides context for Lewis's satirical project, but Babbitt is where that project reached its fullest expression.
Why did Sinclair Lewis decline the Pulitzer Prize?
Lewis declined the Pulitzer for Arrowsmith in 1926, citing the prize's criteria of rewarding novels about 'the wholesome atmosphere of American life' as too limiting and contrary to the satirical aims of serious fiction. He accepted the Nobel Prize in 1930.
Is Babbitt still relevant?
Entirely — the Babbitt type, the conformist achiever who substitutes civic boosterism and professional success for genuine values, remains recognizable in American culture, and Lewis's satire is as sharp as it was in 1922.
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