The Magnificent Ambersons

by Booth Tarkington

"The Magnificent Ambersons" by Booth Tarkington is a novel published in 1918. Set in Indianapolis, it traces three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family from the Civil War to the early twentieth century. As America industrializes, the family's prestige and wealth fade while new industrial fortunes rise. At the center is young George Amberson Minafer, spoiled and arrogant, whose actions threaten his mother's happiness and his own future with Lucy Morgan. The novel won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize.