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651 | 37106_chapter_9 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Beth, Jo, and Amy are helping Meg pack her trunk. She's going to spend two weeks staying with the wealthy Moffat family to celebrate Belle Moffat's coming-out party. Meg is collecting together all of her nicest clothes and accessories. Each of her sisters has loaned her best things also, and Marmee has given Meg some f... | [
"IX. MEG GOES TO VANITY FAIR.",
"\"I do think it was the most fortunate thing in the world that those\nchildren should have the measles just now,\" said Meg, one April day, as\nshe stood packing the \"go abroady\" trunk in her room, surrounded by her\nsisters.",
"\"And so nice of Annie Moffat not to forget her ... |
652 | 37106_chapter_10 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Spring comes and the girls each tend a corner of the family garden. Each sister plants things and takes care of her garden in a way that reflects her personality - Meg's is pretty and simple, Jo constantly experiments, Beth grows things for the birds, her pet cats, and other animals, and Amy makes hers beautiful and el... | [
"X. THE P. C. AND P. O.",
"As spring came on, a new set of amusements became the fashion, and the\nlengthening days gave long afternoons for work and play of all sorts. The garden had to be put in order, and each sister had a quarter of the\nlittle plot to do what she liked with. Hannah used to say, \"I'd know\nw... |
653 | 37106_chapter_11 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | It is June 1, and all four sisters are ready for some summer vacation. The Kings, the family for whom Meg works as a governess, are going out of town, and so is Aunt March, so Jo and Meg are both free. Meg's plan for her vacation is to laze around and have some down time. Jo has a stack of books she wants to read. Beth... | [
"XI. EXPERIMENTS.",
"\"The first of June! The Kings are off to the seashore to-morrow, and I'm\nfree. Three months' vacation,--how I shall enjoy it!\" exclaimed Meg,\ncoming home one warm day to find Jo laid upon the sofa in an unusual\nstate of exhaustion, while Beth took off her dusty boots, and Amy made\nlemon... |
654 | 37106_chapter_12 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | On a day in July, Beth is delivering the "mail" from the little "Post Office" in the hedge between the March and Laurence houses. This batch of mail includes a small bunch of flowers for Mrs. March from Laurie, a translation of a German song by Mr. Brooke for Meg , and two letters, a hat, and a book for Jo. Jo unfolds ... | [
"XII. CAMP LAURENCE.",
"[Illustration: Beth was post-mistress]",
"Beth was post-mistress, for, being most at home, she could attend to it\nregularly, and dearly liked the daily task of unlocking the little door\nand distributing the mail. One July day she came in with her hands full,\nand went about the house l... |
655 | 37106_chapter_13 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Laurie is lying in his hammock being lazy when he sees the March girls leaving their house, carrying a variety of strange things. Laurie thinks they are having a picnic without him and feels left out. He goes after them to see what they're doing, and to give them the key of the boathouse if they want it. Coming over th... | [
"XIII. CASTLES IN THE AIR.",
"Laurie lay luxuriously swinging to and fro in his hammock, one warm\nSeptember afternoon, wondering what his neighbors were about, but too\nlazy to go and find out. He was in one of his moods; for the day had\nbeen both unprofitable and unsatisfactory, and he was wishing he could\nli... |
656 | 37106_chapter_14 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | It is October, and Jo spends her afternoons sitting in the attic and writing. Finally, one day, she's finished with her manuscript! Jo reads the manuscript all the way through one last time. Then she takes it and another manuscript from a box, pockets them, and leaves the house secretly. She takes the bus into town. Jo... | [
"XIV. SECRETS.",
"Jo was very busy in the garret, for the October days began to grow\nchilly, and the afternoons were short. For two or three hours the sun\nlay warmly in the high window, showing Jo seated on the old sofa,\nwriting busily, with her papers spread out upon a trunk before her,\nwhile Scrabble, the p... |
657 | 37106_chapter_15 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | One frosty November afternoon, the March girls are sitting at home. Meg is feeling especially bitter about being poor and having to work hard. Jo and Amy try to comfort her and say they are going to make their fortunes as an author and an artist, but Meg says she doesn't have any faith in that plan. Beth tries to comfo... | [
"XV. A TELEGRAM.",
"[Illustration: November is the most disagreeable month in the year]",
"\"November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year,\" said\nMargaret, standing at the window one dull afternoon, looking out at the\nfrost-bitten garden.",
"\"That's the reason I was born in it,\" observed Jo p... |
658 | 37106_chapter_16 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | In the morning, the girls' usual routine of reading their Bibles to start the day seems even more important and comforting than usual. They eat breakfast very early. The girls try to be cheerful and strong for their mother, but they keep breaking down. Mrs. March leaves with a few last words of encouragement for the gi... | [
"XVI. LETTERS.",
"In the cold gray dawn the sisters lit their lamp, and read their chapter\nwith an earnestness never felt before; for now the shadow of a real\ntrouble had come, the little books were full of help and comfort; and,\nas they dressed, they agreed to say good-by cheerfully and hopefully,\nand send t... |
659 | 37106_chapter_17 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | For a week after Mrs. March goes to Washington, her daughters behave impeccably. They work hard and try to do everything perfectly. However, after the first excitement, the girls begin neglecting their duties. Jo gets sick and has to stay home from Aunt March's, and then she falls into a pattern of reading and lying ar... | [
"XVII. LITTLE FAITHFUL.",
"For a week the amount of virtue in the old house would have supplied the\nneighborhood. It was really amazing, for every one seemed in a heavenly\nframe of mind, and self-denial was all the fashion. Relieved of their\nfirst anxiety about their father, the girls insensibly relaxed their\... |
660 | 37106_chapter_18 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Beth comes down with scarlet fever and is extremely sick, but at first only Hannah and Dr. Bangs realize that the illness might be life-threatening. Meg writes letters to her mother, who is still in Washington nursing Mr. March back to health. Meg doesn't tell her mother that Beth is sick. Jo nurses Beth day and night.... | [
"XVIII. DARK DAYS",
"[Illustration: Beth did have the fever]",
"Beth did have the fever, and was much sicker than any one but Hannah and\nthe doctor suspected. The girls knew nothing about illness, and Mr. Laurence was not allowed to see her, so Hannah had everything all her\nown way, and busy Dr. Bangs did his... |
661 | 37106_chapter_19 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | While her sisters are nursing Beth, Amy is suffering under the strict rules of Aunt March's house. Aunt March does love Amy, but she doesn't really show it. She tries to improve Amy's character by making her follow a harsh routine, including lots of housework, lessons, reading aloud to Aunt March, and listening to long... | [
"XIX. AMY'S WILL.",
"While these things were happening at home, Amy was having hard times at\nAunt March's. She felt her exile deeply, and, for the first time in her\nlife, realized how much she was beloved and petted at home. Aunt March\nnever petted any one; she did not approve of it; but she meant to be\nkind,... |
662 | 37106_chapter_20 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Meg, Jo, and Beth have an emotional reunion with their mother. Mrs. March stays with Beth, holding her hand, overnight. In the morning, Hannah serves a fancy breakfast to celebrate Mrs. March's return. As they eat, Mrs. March tells Jo and Meg about their father's improving health and Mr. Brooke's kindness. The day prog... | [
"XX. CONFIDENTIAL",
"I don't think I have any words in which to tell the meeting of the\nmother and daughters; such hours are beautiful to live, but very hard to\ndescribe, so I will leave it to the imagination of my readers, merely\nsaying that the house was full of genuine happiness, and that Meg's\ntender hope... |
663 | 37106_chapter_21 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Jo keeps the promise she has made to her mother and doesn't discuss John Brooke with Meg. Meg can tell that Jo is keeping a secret, but doesn't know what it is. Laurie can also tell that Meg is keeping a secret. He teases and pesters Jo, and he figures out that it is something about John and Meg, but she still won't te... | [
"XXI. LAURIE MAKES MISCHIEF, AND JO MAKES PEACE.",
"Jo's face was a study next day, for the secret rather weighed upon her,\nand she found it hard not to look mysterious and important. Meg observed\nit, but did not trouble herself to make inquiries, for she had learned\nthat the best way to manage Jo was by the l... |
664 | 37106_chapter_22 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Beth gets better and can actually move from her room and lie on the sofa in the living room. Beth's sisters continue to care for her. Amy returns home from Aunt March's house. The family receives news that Mr. March is also getting better and might come home soon. Jo and Laurie come up with all kinds of crazy plans to ... | [
"XXII. PLEASANT MEADOWS.",
"Like sunshine after storm were the peaceful weeks which followed. The\ninvalids improved rapidly, and Mr. March began to talk of returning\nearly in the new year. Beth was soon able to lie on the study sofa all\nday, amusing herself with the well-beloved cats, at first, and, in time,\n... |
665 | 37106_chapter_23 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The March girls, their mother, and Hannah look after Mr. March, whom they are very excited to have at home. However, everyone seems to be waiting for something else to happen. In the afternoon, Laurie comes by. When he sees Meg, he goes down on one knee in front of her and pretends to have a lover's fit, beating his br... | [
"XXIII. AUNT MARCH SETTLES THE QUESTION.",
"[Illustration: Popping in her head now and then]",
"Like bees swarming after their queen, mother and daughters hovered about\nMr. March the next day, neglecting everything to look at, wait upon, and\nlisten to the new invalid, who was in a fair way to be killed by\nki... |
666 | 37106_chapter_24 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Three years have passed since the last chapter. The Civil War is over and Mr. March is at home permanently. Mr. March spends his time quietly studying his books, but he's also a resource for everyone in the community. People come to him to confess their problems and ask for guidance. Even though his wife and four daugh... | [
"XXIV. GOSSIP.",
"In order that we may start afresh, and go to Meg's wedding with free\nminds, it will be well to begin with a little gossip about the Marches.\nAnd here let me premise, that if any of the elders think there is too\nmuch \"lovering\" in the story, as I fear they may (I'm not afraid the\nyoung folk... |
667 | 37106_chapter_25 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | On the morning of Meg's wedding day, the roses are blooming and the weather is beautiful. Meg also looks like a blooming rose, but she's not wearing a fancy dress. She says that she wants to be herself at her wedding, so she makes a simple gown by hand and wears flowers in her hair. Meg hugs each of her sisters one las... | [
"XXV. THE FIRST WEDDING.",
"The June roses over the porch were awake bright and early on that\nmorning, rejoicing with all their hearts in the cloudless sunshine, like\nfriendly little neighbors, as they were. Quite flushed with excitement\nwere their ruddy faces, as they swung in the wind, whispering to one\nano... |
668 | 37106_chapter_26 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The narrator tells us that it takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, and Amy is learning it the hard way. Amy tries every kind of art, from clay sculpture to pen-and-ink drawing to woodburning, then oil painting, and then charcoal portraits, and finally sketching. Each art form ends... | [
"XXVI. ARTISTIC ATTEMPTS.",
"It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and\ngenius, especially ambitious young men and women. Amy was learning this\ndistinction through much tribulation; for, mistaking enthusiasm for\ninspiration, she attempted every branch of art with youthful audacity. ... |
669 | 37106_chapter_27 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Jo is spending time working on her novel. Whenever she gets a writing fit, she shuts herself up in her room and writes, ignoring everything else going on around her. One day, Jo goes with a family friend, Miss Crocker, to attend a lecture on ancient Egypt. Jo and Miss Crocker arrive early for the lecture, and Jo spends... | [
"XXVII. LITERARY LESSONS.",
"Fortune suddenly smiled upon Jo, and dropped a good-luck penny in her\npath. Not a golden penny, exactly, but I doubt if half a million would\nhave given more real happiness than did the little sum that came to her\nin this wise.",
"Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her r... |
670 | 37106_chapter_28 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | At first, Meg tries to make her home with John Brooke a perfect domestic paradise. She's so anxious to please, however, that it's also very stressful. However, Meg and John are very happy, and they stay happy even after the honeymoon period, when their relationship has a more everyday quality. Meg goes through differen... | [
"XXVIII. DOMESTIC EXPERIENCES.",
"Like most other young matrons, Meg began her married life with the\ndetermination to be a model housekeeper. John should find home a\nparadise; he should always see a smiling face, should fare sumptuously\nevery day, and never know the loss of a button. She brought so much\nlove,... |
671 | 37106_chapter_29 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Amy reminds Jo that she has promised to make six calls with her today. Jo really doesn't want to make the calls, but Amy insists that they had a deal - she finished a sketch of Beth for Jo, and Jo promised to help her call on their neighbors. Jo reluctantly agrees to accompany Amy, puts her sewing aside, and picks up h... | [
"XXIX. CALLS.",
"[Illustration: Calls]",
"\"Come, Jo, it's time.\"",
"\"For what?\"",
"\"You don't mean to say you have forgotten that you promised to make half\na dozen calls with me to-day?\"",
"\"I've done a good many rash and foolish things in my life, but I don't\nthink I ever was mad enough to say I... |
672 | 37106_chapter_30 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Mrs. Chester's fair is a small, select affair; only the most genteel girls in the area are being asked to take charge of tables. That includes Amy, but not Jo, who tends to be clumsy. Amy is put in charge of the art table, since she made many of the things that are on it for sale. The day before the fair, as they are s... | [
"XXX. CONSEQUENCES.",
"Mrs. Chester's fair was so very elegant and select that it was\nconsidered a great honor by the young ladies of the neighborhood to be\ninvited to take a table, and every one was much interested in the\nmatter. Amy was asked, but Jo was not, which was fortunate for all\nparties, as her elbo... |
673 | 37106_chapter_31 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | This chapter consists of some of Amy's letters home to her family from Europe. The first letter is written from London. Amy, along with her Aunt and Uncle Carrol and her cousin Flo, is staying at a hotel in Piccadilly. Amy says that she had a pretty good time on board ship on the way to London, after she got over her f... | [
"XXXI. OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT.",
"\"LONDON.\n \"DEAREST PEOPLE,--",
"\"Here I really sit at a front window of the Bath Hotel,\n Piccadilly. It's not a fashionable place, but uncle stopped here\n years ago, and won't go anywhere else; however, we don't mean to\n stay long, so it's no great matter.... |
674 | 37106_chapter_32 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Marmee tells Jo that she is anxious about Beth, who seems depressed and preoccupied. Jo says that Beth isn't a little girl anymore - she's eighteen and a woman, and probably has her own adult dreams and desires now. Marmee tells Jo that she is very comforting and supportive as an adult daughter. Jo admits that she is b... | [
"XXXII. TENDER TROUBLES.",
"\"Jo, I'm anxious about Beth.\"",
"\"Why, mother, she has seemed unusually well since the babies came.\"",
"\"It's not her health that troubles me now; it's her spirits. I'm sure\nthere is something on her mind, and I want you to discover what it is.\"",
"\"What makes you think s... |
675 | 37106_chapter_33 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | This chapter is made up of entries in Jo's journal while she is living in New York and working at Mrs. Kirke's boardinghouse as a tutor and seamstress. The journal is a collection of letters addressed to Marmee and Beth, not a secret diary. Jo says that when she left home, she was sad at the beginning of the journey, b... | [
"XXXIII. JO'S JOURNAL.",
"\"NEW YORK, November.",
"\"DEAR MARMEE AND BETH,--",
"\"I'm going to write you a regular volume, for I've got heaps to\n tell, though I'm not a fine young lady travelling on the\n continent. When I lost sight of father's dear old face, I felt a\n trifle blue, and might have ... |
676 | 37106_chapter_34 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | While she lives in New York and works at Mrs. Kirke's boarding house as a governess, Jo still finds time to write. Motivated by the desire to contribute to her family, especially to provide comforts for Beth in her illness, Jo tries to earn as much money as she can from writing. When Jo won a prize for her short story,... | [
"XXXIV. A FRIEND",
"Though very happy in the social atmosphere about her, and very busy with\nthe daily work that earned her bread, and made it sweeter for the\neffort, Jo still found time for literary labors. The purpose which now\ntook possession of her was a natural one to a poor and ambitious girl;\nbut the m... |
677 | 37106_chapter_35 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Laurie studies hard and graduates with honor. The Marches and Brookes attend his graduation. Laurie has to stay in his college town for a graduation dinner, while his family and friends return home. He hands Jo into her carriage and asks her to come meet him when he arrives the next morning. Jo notices the way Laurie i... | [
"XXXV. HEARTACHE.",
"Whatever his motive might have been, Laurie studied to some purpose that\nyear, for he graduated with honor, and gave the Latin oration with the\ngrace of a Phillips and the eloquence of a Demosthenes, so his friends\nsaid. They were all there, his grandfather,--oh, so proud!--Mr. and Mrs.\nM... |
678 | 37106_chapter_36 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | When Jo comes home from New York, she is shocked by how much sicker Beth seems. At first Jo forgets about Beth's illness because she's caught up with Laurie's proposal, but after Laurie leaves she notices again. Jo takes Beth on a trip to the seashore, hoping the nice weather and the sea air will help her get better. T... | [
"XXXVI. BETH'S SECRET.",
"When Jo came home that spring, she had been struck with the change in\nBeth. No one spoke of it or seemed aware of it, for it had come too\ngradually to startle those who saw her daily; but to eyes sharpened by\nabsence, it was very plain; and a heavy weight fell on Jo's heart as she\nsa... |
679 | 37106_chapter_37 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Meanwhile, Laurie is walking along the Promenade des Anglais in a fashionable neighborhood of Nice, France. It's sunny and beautiful and many different nationalities are represented by the people strolling along. Laurie's appearance is also very multi-national - he looks Italian, is dressed like an Englishman, and has ... | [
"XXXVII. NEW IMPRESSIONS.",
"At three o'clock in the afternoon, all the fashionable world at Nice may\nbe seen on the Promenade des Anglais,--a charming place; for the wide\nwalk, bordered with palms, flowers, and tropical shrubs, is bounded on\none side by the sea, on the other by the grand drive, lined with hot... |
680 | 37106_chapter_38 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The narrator begins this chapter by considering the different treatment that married and single women receive in America and in France. In America, married women seem to be put "on the shelf" - even though they're still young and pretty, they're not admired as part of fashionable society. About a year after Meg's babie... | [
"XXXVIII. ON THE SHELF.",
"In France the young girls have a dull time of it till they are married,\nwhen \"_Vive la liberté_\" becomes their motto. In America, as every one\nknows, girls early sign the declaration of independence, and enjoy their\nfreedom with republican zest; but the young matrons usually abdica... |
681 | 37106_chapter_39 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Laurie stays in Nice for a month hanging out with Amy. He enjoys her company and sisterly affection...or is it just sisterly? As Amy and Laurie get to know each other better as adults, they start judging each other, too. Laurie realizes just how great Amy really is, but Amy's disgusted with Laurie's laziness and selfis... | [
"XXXIX. LAZY LAURENCE.",
"Laurie went to Nice intending to stay a week, and remained a month. He\nwas tired of wandering about alone, and Amy's familiar presence seemed\nto give a home-like charm to the foreign scenes in which she bore a\npart. He rather missed the \"petting\" he used to receive, and enjoyed a\nt... |
682 | 37106_chapter_40 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The March family accepts that Beth is dying. They band together to make her last days easy and comfortable and to comfort one another. Everyone contributes something to make Beth comfortable; a room is set aside for her, and Meg visits frequently with her twins. Even in her dying days, Beth keeps doing little domestic ... | [
"XL. THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.",
"When the first bitterness was over, the family accepted the inevitable,\nand tried to bear it cheerfully, helping one another by the increased\naffection which comes to bind households tenderly together in times of\ntrouble. They put away their grief, and each did his or her part... |
683 | 37106_chapter_41 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Laurie takes the lecture that Amy gave him to heart. He goes back to his grandfather and thinks about how he could do something useful with his life. Laurie begins to realize that his love for Jo is cooling. He wants her to respect him, but isn't desperate for her love anymore. At first, Laurie turns to composing music... | [
"XLI. LEARNING TO FORGET.",
"Amy's lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till\nlong afterward; men seldom do, for when women are the advisers, the\nlords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded\nthemselves that it is just what they intended to do; then they act upon\nit,... |
684 | 37106_chapter_42 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | In the wake of Beth's death, Jo finds it difficult to keep her promise to comfort her parents and take her sister's place in the home. Jo often wakes up in the night and cries, grieving for Beth. Her mother hears her and comes to comfort her each time. During the day, Jo has long conversations with her father. She tell... | [
"XLII. ALL ALONE.",
"It was easy to promise self-abnegation when self was wrapped up in\nanother, and heart and soul were purified by a sweet example; but when\nthe helpful voice was silent, the daily lesson over, the beloved\npresence gone, and nothing remained but loneliness and grief, then Jo\nfound her promis... |
685 | 37106_chapter_43 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Jo is sitting alone in the evening, thinking and having a little bit of alone time. She's almost 25 and feels like she has nothing to show for it. She thinks that she's going to be an old maid, focused on her career as an author instead of on a marriage to a man. The narrator discusses spinsterhood. To a girl in the ni... | [
"XLIII. SURPRISES.",
"Jo was alone in the twilight, lying on the old sofa, looking at the\nfire, and thinking. It was her favorite way of spending the hour of\ndusk; no one disturbed her, and she used to lie there on Beth's little\nred pillow, planning stories, dreaming dreams, or thinking tender\nthoughts of the... |
686 | 37106_chapter_44 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Laurie comes over to the March household and asks Marmee if he can borrow Amy to help him find something in their luggage. Laurie, Jo, and Marmee talk about the way that Amy keeps Laurie on the straight and narrow. As Jo helps Amy put her coat on, she asks what the newly-married Laurences are going to do with themselve... | [
"XLIV. MY LORD AND LADY.",
"\"Please, Madam Mother, could you lend me my wife for half an hour? The\nluggage has come, and I've been making hay of Amy's Paris finery, trying\nto find some things I want,\" said Laurie, coming in the next day to find\nMrs. Laurence sitting in her mother's lap, as if being made \"th... |
687 | 37106_chapter_45 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The narrator decides to give us a chapter about two of the youngest members of the extended March family - Daisy and Demi, Meg's twins. The twins are precocious and in danger of being spoiled. Daisy begins trying to sew like her mother when she's only three, and Demi starts learning the alphabet at the same time. Mr. M... | [
"XLV. DAISY AND DEMI.",
"I cannot feel that I have done my duty as humble historian of the March\nfamily, without devoting at least one chapter to the two most precious\nand important members of it. Daisy and Demi had now arrived at years of\ndiscretion; for in this fast age babies of three or four assert their\n... |
688 | 37106_chapter_46 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | While Amy and Laurie are furnishing their house, Jo and Mr. Bhaer are taking muddy walks together over the fields in the evening. Jo doesn't quite understand what's happening - she usually takes a walk in the evening, and now she somehow meets Mr. Bhaer every time, and he's always going the same direction she is. Hmm, ... | [
"XLVI. UNDER THE UMBRELLA.",
"While Laurie and Amy were taking conjugal strolls over velvet carpets,\nas they set their house in order, and planned a blissful future, Mr.\nBhaer and Jo were enjoying promenades of a different sort, along muddy\nroads and sodden fields.",
"\"I always do take a walk toward evening... |
689 | 37106_chapter_47 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Jo and Mr. Bhaer spend a year apart, working and waiting to have enough money to get married. In their second year apart, Aunt March dies and leaves her mansion, Plumfield, to Jo. Laurie assumes Jo will sell the mansion, but Jo explains that she is planning to use the building to open a boarding school for boys. The wh... | [
"XLVII. HARVEST TIME.",
"For a year Jo and her Professor worked and waited, hoped and loved, met\noccasionally, and wrote such voluminous letters that the rise in the\nprice of paper was accounted for, Laurie said. The second year began\nrather soberly, for their prospects did not brighten, and Aunt March\ndied s... |
690 | 1156_chapter_i | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | As the city begins to bustle with hordes of men going to work in the huge factories of the city of Zenith, forty-six-year-old George F. Babbitt awakens in his bed on the sleeping-porch in a residential district of Zenith called Floral Heights. Mourning the retreat from his recurrent, romantic dream about a fairy child,... | [
"THE towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of\nsteel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as\nsilver rods. They were neither citadels nor churches, but frankly and\nbeautifully office-buildings.",
"The mist took pity on the fretted structures of earlier generations: th... |
691 | 1156_chapter_ii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | George is uncharacteristically irritable when he goes down to breakfast. The sense of disliking his family returns as he argues with Verona about the ills of socialism and complains about the food. Ted and Verona proceed to argue childishly. George complains to Myra and tries to speak with her about the news, but she i... | [
"RELIEVED of Babbitt's bumbling and the soft grunts with which his wife\nexpressed the sympathy she was too experienced to feel and much\ntoo experienced not to show, their bedroom settled instantly into\nimpersonality.",
"It gave on the sleeping-porch. It served both of them as dressing-room,\nand on the coldest... |
692 | 1156_chapter_iii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Disappointed that he had no trouble starting his car as he had expected, he backs out of his garage and enters a conversation with Howard Littlefield about the weather and about the country's need for a real business administration. Babbitt feels calmer and more cheerful after his conversation with Littlefield, and he ... | [
"To George F. Babbitt, as to most prosperous citizens of Zenith, his\nmotor car was poetry and tragedy, love and heroism. The office was his\npirate ship but the car his perilous excursion ashore.",
"Among the tremendous crises of each day none was more dramatic than\nstarting the engine. It was slow on cold morn... |
693 | 1156_chapter_iv | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt writes an advertisement for a cemetery on Linden Lane before returning to the monotony of "routine details" , which include constructing an illogical and futile scheme to quit smoking. He calls an old friend, Paul Riesling, and they decide to meet for lunch at the Athletic Club. Babbitt reflects on his own expe... | [
"IT was a morning of artistic creation. Fifteen minutes after the purple\nprose of Babbitt's form-letter, Chester Kirby Laylock, the resident\nsalesman at Glen Oriole, came in to report a sale and submit an\nadvertisement. Babbitt disapproved of Laylock, who sang in choirs and\nwas merry at home over games of Heart... |
694 | 1156_chapter_v | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | As Babbitt makes his elaborate preparations to leave the office to go to lunch at the Zenith Athletic Club, he continues to make promises of self-improvement that he blatantly and continuously breaks. At least the promises make him "feel exemplary". As he drives, he takes pride in the familiar setting and in his role i... | [
"BABBITT'S preparations for leaving the office to its feeble self during\nthe hour and a half of his lunch-period were somewhat less elaborate\nthan the plans for a general European war.",
"He fretted to Miss McGoun, \"What time you going to lunch? Well, make\nsure Miss Bannigan is in then. Explain to her that if... |
695 | 1156_chapter_vi | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | After showing a prospective client a tenement in the Linton district, Babbitt picks up Henry Thompson to find him a discounted Zeeco car from Noel Ryland, a fellow member of the Boosters' Club. Back at the office, he denies Stanley Graff a bonus. He perceives a mocking coldness from his employees as he leaves for the e... | [
"I",
"HE forgot Paul Riesling in an afternoon of not unagreeable details.\nAfter a return to his office, which seemed to have staggered on without\nhim, he drove a \"prospect\" out to view a four-flat tenement in the\nLinton district. He was inspired by the customer's admiration of the new\ncigar-lighter. Thrice ... |
696 | 1156_chapter_vii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | After commenting to Myra that it was a "funny kind of a day" , Babbitt decides to go to bed. He shaves while taking a bath, playing childishly with his bath things. After completing his "elaborate and unchanging" rites of bedtime preparation, he falls into "a blessed state of oblivion". At that moment in Zenith, as Geo... | [
"I",
"HE solemnly finished the last copy of the American Magazine, while his\nwife sighed, laid away her darning, and looked enviously at the lingerie\ndesigns in a women's magazine. The room was very still.",
"It was a room which observed the best Floral Heights standards. The gray\nwalls were divided into art... |
697 | 1156_chapter_viii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The Babbitts decide to host a "highbrow" dinner , and George's discouragement with the effort and toil of planning the party is overcome by his excitement for procuring gin for cocktails during Prohibition. He drives to a saloon in the seedy Old Town, where he meets with Healey Hanson and pays for unexpectedly expensiv... | [
"I",
"THE great events of Babbitt's spring were the secret buying of\nreal-estate options in Linton for certain street-traction officials,\nbefore the public announcement that the Linton Avenue Car Line would be\nextended, and a dinner which was, as he rejoiced to his wife, not only\n\"a regular society spread bu... |
698 | 1156_chapter_ix | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | George suddenly becomes entirely bored. He wants to "get away from--everything". The ladies convince their husbands to engage in a sAance, and the group attempts to contact Dante. Nevertheless, Babbitt is "dismayed by a sudden contempt for his surest friends" , and he is uncharacteristically happy when the guests leave... | [
"I",
"BABBITT was fond of his friends, he loved the importance of being host\nand shouting, \"Certainly, you're going to have smore chicken--the idea!\"\nand he appreciated the genius of T. Cholmondeley Frink, but the vigor\nof the cocktails was gone, and the more he ate the less joyful he\nfelt. Then the amity o... |
699 | 1156_chapter_x | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | George and Myra visit Paul and Zilla Riesling at their apartment in the Revelstoke Arms with the intent of convincing Zilla to permit Paul to leave early for Maine. When the Rieslings start to argue and Zilla criticizes Paul, Babbitt comes ardently and ferociously to his friend's defense, chastising Zilla for her "damn... | [
"No apartment-house in Zenith had more resolutely experimented in\ncondensation than the Revelstoke Arms, in which Paul and Zilla Riesling\nhad a flat. By sliding the beds into low closets the bedrooms were\nconverted into living-rooms. The kitchens were cupboards each containing\nan electric range, a copper sink, ... |
700 | 1156_chapter_xi | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | During their layover in New York, Paul wants to see the Aquitania, declaring that he "Always wanted to go to Europe". As they stare at the line, Paul becomes so tense and agitated that they have to leave. In Maine, George and Paul spend their time relaxing and sitting at the edge of a wharf. For the week before their f... | [
"I",
"THEY had four hours in New York between trains. The one thing Babbitt\nwished to see was the Pennsylvania Hotel, which had been built since his\nlast visit. He stared up at it, muttering, \"Twenty-two hundred rooms and\ntwenty-two hundred baths! That's got everything in the world beat. Lord,\ntheir turnover... |
701 | 1156_chapter_xii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Returning from Maine, George is convinced that he is "a changed man" and that he is "converted to serenity". He vows to pursue interests and hobbies, such as baseball and movies, and to stop smoking. But he can never remember not to smoke, and he stops attending baseball games within one week. He becomes entangled, onc... | [
"I",
"ALL the way home from Maine, Babbitt was certain that he was a changed\nman. He was converted to serenity. He was going to cease worrying\nabout business. He was going to have more \"interests\"--theaters, public\naffairs, reading. And suddenly, as he finished an especially heavy\ncigar, he was going to sto... |
702 | 1156_chapter_xiii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Cecil Rountree convinces Babbitt to write and present a paper at the State Association of Real Estate Boards's annual convention in Monarch, Zenith's rival city. After much toiling, he is finally able to complete the paper, and he presents it to Ira Runyon. The delegates and their wives arrive at the station for the mi... | [
"I",
"IT was by accident that Babbitt had his opportunity to address the S. A.\nR. E. B.",
"The S. A. R. E. B., as its members called it, with the universal\npassion for mysterious and important-sounding initials, was the State\nAssociation of Real Estate Boards; the organization of brokers and\noperators. It w... |
703 | 1156_chapter_xiv | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | During the local election, Babbitt becomes a popular orator, advocating for Lucas Prout for mayor. Prout is a mattress manufacturer who supports "the banks, the Chamber of Commerce, all the decent newspapers, and George F. Babbitt". Babbitt speaks out against Seneca Doane, a lawyer and fellow graduate of the State Univ... | [
"THIS autumn a Mr. W. G. Harding, of Marion, Ohio, was appointed\nPresident of the United States, but Zenith was less interested in the\nnational campaign than in the local election. Seneca Doane, though he\nwas a lawyer and a graduate of the State University, was candidate for\nmayor of Zenith on an alarming labor... |
704 | 1156_chapter_xv | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Despite Babbitt's fame as an orator, he and Myra do not achieve the social advancement that they believe they deserve. At a dinner for the State University class of 1896, Babbitt tries desperately to win the favor of Mr. McKelvey, who represents the apex of the Zenith social hierarchy. After a few invitations, McKelvey... | [
"HIS march to greatness was not without disastrous stumbling.",
"Fame did not bring the social advancement which the Babbitts deserved.\nThey were not asked to join the Tonawanda Country Club nor invited to\nthe dances at the Union. Himself, Babbitt fretted, he didn't \"care a fat\nhoot for all these highrollers,... |
705 | 1156_chapter_xvi | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Following a service at the Chatham Road Presbyterian church, Reverend John Jennison Drew invites Babbitt into his office with Chum Frink and William Eathorne. He asks them to devise a plan to make money for the Sunday School in order to make it the largest in Zenith. Babbitt is not interested in any of the truly pious ... | [
"THE certainty that he was not going to be accepted by the McKelveys made\nBabbitt feel guilty and a little absurd. But he went more regularly to\nthe Elks; at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon he was oratorical regarding\nthe wickedness of strikes; and again he saw himself as a Prominent\nCitizen.",
"His clubs and ... |
706 | 1156_chapter_xvii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | At the mansion of William Eathorne, where a Sunday School Advisory Committee meeting is being held, Babbitt is admiringly and reverently overwhelmed by the wealthy extravagance of Eathorne's lifestyle. As a money-making tactic, Babbitt proposes that the school be divided into four armies, with everyone being assigned a... | [
"I",
"THERE are but three or four old houses in Floral Heights, and in Floral\nHeights an old house is one which was built before 1880. The largest of\nthese is the residence of William Washington Eathorne, president of the\nFirst State Bank.",
"The Eathorne Mansion preserves the memory of the \"nice parts\" of... |
707 | 1156_chapter_xviii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Despite Verona's protests that she and Kenneth Escott are "just good friends" , Babbitt remains hopeful of their alliance and tries to unite them. He is worried about Ted, however, who lacks educational and professional direction and spends far too much time with Eunice Littlefield, whose sexiness and youthful liberati... | [
"I",
"THOUGH he saw them twice daily, though he knew and amply discussed every\ndetail of their expenditures, yet for weeks together Babbitt was no more\nconscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat-sleeves.",
"The admiration of Kenneth Escott made him aware of Verona.",
"She had become secretary... |
708 | 1156_chapter_xix | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Using insider information, Babbitt extorts a high price from the Street Traction Company for land that it needs to rebuild some car-repair shops. Despite protests from the purchasing agent, the vice president, and the president of the company, a compromise is reached. Babbitt makes three thousand dollars from the deal.... | [
"I",
"THE Zenith Street Traction Company planned to build car-repair shops in\nthe suburb of Dorchester, but when they came to buy the land they\nfound it held, on options, by the Babbitt-Thompson Realty Company. The\npurchasing-agent, the first vice-president, and even the president of\nthe Traction Company prot... |
709 | 1156_chapter_xx | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | At Paul's hotel, Babbitt tells the clerk that he is Paul's brother-in-law in order to be allowed to wait in Paul's room until his return. After three hours, Paul arrives, upset with Babbitt for "butting into affairs". When Babbitt chastises him for being an immoral husband, Paul breaks down and explains that he "can't ... | [
"I",
"HE sat smoking with the piano-salesman, clinging to the warm refuge of\ngossip, afraid to venture into thoughts of Paul. He was the more affable\non the surface as secretly he became more apprehensive, felt more\nhollow. He was certain that Paul was in Chicago without Zilla's\nknowledge, and that he was doi... |
710 | 1156_chapter_xxi | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | At the second March lunch of the Zenith Boosters' Club, after much mingling and Chum Frink's address about why Zenith must have a Symphony Orchestra in order to compete with New York and Boston, Babbitt is elected Vice President in the presence of Mayor Lucas Prout. Having never known a "higher moment" , he returns to ... | [
"THE International Organization of Boosters' Clubs has become a\nworld-force for optimism, manly pleasantry, and good business. Chapters\nare to be found now in thirty countries. Nine hundred and twenty of the\nthousand chapters, however, are in the United States.",
"None of these is more ardent than the Zenith B... |
711 | 1156_chapter_xxii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Shocked, George drives to see Paul at the City Prison. He waits half an hour until 3:30, which is the designated visiting time, only to learn that Paul refuses to see him. George convinces Mayor Prout to issue an order to the warden to permit George to see Paul. Paul shows pained remorse for what he has done, recognizi... | [
"I",
"HE drove to the City Prison, not blindly, but with unusual fussy care at\ncorners, the fussiness of an old woman potting plants. It kept him from\nfacing the obscenity of fate.",
"The attendant said, \"Naw, you can't see any of the prisoners till\nthree-thirty--visiting-hour.\"",
"It was three. For half... |
712 | 1156_chapter_xxiii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | In June, Myra and Tinka Babbitt travel to visit relatives. On one night when Ted and Verona are both out, George has the house to himself. Unsure what to do with this unusual freedom, he again feels a "discontent with the good common ways". As he broods, Chum Frink walks by the house, drunk, calling George a fool and w... | [
"I",
"HE was busy, from March to June. He kept himself from the bewilderment\nof thinking. His wife and the neighbors were generous. Every evening he\nplayed bridge or attended the movies, and the days were blank of face\nand silent.",
"In June, Mrs. Babbitt and Tinka went East, to stay with relatives, and\nBab... |
713 | 1156_chapter_xxiv | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt visits Paul in prison, understanding that he " already dead" emotionally. Back at the office, Mrs. Tanis Judique, a pretty middle-aged widow, seeks George's expertise in finding a flat. Nervously attracted by her smartness" , Babbitt offers her a new apartment that he has been holding for Sidney Finkelstein. Sh... | [
"I",
"HIS visit to Paul was as unreal as his night of fog and questioning.\nUnseeing he went through prison corridors stinking of carbolic acid to\na room lined with pale yellow settees pierced in rosettes, like the\nshoe-store benches he had known as a boy. The guard led in Paul. Above\nhis uniform of linty gray... |
714 | 1156_chapter_xxv | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The next morning, though George sees no sense in his rebellion, he realizes that he cannot "regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd". He dreads Myra's return in August, and though he feels moments of reconnection with his former identity as husband and father, he still decides to take a solit... | [
"I",
"HE awoke to stretch cheerfully as he listened to the sparrows, then to\nremember that everything was wrong; that he was determined to go astray,\nand not in the least enjoying the process. Why, he wondered, should he\nbe in rebellion? What was it all about? \"Why not be sensible; stop all\nthis idiotic runn... |
715 | 1156_chapter_xxvi | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | On the train returning to Zenith, George speaks with Seneca Doane, trying to explain why he campaigned for Proust for mayor, defining himself as an "organization Republican". Doane reminds George that, back in college, he used to be liberal, and they talk about being visionaries with ideals. Doane asks for George's hel... | [
"I",
"As he walked through the train, looking for familiar faces, he saw only\none person whom he knew, and that was Seneca Doane, the lawyer who,\nafter the blessings of being in Babbitt's own class at college and\nof becoming a corporation-counsel, had turned crank, had headed\nfarmer-labor tickets and fraterni... |
716 | 1156_chapter_xxvii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | In September, there are worker strikes and protests that turn Zenith "into two belligerent camps". All of the newspapers and the white-collar members of Zenith oppose the strike and try to reinstate order. Babbitt suddenly becomes publicly liberal, siding with the feared Seneca Doane and criticizing political services.... | [
"I",
"THE strike which turned Zenith into two belligerent camps; white and\nred, began late in September with a walk-out of telephone girls and\nlinemen, in protest against a reduction of wages. The newly formed union\nof dairy-products workers went out, partly in sympathy and partly\nin demand for a forty-four h... |
717 | 1156_chapter_xxviii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Tanis Judique calls George at the office about a leak in her apartment, and George goes to look things over. To him, Tanis represents the height of feminine class and grace, and he is enchanted by her. He stays for a cup of tea, and they talk for a great while, agreeing about most things as George basks in the "gloriou... | [
"I",
"MISS McGOUN came into his private office at three in the afternoon with\n\"Lissen, Mr. Babbitt; there's a Mrs. Judique on the 'phone--wants to see\nabout some repairs, and the salesmen are all out. Want to talk to her?\"",
"\"All right.\"",
"The voice of Tanis Judique was clear and pleasant. The black c... |
718 | 1156_chapter_xxix | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Tanis Judique's approval makes Babbit more confident and daring about advocating for Seneca Doane and his liberal politics at the Athletic Club, which only further convinces his friends that he has "'turned crank'". He becomes enamored of her, meeting her at the movies and at her flat as often as he can. He is, however... | [
"I",
"THE assurance of Tanis Judique's friendship fortified Babbitt's\nself-approval. At the Athletic Club he became experimental. Though\nVergil Gunch was silent, the others at the Roughnecks' Table came to\naccept Babbitt as having, for no visible reason, \"turned crank.\" They\nargued windily with him, and he ... |
719 | 1156_chapter_xxx | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Myra returns to Zenith, confessing her fears that George neither missed her nor needed her. As soon as George feels the pressure of obligation to satisfy Tanis while keeping the affair a secret, he is suddenly resentful of Tanis and of "women and the way they get you all tied up in complications. Still, he continues th... | [
"I",
"THE summer before, Mrs. Babbitt's letters had crackled with desire to\nreturn to Zenith. Now they said nothing of returning, but a wistful\n\"I suppose everything is going on all right without me\" among her dry\nchronicles of weather and sicknesses hinted to Babbitt that he hadn't\nbeen very urgent about h... |
720 | 1156_chapter_xxxi | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Although George tries to avoid Tanis and to sever the affair, she reels him back in through phone calls and letters. Though he hates his sense of obligation, he goes to see her. He is immediately drawn to her sympathy and limitless interest in him, but he becomes discouraged when she begins to talk about her own troubl... | [
"I",
"WHEN he was away from her, while he kicked about the garage and swept\nthe snow off the running-board and examined a cracked hose-connection,\nhe repented, he was alarmed and astonished that he could have flared out\nat his wife, and thought fondly how much more lasting she was than the\nflighty Bunch. He w... |
721 | 1156_chapter_xxxii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Back at home, when Myra confronts him about his whereabouts, George admits that he has been with a woman. But he accuses Myra of being responsible for his infidelity. He manipulates her into sharing that view. At the Boosters' Club the next day, George criticizes a conservative congressman in the presence of Dr. Dillin... | [
"I",
"HIS wife was up when he came in. \"Did you have a good time?\" she\nsniffed.",
"\"I did not. I had a rotten time! Anything else I got to explain?\"",
"\"George, how can you speak like--Oh, I don't know what's come over you!\"",
"\"Good Lord, there's nothing come over me! Why do you look for trouble\na... |
722 | 1156_chapter_xxxiii | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt awakes in the middle of the night and hears Myra groaning from a pain in her side. Forgetting his resentment, he brings her ice and calls Dr. Earl Patten to come examine her immediately. When the doctor says that her appendix is inflamed and that he will return in the morning, George is "caught up in a black te... | [
"I",
"HE tried to explain to his wife, as they prepared for bed, how\nobjectionable was Sheldon Smeeth, but all her answer was, \"He has such\na beautiful voice--so spiritual. I don't think you ought to speak of him\nlike that just because you can't appreciate music!\" He saw her then as a\nstranger; he stared bl... |
723 | 1156_chapter_xxxiv | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt wins back Zenith's respect and approval through his work with the G. C. L. as well as through his return to the Boosters' Club and to church. Despite the resumed social order and peace at home , Babbitt's greatest joy is his "return to being one of the best-loved men in the Boosters' Club. When they tease him a... | [
"I",
"THE Good Citizens' League had spread through the country, but nowhere\nwas it so effective and well esteemed as in cities of the type of\nZenith, commercial cities of a few hundred thousand inhabitants, most\nof which--though not all--lay inland, against a background of\ncornfields and mines and of small to... |
690 | 1156_chapter_1 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | We begin with a look at the office skyscrapers of Zenith, a mid-sized American city in the 1920s. And yes, Zenith is a made-up place, so don't bother looking for it on a map. It looks like Zenith is bustling with plenty of business activity, and all of its citizens are looking good and productive. And in a nice, middle... | [
"THE towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of\nsteel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as\nsilver rods. They were neither citadels nor churches, but frankly and\nbeautifully office-buildings.",
"The mist took pity on the fretted structures of earlier generations: th... |
691 | 1156_chapter_2 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | With Myra gone, Babbitt glances around his bedroom. After a long description, the narrator tells us that almost every home in Babbitt's neighborhood has a bedroom exactly like this one. All in all, the narrator tells us, the Babbitts' house might be a house, but it isn't a home. Or in other words, there's nothing perso... | [
"RELIEVED of Babbitt's bumbling and the soft grunts with which his wife\nexpressed the sympathy she was too experienced to feel and much\ntoo experienced not to show, their bedroom settled instantly into\nimpersonality.",
"It gave on the sleeping-porch. It served both of them as dressing-room,\nand on the coldest... |
692 | 1156_chapter_3 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt jumps into his car and is surprised when the thing starts, since it's a cold April morning. He says good morning to his neighbor Sam, and the narrator follows with descriptions of both Sam and Babbitt's other next-door neighbor, Dr. Howard Littlefield. Dr. Littlefield, like Babbitt, is a staunch Republican who ... | [
"To George F. Babbitt, as to most prosperous citizens of Zenith, his\nmotor car was poetry and tragedy, love and heroism. The office was his\npirate ship but the car his perilous excursion ashore.",
"Among the tremendous crises of each day none was more dramatic than\nstarting the engine. It was slow on cold morn... |
693 | 1156_chapter_4 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | While Babbitt is working, in walks an ambitious young man named Chester Kirby Laylock. The guy is so squeaky clean and such a good young salesperson that Babbitt is annoyed by him. Chester gives Babbitt an idea for a new real estate ad, and the truth is that it's pretty good. But Babbitt rejects it anyway. When Chester... | [
"IT was a morning of artistic creation. Fifteen minutes after the purple\nprose of Babbitt's form-letter, Chester Kirby Laylock, the resident\nsalesman at Glen Oriole, came in to report a sale and submit an\nadvertisement. Babbitt disapproved of Laylock, who sang in choirs and\nwas merry at home over games of Heart... |
694 | 1156_chapter_5 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | As he leaves the office for lunch, Babbitt decides that from now on, he'll walk to the Athletic Club for his lunches. At this very moment, though, he realizes that it's too late for him to walk on this occasion. While driving to the club, he stops to buy an electric cigarette lighter. When he gets to the Athletic Club,... | [
"BABBITT'S preparations for leaving the office to its feeble self during\nthe hour and a half of his lunch-period were somewhat less elaborate\nthan the plans for a general European war.",
"He fretted to Miss McGoun, \"What time you going to lunch? Well, make\nsure Miss Bannigan is in then. Explain to her that if... |
695 | 1156_chapter_6 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | After parting with Paul Riesling, Babbitt drives in a car with one of his clients in the passenger seat. The two of them talk about the merits of Babbitt's new electric cigarette lighter. After dropping the client off, Babbitt picks up his father-in-law and business partner, Henry T. Thompson, on his way back to work. ... | [
"I",
"HE forgot Paul Riesling in an afternoon of not unagreeable details.\nAfter a return to his office, which seemed to have staggered on without\nhim, he drove a \"prospect\" out to view a four-flat tenement in the\nLinton district. He was inspired by the customer's admiration of the new\ncigar-lighter. Thrice ... |
696 | 1156_chapter_7 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | While Babbitt and Myra sit in the living room, the narrator once again gives us a description of their tasteful-yet-unoriginal home decor. Lewis puts it best when he writes, "Though there was nothing in the room that was interesting, there was nothing that was offensive. It was as neat, and as negative, as a block of a... | [
"I",
"HE solemnly finished the last copy of the American Magazine, while his\nwife sighed, laid away her darning, and looked enviously at the lingerie\ndesigns in a women's magazine. The room was very still.",
"It was a room which observed the best Floral Heights standards. The gray\nwalls were divided into art... |
697 | 1156_chapter_8 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | After giving us a look at one day of Babbitt's life , the narrator tells us that Babbitt spends much of his spring buying up real estate that's about to double in value because he's gotten a hot tip about the city's streetcars extending their service into a new area. As part of this wheeling and dealing, Babbitt and My... | [
"I",
"THE great events of Babbitt's spring were the secret buying of\nreal-estate options in Linton for certain street-traction officials,\nbefore the public announcement that the Linton Avenue Car Line would be\nextended, and a dinner which was, as he rejoiced to his wife, not only\n\"a regular society spread bu... |
698 | 1156_chapter_9 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt likes playing host to his friends. But with dinner finished, he feels like he ate too much food. To make things worse, he finds his guests getting more and more boring as the booze wears off. To deal with his boredom, Babbitt decides to sit next to one of his friends' wives on the couch and to flirt with her. T... | [
"I",
"BABBITT was fond of his friends, he loved the importance of being host\nand shouting, \"Certainly, you're going to have smore chicken--the idea!\"\nand he appreciated the genius of T. Cholmondeley Frink, but the vigor\nof the cocktails was gone, and the more he ate the less joyful he\nfelt. Then the amity o... |
699 | 1156_chapter_10 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The Babbitts go to call on the Rieslings . When the talk comes around to the idea of Paul needing a vacation, though, Zilla goes off on a rant about how she's the one who needs a vacation from Paul. She can't stand how everyone always thinks of Paul as a calm, gentle man. At home, he's totally crazy . Eventually, Babbi... | [
"No apartment-house in Zenith had more resolutely experimented in\ncondensation than the Revelstoke Arms, in which Paul and Zilla Riesling\nhad a flat. By sliding the beds into low closets the bedrooms were\nconverted into living-rooms. The kitchens were cupboards each containing\nan electric range, a copper sink, ... |
700 | 1156_chapter_11 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt and Paul's train stops in Pittsburgh for four hours. The two of them get out to check out the sights, and Paul spends some time staring at an ocean liner docked in the harbor. He wishes that he'd gone to see Europe as a young man instead of staying in crusty old America. The two of them sit on the edge of the d... | [
"I",
"THEY had four hours in New York between trains. The one thing Babbitt\nwished to see was the Pennsylvania Hotel, which had been built since his\nlast visit. He stared up at it, muttering, \"Twenty-two hundred rooms and\ntwenty-two hundred baths! That's got everything in the world beat. Lord,\ntheir turnover... |
701 | 1156_chapter_12 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Back from Maine, Babbitt once again resolves to quit smoking. Once again, though, he fails because he keeps making up excuses to have "one last smoke." Next, he decides he's going to start taking more time away from work to go watch the local baseball team. Even this doesn't last long, though, because he becomes too ne... | [
"I",
"ALL the way home from Maine, Babbitt was certain that he was a changed\nman. He was converted to serenity. He was going to cease worrying\nabout business. He was going to have more \"interests\"--theaters, public\naffairs, reading. And suddenly, as he finished an especially heavy\ncigar, he was going to sto... |
702 | 1156_chapter_13 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | One day, Babbitt is invited to speak to the State Association of Real Estate Boards. He's happy for the opportunity, since he already considers himself a pretty good public speaker. Babbitt spends much of his week asking people for advice about how to write his speech. He has trouble doing anything more than jotting do... | [
"I",
"IT was by accident that Babbitt had his opportunity to address the S. A.\nR. E. B.",
"The S. A. R. E. B., as its members called it, with the universal\npassion for mysterious and important-sounding initials, was the State\nAssociation of Real Estate Boards; the organization of brokers and\noperators. It w... |
703 | 1156_chapter_14 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The mayoral election comes up for Zenith, and the left-wing lawyer Seneca Doane is running. That means that Babbitt and his pro-business brotherhood need to fire up their election machine and get anyone other than Doane into office. They promote a candidate named Lucas Prout and Babbitt goes around giving speeches in s... | [
"THIS autumn a Mr. W. G. Harding, of Marion, Ohio, was appointed\nPresident of the United States, but Zenith was less interested in the\nnational campaign than in the local election. Seneca Doane, though he\nwas a lawyer and a graduate of the State University, was candidate for\nmayor of Zenith on an alarming labor... |
704 | 1156_chapter_15 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Despite all of Babbitt's newfound fame, he still doesn't get invited to the parties or the clubs of the super-rich. This frustrates him to no end, although he'll never let on to anyone that he wants anything to do with these clubs. Next thing you know, Babbitt is going to a reunion dinner for his graduating university ... | [
"HIS march to greatness was not without disastrous stumbling.",
"Fame did not bring the social advancement which the Babbitts deserved.\nThey were not asked to join the Tonawanda Country Club nor invited to\nthe dances at the Union. Himself, Babbitt fretted, he didn't \"care a fat\nhoot for all these highrollers,... |
705 | 1156_chapter_16 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | As time passes, Babbitt finds more and more ways of keeping his mind off the question of what his life even means, man. He gets his biggest consolation from hanging with Paul Riesling. But eventually, the project that gives him most meaning is working to promote a local Sunday school. One day, after mass is over, he ge... | [
"THE certainty that he was not going to be accepted by the McKelveys made\nBabbitt feel guilty and a little absurd. But he went more regularly to\nthe Elks; at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon he was oratorical regarding\nthe wickedness of strikes; and again he saw himself as a Prominent\nCitizen.",
"His clubs and ... |
706 | 1156_chapter_17 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The narrator gives us a long description of William Earthorne's house, which is one of the oldest houses in all of Zenith. Babbitt and his buddy Chum Frink show up to discuss some promotional strategies for the Sunday school with Earthorne. Babbitt introduces all sort of schemes and strategies for increasing interest i... | [
"I",
"THERE are but three or four old houses in Floral Heights, and in Floral\nHeights an old house is one which was built before 1880. The largest of\nthese is the residence of William Washington Eathorne, president of the\nFirst State Bank.",
"The Eathorne Mansion preserves the memory of the \"nice parts\" of... |
707 | 1156_chapter_18 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | As time passes, Babbitt becomes aware of his daughter's growing relationship with Ken Escott. He also becomes aware that his son Ted has been hanging around the girl next door, Eunice Littlefield. The most distressing thing for Babbitt, though, is the realization that he sometimes feels a sexual attraction to Eunice, w... | [
"I",
"THOUGH he saw them twice daily, though he knew and amply discussed every\ndetail of their expenditures, yet for weeks together Babbitt was no more\nconscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat-sleeves.",
"The admiration of Kenneth Escott made him aware of Verona.",
"She had become secretary... |
708 | 1156_chapter_19 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | The chapter opens with a description of one of Babbitt's real estate deals. In typical Babbitt fashion, Babbitt has bought up a bunch of land that he knows is valuable to a specific company that wants to build car-repair shops in the area. Since he has the foresight to buy up all this land, though, he can pretty much s... | [
"I",
"THE Zenith Street Traction Company planned to build car-repair shops in\nthe suburb of Dorchester, but when they came to buy the land they\nfound it held, on options, by the Babbitt-Thompson Realty Company. The\npurchasing-agent, the first vice-president, and even the president of\nthe Traction Company prot... |
709 | 1156_chapter_20 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt travels to Paul Riesling's hotel room in Chicago. After a little scrap with the man at the front desk, Babbitt gets a key to Paul's room and goes in to wait for him. Hours later, Paul shows up. He and Babbitt get into a fight, with Babbitt chastising Paul for being an immoral man and cheating on his wife. After... | [
"I",
"HE sat smoking with the piano-salesman, clinging to the warm refuge of\ngossip, afraid to venture into thoughts of Paul. He was the more affable\non the surface as secretly he became more apprehensive, felt more\nhollow. He was certain that Paul was in Chicago without Zilla's\nknowledge, and that he was doi... |
710 | 1156_chapter_21 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | We're back at the Zenith Boosters' Club, where Babbitt enjoys an afternoon palling around with his buddies. They tease a fellow Booster about getting older, since it's the man's birthday. They deal with some of the afternoon's business, such as voting which man is the room is the handsomest and which is the ugliest. Th... | [
"THE International Organization of Boosters' Clubs has become a\nworld-force for optimism, manly pleasantry, and good business. Chapters\nare to be found now in thirty countries. Nine hundred and twenty of the\nthousand chapters, however, are in the United States.",
"None of these is more ardent than the Zenith B... |
711 | 1156_chapter_22 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt drives to the city prison to see Paul. When he arrives, though, he finds that Paul isn't willing to see him. Not to be defeated, Babbitt drives down to city hall and gets the mayor's permission to go see Paul whether Paul wants him to or not. When he sees Paul, he asks Paul what happened. As you might imagine, ... | [
"I",
"HE drove to the City Prison, not blindly, but with unusual fussy care at\ncorners, the fussiness of an old woman potting plants. It kept him from\nfacing the obscenity of fate.",
"The attendant said, \"Naw, you can't see any of the prisoners till\nthree-thirty--visiting-hour.\"",
"It was three. For half... |
712 | 1156_chapter_23 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | For several months, Babbitt tries to keep himself from thinking to much, so he buries himself in his work. The days, though, are mostly blank and empty for him. He decides one night that he wants to go out and party with his friends, but he's quickly discouraged by the fact that his buddies are all doing something. Aft... | [
"I",
"HE was busy, from March to June. He kept himself from the bewilderment\nof thinking. His wife and the neighbors were generous. Every evening he\nplayed bridge or attended the movies, and the days were blank of face\nand silent.",
"In June, Mrs. Babbitt and Tinka went East, to stay with relatives, and\nBab... |
713 | 1156_chapter_24 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Babbitt goes to visit his buddy Paul in jail. Paul is practically a ghost at this point. He's more or less lost the will to live. Babbitt knows that in some ways, Paul is already dead. On the way home, Babbitt can't help but feel that some part of him is already dead, too. His pride at being successful, his faith in th... | [
"I",
"HIS visit to Paul was as unreal as his night of fog and questioning.\nUnseeing he went through prison corridors stinking of carbolic acid to\na room lined with pale yellow settees pierced in rosettes, like the\nshoe-store benches he had known as a boy. The guard led in Paul. Above\nhis uniform of linty gray... |
714 | 1156_chapter_25 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | After his experience with Ida the manicure girl, Babbitt swears that he'll stop chasing after women. But then again, he figures, maybe he just hasn't found the right one to chase yet. Maybe there's still a woman out there who will value him and make him happy. Just as he starts thinking these things, his wife Myra retu... | [
"I",
"HE awoke to stretch cheerfully as he listened to the sparrows, then to\nremember that everything was wrong; that he was determined to go astray,\nand not in the least enjoying the process. Why, he wondered, should he\nbe in rebellion? What was it all about? \"Why not be sensible; stop all\nthis idiotic runn... |
715 | 1156_chapter_26 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | On the train back to Zenith from Maine, Babbitt looks for a familiar face to talk to. But the only one he sees is Seneca Doane, the radical left-wing lawyer whom Babbitt aggressively campaigned against in the last mayoral election. With no other options for companionship, though, Babbitt says hello to Doane and strikes... | [
"I",
"As he walked through the train, looking for familiar faces, he saw only\none person whom he knew, and that was Seneca Doane, the lawyer who,\nafter the blessings of being in Babbitt's own class at college and\nof becoming a corporation-counsel, had turned crank, had headed\nfarmer-labor tickets and fraterni... |
716 | 1156_chapter_27 | Write a detailed summary of the context provided. | Just when everything seems to be going well for the city of Zenith, there's a general workers' strike. This divides the city into two camps: the pro-workers camp and the pro-business camp. When the striking workers start attacking some of the replacement workers, the government calls in the National Guard to get things... | [
"I",
"THE strike which turned Zenith into two belligerent camps; white and\nred, began late in September with a walk-out of telephone girls and\nlinemen, in protest against a reduction of wages. The newly formed union\nof dairy-products workers went out, partly in sympathy and partly\nin demand for a forty-four h... |
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