National Avenue

Published in 1924 as The Midlander and later reissued under this title, Booth Tarkington’s novel completes the trilogy that began with The Turmoil and The Magnificent Ambersons. It follows the Oliphant brothers of a fast-growing Midwestern city: Harlan, cultivated and cautious, and Dan, a restless booster who stakes everything on turning empty farmland into a modern suburb. Dan’s faith in growth costs him his marriage to an unhappy Eastern wife and much of his health, even as the city he championed rises around him. Tarkington weighs the price of ambition and progress against what it quietly destroys in private lives, giving a last, loose portrait of the American Midwest he returned to again and again. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.