Babbitt cover art

Babbitt

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Babbitt

By: Sinclair Lewis
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

On the surface, everything is all right with Babbitt’s world of the solid, successful businessman. But in reality, George F. Babbitt is a lonely, middle-aged man. He doesn’t understand his family, has an unsuccessful attempt at an affair, and is almost financially ruined when he dares to voice sympathy for some striking workers. Babbitt finds that his only safety lies deep in the fold of those who play it safe. He is a man who has added a new word to our language: a “Babbitt,” meaning someone who conforms unthinkingly, a sheep.

Public Domain (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Main Street (Annotated): 100th Anniversary Edition cover art
Babbitt (Dramatized) cover art
Free Air cover art
Arrowsmith cover art
It Can't Happen Here cover art
Collected Stories cover art
Tales of the Jazz Age (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy cover art
Immortality, Inc. cover art
McTeague cover art
Dead Souls cover art
Nostromo cover art
Oil! cover art
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge cover art
Mr Finchley Discovers His England cover art
The Path to Power cover art

Critic reviews

“[It is] by its hardness, its efficiency, its compactness that Mr. Lewis’ work excels.” (Virginia Woolf)
All stars
Most relevant  
Captures the era perfectly, unfortunately including the casual bigotry of the times. Babbitt is an interesting go getter with conservative values. Story emphasises the social & family dynamics of his world.

Vivid portrayal of early 1920s America

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This 'included' reading is a thousand times better than one I purchased (I wasn't permitted to review that one because I didn't listen to enough of it - I couldn't bear to). I had much better luck with this one - Grover Gardner is a first-rate reader. The novel dates from the 1920s; I first read it in the 1970s and found it interesting but it seems more relevant now, with the rise of cheap reality TV and online influencers, than it did then. The well-meaning but ignorant and deluded hero is a fascinating character. You could shake him but you also feel pity for him. He does finally gain some wisdom, shown in his treatment of his son at the novel's end. As a study of consumerism and conformity the novel is highly entertaining but carries a serious warning about throwing away our lives on mediocrity and trash because 'everyone's doing it'. I'm going to look for more Sinclair Lewis now.

Excellent performance of classic novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.