Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Alice Adams chronicles the changing fortunes of the title character, a young social climber, ashamed of her unsuccessful family. Hoping to attract a wealthy husband, she lies about her background, but she is found out and then shunned by those she sought to attract. Through it all, Tarkington masterfully traces his favorite themes of time and loss, of vanishing innocence and the corrupting influence of power. At the novel's end, she knows her chances for happiness a