Anthony Adverse
Original book cover
AuthorHervey Allen
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical fiction
Published1933[1]
PublisherFarrar & Rinehart
Pages1272

Anthony Adverse is a 1933 novel by American author Hervey Allen. It was published by Farrar & Rinehart.[2]

The novel contains three volumes: The Roots of the Tree, The Other Bronze Boy and The Lonely Twin, and each volume contains three "books", making for nine books in total.[3]

Plot

The story follows the eponymous protagonist, Anthony Adverse, through several adventures around the world. This includes slave trading in Africa, his business dealings as a plantation owner in New Orleans, and his incarceration and eventual death in Mexico.[1]

Reception

Fanny Butcher of the Chicago Daily Tribune and Peter Monro Jack of The New York Times both gave the novel glowing reviews. Butcher wrote: "It is a thriller de luxe, but it is more than a melodrama of the most intricate happenings. It is the fantastic tale of a fantastic period, and it is the highest expression of the art of the picaresque which our generation has offered."[2] Similarly, Jack wrote: "Anthony Adverse is essentially a story and a very great story, but it gathers up so much wit and wisdom by the way that Mr. Allen is revealed on every page as that rare thing nowadays, a creative humanist [...] We should not be surprised and we could not be anything but pleased if his Anthony Adverse became the best-loved book of our time."[4]

The novel was the Publishers Weekly best-selling novel in the United States for two consecutive years: 1933 and 1934.[5]

Film adaptation

In 1936, the book received a loose movie adaptation, drawing from the first eight books.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Anthony Adverse | novel by Allen | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
  2. 1 2 Butcher, Fanny (June 28, 1933). "Critic Receives 'A Great Novel' with Acclaim". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 21.
  3. ↑ Anthony Adverse table of contents
  4. ↑ Jack, Peter Monro (June 25, 1933). "A Titanic Novel of Adventure". The New York Times. p. BR1. ProQuest 100666298. Retrieved November 20, 2022 – via ProQuest.
  5. ↑ Hackett, Alice Payne and Burke, James Henry (1977). 80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895–1975. New York: R. R. Bowker Company. pp. 109–127. ISBN 0-8352-0908-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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