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    Free Air
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    Free Air
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    Free Air
    Ebook308 pages6 hours

    Free Air

    By Sinclair Lewis

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Wealthy young socialite Claire Boltwood sets out with her father on a journey from Minneapolis to Seattle in a 70-horsepower Gomez-Dep roadster, one of the finest cars of the post-World War I era. For Milt Daggett, small-town mechanic and garage owner, a glimpse of their vehicle is as exciting as a comet to an astronomer. He's even more astonished by Claire, whose elegance and self-possessed manner inspire him to join the Boltwoods in their trek. It's a long way to the Pacific Northwest, but the greatest distance to surmount will be the class divide between Claire and Milt.
    One of the earliest road trip novels, Free Air first appeared in 1919, just before Sinclair Lewis became famous with the publication of Main Street. His romantic tale of adventure in the days before interstate highways recaptures the lure of the American West and the exciting new freedom of the early days of the automobile.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 9, 2018
    ISBN9780486829708
    Author

    Sinclair Lewis

    Nobel Prize-winning writer Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) is best known for novels like Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith (for which he was awarded but declined the Pulitzer Prize), and Elmer Gantry. A writer from his youth, Lewis wrote for and edited the Yale Literary Magazine while a student, and started his literary career writing popular stories for magazines and selling plots to other writers like Jack London. Lewis’s talent for description and creating unique characters won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, making him the first American writer to win the prestigious award. Considered to be one of the “greats” of American literature, Lewis was honoured with a Great Americans series postage stamp, and his work has been adapted for both stage and screen.

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    Reviews for Free Air

    3.5/5

    37 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Good enough to read straight through. A nostalgic tale about America before WWI with a sweet old fashioned love story.
    • 5/5
      This is one fun read! Fascinatingly old fashion. Sinclair Lewis has a glib voice that draws you in and keeps you wanting to see what happens next.
    • 4/5
      My third Sinclair Lewis novel after “Arrowsmith” and “Main Street”, and I really like his portrayals of early 20th century America and Americans. Here we find Claire, driving her father from New York to Seattle, and Milt, a rather unsophisticated man she encounters on the way, who determines to look after her and captures her heart, but finds himself out of his depth. Well written and very perceptive on the effect of our social surroundings on our character and behaviour. An unfortunate animal death notwithstanding, a fine book, and an author I will continue to look out for.

      1 person found this helpful