"Anthony Adverse" by Hervey Allen

My father, now age 88, happend to mention to me yesterday that in
the 1930s, when he was in high school, the very first "best seller" he
can remember was a novel entitled "Anthony Adverse" by Hervey
Allen.

We had been discussing Thomas Hardy. My dad was required to read
"Return of the Native" around 1932, and Hardy had only died in 1928.
My father chose on his own to read "Tess of the D'urbervilles" (sp?)

Our talk on Hardy his high school days caused him to remember
"Anthony Adverse."

Naturally, I became quite curious about all this.

Here is what I have found so far:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200541ch.html

http://www.geocities.com/brine_ig/

http://www.geocities.com/brine_ig/anthony.html


Hervey Allen wrote the novel Anthony Adverse from 1929 to 1933 ---
the dreariest years of the Great Depression, and against regular
pressures from publisher's Farrar and Rhinehart to meet deadlines.

The publishling world had been experiencing a downturn, along with
the rest of the Nation, and great hopes were pinned on the public's
reaction to Anthony Adverse. The result was worth all of the anxiety
and anticipation, because Anthony was received as a triumph of
writing skill, and became a huge commercial success in America, as
well as in Europe. It also helped to secure Hervey Allen some financial
relief during the relatively lean years of the 1930's.


Anthony Adverse is a completely satisfying novel, even when read
only as historical and romance fiction, but, for the reader who is
searching for more, Anthony is full of serious symbolic intent.


To paraphrase Hervey Allen's own words on the subject:
"Anthony was the biography of a man struggling to remain a complete
human being in the midst of a dying commercial civilization" and a
rising one of international capitalism, industrialization and
competitive nationalism. That, of course,... will never do these days to
say aloud! In order to make the book 'go' it had to be advertised and
stressed as a 'romantic' novel."


Anthony Adverse is a novel containing three trilogies; nine books in
all.