What do you think?
Rate this book
The Flirt
ኮራ ማዲሰን ከማንኛውም ቆንጆ እና ሙሉ በሙሉ ልብ-አልባ የሥነ-ጽሑፍ ወይዛዝርት ጋር መቆም ትችላለች-በእውነት ለማንም ወንድ ደንታ የላትም; እሷ የምታሳስበው ለነሱ ትኩረት እና ደስታ ብቻ ነው ፡፡ ምንም እንኳን እሷ የፈለገችውን ሁሉ የምታገኝ ቢመስልም ፣ በሂደቱ ውስጥ የበርካታ ሰዎችን ህይወት በማጥፋት ወይም በማጥፋት ላይ ትገኛለች ፣ ታርኪንግተን በግልጽ እንድታይ ያደርገናል - በእውነቱ ለዚያ ውጤት በመምራት ሳይሆን ወደ ኋላ በመመለስ እና የቁምፊዎቹ ቃላት እና ድርጊቶች እንዲናገሩ በማድረግ ፡፡ ራሳቸው - የምትፈልገውን እንኳን ማግኘት ለኮራ ዘላቂ ደስታ ወይም እርካታ አያመጣም ፡፡
378 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1913
20 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
About the author
Booth Tarkington
500 books182 followersNewton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction/Novel more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike and Colson Whitehead. Although he is little read now, in the 1910s and 1920s he was considered America's greatest living author.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 31, 2012
The Flirt sounds like a rather brief and simple title. But upon reading the book, you see how the title really encompasses the whole story. Cora Madison can stand up to any of the lovely and completely heartless ladies of literature—she doesn't truly care for any man; she only cares for the pleasure and flattery of their attention. Though she seems to get pretty much whatever she wants, ruining or nearly ruining several other people's lives in the process, Tarkington lets us see clearly—not really by lecturing to that effect but by stepping back and letting the characters' words and actions speak for themselves—that even getting what she wants will never bring Cora lasting happiness or satisfaction.
The story concerns the tangled web into which Cora leads a number of people when she meets and immediately sets her cap for Valentine Corliss, who has motives of his own in paying his attentions to her—he wants her to use her influence on her father and suitors to get them to invest in a doubtful business scheme. In Cora's shadow is her quiet older sister Laura, who is secretly in love with Richard Lindley, one of the young men that Cora has charmed. Though Laura knows her sister for what she is, she still manages to love her devotedly and tries to help her where she can. Also in the mix is mischeivous thirteen-year-old brother Hedrick, who adds the comic touch and does some meddling in his sisters' affairs, with sometimes disastrous results. There are glimmerings of both Penrod and Alice Adams, I thought, in the character of Hedrick and in the not-too-affluent Madison household as a whole.
As in so many of Tarkington's books, there's a wonderful flavor of early-20th-century American life—the description of a hot summer afternoon on the residential streets of that unnamed Midwestern city, with all its commonplace details, gives you not just the feeling of being there, but the sense that you have been there at some time. It's a well-crafted, satisfying reading experience, watching the different threads of the story intertwine and the subtly foreshadowed events play out.
The story concerns the tangled web into which Cora leads a number of people when she meets and immediately sets her cap for Valentine Corliss, who has motives of his own in paying his attentions to her—he wants her to use her influence on her father and suitors to get them to invest in a doubtful business scheme. In Cora's shadow is her quiet older sister Laura, who is secretly in love with Richard Lindley, one of the young men that Cora has charmed. Though Laura knows her sister for what she is, she still manages to love her devotedly and tries to help her where she can. Also in the mix is mischeivous thirteen-year-old brother Hedrick, who adds the comic touch and does some meddling in his sisters' affairs, with sometimes disastrous results. There are glimmerings of both Penrod and Alice Adams, I thought, in the character of Hedrick and in the not-too-affluent Madison household as a whole.
As in so many of Tarkington's books, there's a wonderful flavor of early-20th-century American life—the description of a hot summer afternoon on the residential streets of that unnamed Midwestern city, with all its commonplace details, gives you not just the feeling of being there, but the sense that you have been there at some time. It's a well-crafted, satisfying reading experience, watching the different threads of the story intertwine and the subtly foreshadowed events play out.
July 11, 2025
3.5 stars
Cora flirts with anything in pants and overshadows her older sister Laura at every party. When the handsome Valentine Corliss returns to town, Cora immediately gets to work, flirting with him and ignoring her own fiancée. But the fiancée and the whole string of ex-boyfriends are not content to be ignored. Laura and the rest of the family have to put up with an avalanche of men in and out of the house, and their little brother Hedrick decides to get his revenge on his sisters. He is always getting into mischief, but this time he could really cause serious trouble for Cora and Laura.
I have no idea what this book was. Sometimes it's a romance, sometimes it's a comedy, sometimes it's part crime mystery. There is one scene of murder/suicide that was completely out of place with the rest of the tone of the book. I mean, there are hints in the plot that this one side character is unstable, but I didn't think he would actually shoot somebody and then himself! So bizarre. But at the end, the only two halfway-decent characters end up together, so that is sweet.
These characters are all utterly insane! I heartily disliked Cora. She's a nutjob, flirting with all those men and manipulating them. She pretends to be ill whenever she doesn't get her way, manipulating her parents as well. She's a spoiled princess and so incredibly self-centered. Even when her father has a serious illness, she doesn't seem to care. The girl is pathologically narcissistic.
Laura was much more sensible and sweet and caring, but she enables her horrible sister. Laura spoils her sister just as much as the parents do, and thinks she is being humble and kind when she puts aside her own needs in order to accommodate her sister's desires. This whole family is so deranged.
The little brother Hedrick is living in his own imaginary world or something. He's a real little stinker, always looking for ways to make trouble and embarrass other people. He thinks he's in an adventure novel and pretends like he's doing these courageous and clever deeds when he plays pranks on people. Nasty little bug.
The writing is fascinating! It's like a gorgeous train wreck and you can't look away. I read this book all in one day, because I was utterly mesmerized by these insane characters. But there is some mild profanity in this book which I did not care for.
What a wild ride! I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like this.
Cora flirts with anything in pants and overshadows her older sister Laura at every party. When the handsome Valentine Corliss returns to town, Cora immediately gets to work, flirting with him and ignoring her own fiancée. But the fiancée and the whole string of ex-boyfriends are not content to be ignored. Laura and the rest of the family have to put up with an avalanche of men in and out of the house, and their little brother Hedrick decides to get his revenge on his sisters. He is always getting into mischief, but this time he could really cause serious trouble for Cora and Laura.
I have no idea what this book was. Sometimes it's a romance, sometimes it's a comedy, sometimes it's part crime mystery. There is one scene of murder/suicide that was completely out of place with the rest of the tone of the book. I mean, there are hints in the plot that this one side character is unstable, but I didn't think he would actually shoot somebody and then himself! So bizarre. But at the end, the only two halfway-decent characters end up together, so that is sweet.
These characters are all utterly insane! I heartily disliked Cora. She's a nutjob, flirting with all those men and manipulating them. She pretends to be ill whenever she doesn't get her way, manipulating her parents as well. She's a spoiled princess and so incredibly self-centered. Even when her father has a serious illness, she doesn't seem to care. The girl is pathologically narcissistic.
Laura was much more sensible and sweet and caring, but she enables her horrible sister. Laura spoils her sister just as much as the parents do, and thinks she is being humble and kind when she puts aside her own needs in order to accommodate her sister's desires. This whole family is so deranged.
The little brother Hedrick is living in his own imaginary world or something. He's a real little stinker, always looking for ways to make trouble and embarrass other people. He thinks he's in an adventure novel and pretends like he's doing these courageous and clever deeds when he plays pranks on people. Nasty little bug.
The writing is fascinating! It's like a gorgeous train wreck and you can't look away. I read this book all in one day, because I was utterly mesmerized by these insane characters. But there is some mild profanity in this book which I did not care for.
What a wild ride! I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like this.
August 12, 2018
The Flirt feels a lot like Alice Adams, which means that if you liked the latter you'll be interested in the former, but at the same time, you might feel like you've taken this ride before. (The Flirt was, however, written almost a decade before Alice Adams.) Like the Adamses, the Madisons are on the outskirts of society, mixing with upper-middle-class families while they can barely afford upkeep on their run-down house; like Alice, Cora Madison is charming and given the best of everything by her parents while her brother sneers at her affectation of poshery.
The major difference between these two stories is that The Flirt is much more of a morality tale. Cora strings along a fiancée throughout the book, Richard Lindley, a good man who is unaccountably blind to her flimsiness, while flirting with other men she finds more interesting - and in contrast to Alice's steps toward reality and self-sufficiency at the end of her story, Cora instead responds to the loss of her interesting suitor (a con man) by quickly marrying a third party and getting out of town before the storm hits. Cora also has a second sibling that Alice lacks, a much more ethical and morally pure sister, Laura, who is silently and madly in love with Richard. In a denouement not unlike Mansfield Park's, Richard comes to realize that Laura is actually far superior to Cora in personality, and is very lovely when not standing next to her vivacious and angelic-looking sister. This isn't as effective emotionally as, for instance, Richard realizing this during one of the many instances where Laura is bashfully sitting with him while Cora flirts with someone else as though he's not there, but, as with Mansfield Park, it is a far more realistic ending.
Three stars, because Richard and Laura were a little too good, and I just wanted a bit more bang for this story.
The major difference between these two stories is that The Flirt is much more of a morality tale. Cora strings along a fiancée throughout the book, Richard Lindley, a good man who is unaccountably blind to her flimsiness, while flirting with other men she finds more interesting - and in contrast to Alice's steps toward reality and self-sufficiency at the end of her story, Cora instead responds to the loss of her interesting suitor (a con man) by quickly marrying a third party and getting out of town before the storm hits. Cora also has a second sibling that Alice lacks, a much more ethical and morally pure sister, Laura, who is silently and madly in love with Richard. In a denouement not unlike Mansfield Park's, Richard comes to realize that Laura is actually far superior to Cora in personality, and is very lovely when not standing next to her vivacious and angelic-looking sister. This isn't as effective emotionally as, for instance, Richard realizing this during one of the many instances where Laura is bashfully sitting with him while Cora flirts with someone else as though he's not there, but, as with Mansfield Park, it is a far more realistic ending.
Three stars, because Richard and Laura were a little too good, and I just wanted a bit more bang for this story.
May 9, 2008
This book is stupid. I love Booth Tarkington, but this one is terrible. The only good thing about it is that the version I have is beautiful, with dozens of illustrations and a slipcover. Do not read this book if you haven't read anything else by this author.
July 5, 2012
Pretty good but not up to her usual standards,
October 26, 2009
After several years of focusing on plays, Booth Tarkington returned to writing novels in 1913 with “The Flirt”. Published originally in the Saturday Evening Post, from December 21st 1912 to February 15th 1913, the first of his novels to be serialized in that periodical, “The Flirt” was the first novel published after his return to the United States from Europe and his first novel to be serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. The time of from writing novels appears to have done him good, as this time he does not appear to be writing a variation on a novel he had already written. Though set in a Capitol City, a fictitious small city, like many of his previous efforts, the plot is quite different.
The title character is Cora Madison, the younger of the two Madison sisters. Cora overshadows her older sister, Laura, who is also beautiful, but whose personality is such that she is not noticed when Cora is around. Cora enjoys manipulating men, and the story opens with a new challenge arriving in the form of Valentine Corliss, a man who lived in Capitol City when he was young, but who is returning for the first time in many years. He happens to own the house that the Madison’s live in, and he claims to be returning to sell it and gather as many funds as possible to invest in oil fields in southern Italy which have recently been discovered and few know about.
Other key characters include Richard Lindley, who was believed to be Cora’s beau at the start of the book, but a man she has grown tired of; Ray Vilas, a former boyfriend of Cora’s who has turned to drink in his frustration and still wants to win her back; Mr. Pryor, the one man who knows about Valentine Corliss’ past; and Wade Trumble, another would-be suitor of Cora Madison. There is also the rest of the Madison family including Mr. and Mrs. Madison, and Laura and Cora’s younger brother Hendrick, who delights in giving Cora grief over her trifling with men’s hearts.
Cora manipulates all those around her, including her parents, with the single exception of Hendrick. However, there are others playing games as well. Mr. Corliss is trying to convince as many people as possible to buy shares in the oil fields, Laura is trying to keep peace between her warring siblings, Richard Lindley is trying to reignite Cora’s interest in him, and trying to clean-up Ray Vilas.
This is a fairly enjoyable book to read, though there are definite weaknesses, especially at the end where some of the actions taken just don’t seem to fit the characters. Still, it is a new type of story for Tarkington, and one which is better than many of those which he wrote earlier, though not as good as his best. Overall I give this three stars, as there were better books by Tarkington from before, and some better ones yet to come as well.
The title character is Cora Madison, the younger of the two Madison sisters. Cora overshadows her older sister, Laura, who is also beautiful, but whose personality is such that she is not noticed when Cora is around. Cora enjoys manipulating men, and the story opens with a new challenge arriving in the form of Valentine Corliss, a man who lived in Capitol City when he was young, but who is returning for the first time in many years. He happens to own the house that the Madison’s live in, and he claims to be returning to sell it and gather as many funds as possible to invest in oil fields in southern Italy which have recently been discovered and few know about.
Other key characters include Richard Lindley, who was believed to be Cora’s beau at the start of the book, but a man she has grown tired of; Ray Vilas, a former boyfriend of Cora’s who has turned to drink in his frustration and still wants to win her back; Mr. Pryor, the one man who knows about Valentine Corliss’ past; and Wade Trumble, another would-be suitor of Cora Madison. There is also the rest of the Madison family including Mr. and Mrs. Madison, and Laura and Cora’s younger brother Hendrick, who delights in giving Cora grief over her trifling with men’s hearts.
Cora manipulates all those around her, including her parents, with the single exception of Hendrick. However, there are others playing games as well. Mr. Corliss is trying to convince as many people as possible to buy shares in the oil fields, Laura is trying to keep peace between her warring siblings, Richard Lindley is trying to reignite Cora’s interest in him, and trying to clean-up Ray Vilas.
This is a fairly enjoyable book to read, though there are definite weaknesses, especially at the end where some of the actions taken just don’t seem to fit the characters. Still, it is a new type of story for Tarkington, and one which is better than many of those which he wrote earlier, though not as good as his best. Overall I give this three stars, as there were better books by Tarkington from before, and some better ones yet to come as well.
February 1, 2012
The Flirt, like so many Tarkington stories, is first of all an exercise in gentleness. Tarkington loved his characters to a fault. To his heroes and heroines he showed gentle affection, to his comic relief gentle condescension, and to his villains gentle contempt. All that gentleness throws up a fog of good feeling, but behind the fog there are crags and cliffs of unhappiness, struggle and decay. In the fog is nostalgic escapism to what seems like a “simpler” time and place. But life turns out to be the same depressing, uphill scramble it always is, especially amid the dislocations of the early 20th Century – Tarkington’s most persistent and greatest theme.
November 2, 2019
This seemingly old-fashioned, all-American tale tells of Cora Madison, the self-centred, heartless town flirt ... aided by her long-suffering older sister Laura, thwarted by her mischevious younger brother Hedrick, she sweeps along ... then the fireworks begin, leading to an amazing, bang-up ending... oh, Mr. Tarkington, you devious man!
April 27, 2021
Interesting story, very unpredictable. But a very good ending!
Want to read
January 16, 2026A Book Owned by F. Scott Fitzgerald: https://static-prod.lib.princeton.edu...
January 26, 2023
I had seen Booth Tarkington's "Alice Adams" Katherine Hepburn movie long ago and look forward to reading that book. I decided on Tarkington's "The Flirt" first because the title caught my interest enough to start there. Before reading my Delphi collection of Tarkington's works which included a movie poster based on this novel, 1931; "The Bad Sister" which included a young Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, so I saved to watch later. My general practice is to read before watching the screen version and I am glad I did because my mind was clear to see it all played out in my mind and after finishing this story, I watched the 1931 movie which was interesting for many reasons but it was nothing compared to the author's story which I loved! Even though the premise of the story is basically there, the characters are not true and added characters add an unnecessary account. The older brother and his wife and Richard being a doctor were out of place. I will mentioned more in my spoiler section below. This is a perfect example how a book is so much more in so many ways.
Story in short- The return of a young man to his aunt's home of his youth and his friendship with the town's beautiful "flirt".
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18004
VALENTINE CORLISS WALKED up Corliss Street the hottest afternoon of that hot August, a year ago, wearing a suit of white serge which attracted a little attention from those observers who were able to observe anything except the heat. The coat was shaped delicately; it outlined the wearer, and, fitting him as women’s clothes fit women, suggested an effeminacy not an attribute of the tall Corliss. The effeminacy belonged all to the tailor, an artist plying far from Corliss Street, for the coat would have encountered a hundred of its fellows at Trouville or Ostende this very day.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18012
Mr. Corliss, treading for the first time in seventeen years the pavements of this namesake of his grandfather, mildly repaid its interest in himself. The street, once the most peaceful in the world, he thought, had changed. It was still long and straight, still shaded by trees so noble that they were betrothed, here and there, high over the wide white roadway, the shimmering tunnels thus contrived shot with gold and blue; but its pristine complete restfulness was departed: gasoline had arrived, and a pedestrian, even this August day of heat, must glance two ways before crossing.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18057
Ensued a silence, probably to be interpreted as
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18057
a period of whispered consultation out of range; a younger voice called softly and urgently, “Laura!” and a dark- eyed, dark-haired girl of something over twenty made her appearance to Mr. Corliss. At sight of her he instantly restored a thin gold card-case to the pocket whence he was in the act of removing it. She looked at him with only grave, impersonal inquiry; no appreciative invoice of him was to be detected in her quiet eyes, which may have surprised him, possibly the more because he was aware
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18061
there was plenty of appreciation in his own kindling glance.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18066
Mr. Valentine Corliss, of Paris and Naples, removed his white-ribboned straw hat and bowed as no one had ever bowed in that doorway. This most vivid salutation — accomplished by adding something to a rather quick inclination of the body from the hips, with the back and neck held straight expressed deference without affecting or inviting cordiality. It was an elaborate little formality of a kind fancifully called “foreign,” and evidently habitual to the performer.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18088
There was a rustling somewhere in the house and a murmur, above which a boy’s voice became audible in emphatic but undistinguishable complaint. A whispering followed, and a woman exclaimed protestingly, “Cora!” And then a startlingly pretty girl came carelessly into the room through the open door. She was humming “Quand I’ Amour Meurt” in a gay preoccupation, and evidently sought something upon the table in the centre of the room, for she continued her progress toward it several steps before realizing the presence of a visitor. She was a year or so younger than the girl who had admitted him, fairer and obviously more plastic, more expressive, more perishable, a great deal more insistently feminine; though it was to be seen that they were sisters. This one had eyes almost as dark as the other’s, but these were not cool; they were sweet, unrestful, and seeking; brilliant with a vivacious hunger: and
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18094
not Diana but huntresses more ardent have such eyes. Her hair was much lighter than her sister’s; it was the colour of dry corn-silk in the sun; and she was the shorter by a head, rounder everywhere and not so slender; but no dumpling: she was exquisitely made. There was a softness about her: something of velvet, nothing of mush. She diffused with her entrance a radiance of gayety and of gentleness; sunlight ran with her. She seemed the incarnation of a caressing smile.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18098
She was point-device. Her close, white skirt hung from a plainly embroidered white waist to a silken instep; and from the crown of her charming head to the tall heels of her graceful white suede slippers, heels of a sweeter curve than the waist of a violin, she was as modern and lovely as this dingy old house was belated and hideous.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18101
The girl saw him before she reached the table, gave a little gasp of surprise, and halted with one hand carried prettily to her breast. “Oh!” she said impulsively; “I beg your pardon. I didn’t know there was —— I was looking for a book I thought I — —” She stopped, whelmed with a breath-taking shyness, her eyes, after one quick but condensed encounter with those of Mr. Corliss, falling beneath exquisite lashes. Her voice was one to stir all men: it needs not many words for a supremely beautiful “speaking-voice” to be recognized for what it is; and this girl’s was like herself, hauntingly lovely. The intelligent young man immediately realized that no one who heard it could ever forget it.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
The novel not regarding the movie. -
At first when Corliss showed up I did not think he would end up being a swindler and when he did I thought his Italian count friend, non existent. I had thought he was a good guy but that was shown soon not to be true. He was a match for Cora, he thought he could do anything and she would follow but after talking to the detective, she sized things up for herself knowing that she helped swindle Richard out of his money she needed to find a safe escape in marrying Trumble. Corliss and Cora were both self centered and seeing what they could get. Cora was attracted to Corliss but when things started to heat up, her liking turned to hate. She had caused her father's illness and said how important is a name. Soon before Cora married Wade, she flirted with a young office boy of her soon to be husband.
Hedrick like Cora has the ability to attract others but I find him not a hopeless case. He had caused heartache to Laura by showing her diary to Richard but he felt for her whereas Cora could not feel for others. Laura should never had told on Lolita wanting to kiss Hedrick which in telling Cora, caused him to seek revenge.
Laura and her parents enabled Corals selfish and lazy behavior.
Ray Villas is a sad character that indeed had good intentions and did himself more harm and found revenge on Corliss.
Richard was ridiculous but yet still likeable at times, he was quite rude in bringing the diary back and not being able to see what is true and what is false in the sisters. His mother helped clear that up.
In the movie the characters were flat. Laura was reserved in the novel but in the movie she was more talkative to Richard. Richard in the movie jilted Cora/Marianne not so in the novel, he was sulky after Cora had married rich Wade because he gave all his saving to invest in the money scheme. Hedrick in the movie was joking and that was about it, in the novel, he had demons in him about his sister and his family treatment of him.
Richard was not a doctor in the novel and more like a slave to Cora.
The whole thing in the movie were Marianne/Cora marries and is happily changed ridiculous, she still seeks her own way. In the novel Mr. Madison does not invest so no need to pay back and really Richard was the big fish. The older Madison son and wife with her dying during childbirth was so off.
Story in short- The return of a young man to his aunt's home of his youth and his friendship with the town's beautiful "flirt".
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18004
VALENTINE CORLISS WALKED up Corliss Street the hottest afternoon of that hot August, a year ago, wearing a suit of white serge which attracted a little attention from those observers who were able to observe anything except the heat. The coat was shaped delicately; it outlined the wearer, and, fitting him as women’s clothes fit women, suggested an effeminacy not an attribute of the tall Corliss. The effeminacy belonged all to the tailor, an artist plying far from Corliss Street, for the coat would have encountered a hundred of its fellows at Trouville or Ostende this very day.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18012
Mr. Corliss, treading for the first time in seventeen years the pavements of this namesake of his grandfather, mildly repaid its interest in himself. The street, once the most peaceful in the world, he thought, had changed. It was still long and straight, still shaded by trees so noble that they were betrothed, here and there, high over the wide white roadway, the shimmering tunnels thus contrived shot with gold and blue; but its pristine complete restfulness was departed: gasoline had arrived, and a pedestrian, even this August day of heat, must glance two ways before crossing.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18057
Ensued a silence, probably to be interpreted as
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18057
a period of whispered consultation out of range; a younger voice called softly and urgently, “Laura!” and a dark- eyed, dark-haired girl of something over twenty made her appearance to Mr. Corliss. At sight of her he instantly restored a thin gold card-case to the pocket whence he was in the act of removing it. She looked at him with only grave, impersonal inquiry; no appreciative invoice of him was to be detected in her quiet eyes, which may have surprised him, possibly the more because he was aware
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18061
there was plenty of appreciation in his own kindling glance.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18066
Mr. Valentine Corliss, of Paris and Naples, removed his white-ribboned straw hat and bowed as no one had ever bowed in that doorway. This most vivid salutation — accomplished by adding something to a rather quick inclination of the body from the hips, with the back and neck held straight expressed deference without affecting or inviting cordiality. It was an elaborate little formality of a kind fancifully called “foreign,” and evidently habitual to the performer.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18088
There was a rustling somewhere in the house and a murmur, above which a boy’s voice became audible in emphatic but undistinguishable complaint. A whispering followed, and a woman exclaimed protestingly, “Cora!” And then a startlingly pretty girl came carelessly into the room through the open door. She was humming “Quand I’ Amour Meurt” in a gay preoccupation, and evidently sought something upon the table in the centre of the room, for she continued her progress toward it several steps before realizing the presence of a visitor. She was a year or so younger than the girl who had admitted him, fairer and obviously more plastic, more expressive, more perishable, a great deal more insistently feminine; though it was to be seen that they were sisters. This one had eyes almost as dark as the other’s, but these were not cool; they were sweet, unrestful, and seeking; brilliant with a vivacious hunger: and
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18094
not Diana but huntresses more ardent have such eyes. Her hair was much lighter than her sister’s; it was the colour of dry corn-silk in the sun; and she was the shorter by a head, rounder everywhere and not so slender; but no dumpling: she was exquisitely made. There was a softness about her: something of velvet, nothing of mush. She diffused with her entrance a radiance of gayety and of gentleness; sunlight ran with her. She seemed the incarnation of a caressing smile.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18098
She was point-device. Her close, white skirt hung from a plainly embroidered white waist to a silken instep; and from the crown of her charming head to the tall heels of her graceful white suede slippers, heels of a sweeter curve than the waist of a violin, she was as modern and lovely as this dingy old house was belated and hideous.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 18101
The girl saw him before she reached the table, gave a little gasp of surprise, and halted with one hand carried prettily to her breast. “Oh!” she said impulsively; “I beg your pardon. I didn’t know there was —— I was looking for a book I thought I — —” She stopped, whelmed with a breath-taking shyness, her eyes, after one quick but condensed encounter with those of Mr. Corliss, falling beneath exquisite lashes. Her voice was one to stir all men: it needs not many words for a supremely beautiful “speaking-voice” to be recognized for what it is; and this girl’s was like herself, hauntingly lovely. The intelligent young man immediately realized that no one who heard it could ever forget it.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
The novel not regarding the movie. -
At first when Corliss showed up I did not think he would end up being a swindler and when he did I thought his Italian count friend, non existent. I had thought he was a good guy but that was shown soon not to be true. He was a match for Cora, he thought he could do anything and she would follow but after talking to the detective, she sized things up for herself knowing that she helped swindle Richard out of his money she needed to find a safe escape in marrying Trumble. Corliss and Cora were both self centered and seeing what they could get. Cora was attracted to Corliss but when things started to heat up, her liking turned to hate. She had caused her father's illness and said how important is a name. Soon before Cora married Wade, she flirted with a young office boy of her soon to be husband.
Hedrick like Cora has the ability to attract others but I find him not a hopeless case. He had caused heartache to Laura by showing her diary to Richard but he felt for her whereas Cora could not feel for others. Laura should never had told on Lolita wanting to kiss Hedrick which in telling Cora, caused him to seek revenge.
Laura and her parents enabled Corals selfish and lazy behavior.
Ray Villas is a sad character that indeed had good intentions and did himself more harm and found revenge on Corliss.
Richard was ridiculous but yet still likeable at times, he was quite rude in bringing the diary back and not being able to see what is true and what is false in the sisters. His mother helped clear that up.
In the movie the characters were flat. Laura was reserved in the novel but in the movie she was more talkative to Richard. Richard in the movie jilted Cora/Marianne not so in the novel, he was sulky after Cora had married rich Wade because he gave all his saving to invest in the money scheme. Hedrick in the movie was joking and that was about it, in the novel, he had demons in him about his sister and his family treatment of him.
Richard was not a doctor in the novel and more like a slave to Cora.
The whole thing in the movie were Marianne/Cora marries and is happily changed ridiculous, she still seeks her own way. In the novel Mr. Madison does not invest so no need to pay back and really Richard was the big fish. The older Madison son and wife with her dying during childbirth was so off.
December 20, 2013
It's difficult to know what to make of this book. I certainly never expected to use the words "Booth Tarkington" and "upsetting" in the same review, but there they are. As a 1912-13 product, The Flirt has its share of purple prose, improbable dialogue, and prejudice. I was prepared for those. What never occurred to me was that Tarkington would change his mind two-thirds of the way through about what sort of novel to write. It's as though he walked away from his desk and another writer--not quite a Stephen King: maybe a John Updike or Margaret Atwood--slipped in and polished off the final chapters for him.
The setting is the author's usual shabby but clean middle-class Indianapolis neighborhood. The handsome young visitor of the opening pages is a conventional romantic hero, and the women who fall for him--the gorgeous vamp of the title and her sister, a self-sacrificing Madonna--have appeared in every love story since Homer. The girls' annoying little brother has a secret hideaway and immerses himself in adventure novels, but his swagger and sneer put him more in a class with Georgie Miniver than with Penrod. Romantic encounters and misunderstandings and flare-ups of old rivalries ensue...and then, without warning, the tone changes. More for practice than desire, the young vamp lures a newly engaged man away from his fiancée. The good-looking Romeo of the early chapters has a few conversations that reveal him to be anything but heroic. One of the flirt's old beaus who has popped up from time to time, harmlessly drunk, suddenly turns snarling and vindictive. Even the Madonna reveals a patronizing and cruel streak when she spies her little brother kissing a pretty girl his own age who is "ordinarily locked up in an asylum." True to his nature, the boy responds with a revenge plot straight from the pages of a penny dreadful. Combined, their actions result not in traditional romance, but tragedy.
I may like this novel better once I let it simmer in the back of my brain for a year or two. At the moment I'm disdainful, let down, a little shocked. I still like Booth Tarkington, but the next time I'm in the mood to read him, I'm likely to push The Flirt aside and take up the safety and solidity of a work like Seventeen.
The setting is the author's usual shabby but clean middle-class Indianapolis neighborhood. The handsome young visitor of the opening pages is a conventional romantic hero, and the women who fall for him--the gorgeous vamp of the title and her sister, a self-sacrificing Madonna--have appeared in every love story since Homer. The girls' annoying little brother has a secret hideaway and immerses himself in adventure novels, but his swagger and sneer put him more in a class with Georgie Miniver than with Penrod. Romantic encounters and misunderstandings and flare-ups of old rivalries ensue...and then, without warning, the tone changes. More for practice than desire, the young vamp lures a newly engaged man away from his fiancée. The good-looking Romeo of the early chapters has a few conversations that reveal him to be anything but heroic. One of the flirt's old beaus who has popped up from time to time, harmlessly drunk, suddenly turns snarling and vindictive. Even the Madonna reveals a patronizing and cruel streak when she spies her little brother kissing a pretty girl his own age who is "ordinarily locked up in an asylum." True to his nature, the boy responds with a revenge plot straight from the pages of a penny dreadful. Combined, their actions result not in traditional romance, but tragedy.
I may like this novel better once I let it simmer in the back of my brain for a year or two. At the moment I'm disdainful, let down, a little shocked. I still like Booth Tarkington, but the next time I'm in the mood to read him, I'm likely to push The Flirt aside and take up the safety and solidity of a work like Seventeen.
November 17, 2022
I like Booth Tarkington's writing style in this story, and he tells the story so well, so smoothly, so frank, that I completely felt myself inserted with the characters.
Up to this point, I read Tarkington's Penrod and Sam (as a youngster in grade school), and now I have the impetus to read more of his works.
🎥 Made into the movie, “Bad Sister,” in 1931 with Bette Davis.
🟣Kindle version.
Up to this point, I read Tarkington's Penrod and Sam (as a youngster in grade school), and now I have the impetus to read more of his works.
🎥 Made into the movie, “Bad Sister,” in 1931 with Bette Davis.
🟣Kindle version.
October 3, 2013
This was an interesting book, but I can't say that I loved it. I liked how the author brought the younger brother into the story and how his adventures affected the story, but I struggled a bit with the dynamic between the sisters. It was hard for me to understand how Laura could be so loyal to Cora, so supportive of her, even when it should have been clear to her how selfish and destructive Cora was. Perhaps we're meant to think that Laura refused to see the truth about her sister. Overall, though, I enjoyed the story and the insight into life in small-town Indiana in the early 20th century.
February 4, 2018
This was an audio book from LibriVox.org .
https://librivox.org/the-flirt-by-boo...
https://librivox.org/the-flirt-by-boo...
February 16, 2021
In possibly one of the earliest examples of a movie tie-in, the copy I read was a 1931 reprint containing photos from the movie version. (The Bad Sister was based on The Flirt and is notable for being Bette Davis’ screen debut, with a minor role for Humphrey Bogart. What’s hilarious is that not only do the movie characters have different names than the characters in the book, nothing portrayed in the movie photos happens in the book at all.) This novel has that classic device of two sisters, one good and one thoroughly bad. The bad sister uses her feminine wiles to steal all the men and get everything she wants. There’s also a kid brother, who was my favorite character because he sees through everyone, plus he’s a bully who then gets bullied himself. I also enjoyed the witty, doomed, alcoholic character Richard Lindley and the con man character. The bad sister has to be punished at the end, which is kind of a downer. There was no room in 1913 for a woman to be anything but a saintly pushover. Other than that, a fun read. Similar themes to The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton, but more trashy. Downfall: racism against a stereotypical manservant character.
August 19, 2024
3.5 rounded down. A quick free read for Kindle from Amazon. Who is really the flirt here? According to the dictionary, "behave as though attracted to or trying to attract someone, but for amusement rather than with serious intentions." So it could be the businessman or Cora, but certainly not the little brother. He was always serious.
Theme: "There may be angels with us, but we don't notice them when the devil's about."
Made into a silent movie in 1922. (Book was written in 1913. Another title is "Bad Sister".)
Theme: "There may be angels with us, but we don't notice them when the devil's about."
Made into a silent movie in 1922. (Book was written in 1913. Another title is "Bad Sister".)
March 1, 2022
Early on in this book I had the feeling this must be one of Booth Tarkington's "flops," as it just meandered along with, to my eye, no evident theme. But just before halfway through the theme started to become apparent and, for me, the story suddenly came to life. Things did not go entirely as I expected, or even as I necessarily wanted them to go, but I found it to be thoroughly compelling from that point onward.
May 10, 2021
Somewhat dated, but still a good story told by a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. This one reminded me somewhat of Alice Adams, one of Tarkington's best know works.
November 16, 2023
3.9
Flirt by Orphan_Acclunt
Cute short and rushed relationship imo
Flirt by Orphan_Acclunt
Cute short and rushed relationship imo
September 18, 2014
Charming and oh-so-dramatic. Quite a wonderful Edwardian-era story about an awful coquette and the lives that swirl and tumble about hers. The characters are both frustrating and endearing, the plot both aggravating and intriguing, and the reader is left to hope against hope that everything will turn out all right, even though a happy ending frequently seems impossible.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews