The Plastic Age

By Percy Marks

Book Overview

When The Plastic Age became a controversial best seller, Marks got hundreds of letters applauding him for tearing the veil of hypocrisy from around the depravities of college life, berat-ing him for spoiling the game by publiciz-ing it, or seeking further specification about what really happened to clean-cut boys sent to Ivy League colleges to be perfected as gentlemen." Marks, an instructor at Brown, was fired when the book was published, not, Cassill points out in his Afterword, because he had written a risqu and sensational book that tarnished Brown's reputation, but because he was the sort of person who would do such a thing. "Such delicate distinctions are requi-site in institutions cherishing a reputation for academic freedom."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1545528691
• ISBN13: 9781545528693
• Release Date: April 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The more things change, the more they stay the same

... I first learned of this book as a college student in the 1970's, but was unable to locate a copy of the book until 2003. ... The Plastic Age was a best seller when it was released in 1924. ... (This 1980 edition is painstaking reproduced from a first edition giving the reader the impression of reading a 1920's style of typesetting, formatting and punctuation.) In addition, this 1980 edition contains a brief afterward written by R.V. Cassill, a professor at Brown during the 1980's, discussing the merits and issues raised by the book.There are essentially five reasons for which you might want to read this book, and depending upon which reason, the book may or may not be a worthwhile read.First, as a work of fiction, the book chronicles the life of Hugh Carver, a straight-laced boy who attends fictional Sanford College, from his matriculation as a naïve freshman to his graduation as a worldly senior. On this level, the book is entirely linear, predictable and pedestrian. The lead characters are virtual stereotypes of geeks, jocks, BMOCs, frat boys, cool professors, bad professors, and every other type of flora and fauna encountered in any college work of fiction. Hugh wrestles with the issues of work, stress, the meaning of life, as well as the perils of gambling, alcohol, fraternity life and fast women as the book progresses. Clearly I would not recommend the book to anyone seeking an entertaining novel.Second, The Plastic Age was written an expose of college life in the 1920's. I believe this in fact was the primary reason the book was written, and the reason why it was a best seller in the late 1920's. (The book even became a movie in 1925 featuring the "It girl", Clara Bow.) In the 1920's, going to college was rare, with well less than 10 percent of the population attending college, and extremely prestigious. Yet, Marks, who was a lecturer at Dartmouth College at the time he wrote the novel, realized that much of college life was largely boorish, anti-intellectual and not worthy of such admiration. The masses apparently enjoyed his expose and the healthy doses of sex and alcohol featured in the book, although these "racy" descriptions would be rated G by contemporary standards. If as a reader or a student of history, you were interested in learning about what intrigued the book buying public in the 1920's, The Plastic Age would be well worth your time.On a third level, if you are interested in reading a historical time capsule from the 1920's, once again The Plastic Age admirably fits the bill, complete with colloquialisms long since vanished. If the reader were writing a screenplay or novel concerning college life in the 1920's, The Plastic Age would serve as an excellent reference for manners, language and activities of the time period.The last two levels are the ones I found the most enjoyable. Fourth, the book is stunning confirmation of the phrase, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." College life for