# Alice Adams — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington.

- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/i.md): Virgil Adams, recovering from an illness, is cared for by his wife and a nurse, Miss Perry. Mrs. Adams hints that he should not return to his old job, sparking a tense argument. Virgil lies awake through the night, irrit
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/ii.md): Alice Adams, preparing for a dance, interacts with her mother and father, revealing family tensions over finances and Virgil Adams's illness. Alice urges her mother to be more tactful with her father, while Mrs. Adams pr
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/iii.md): Alice Adams, after a tense exchange with her mother about Virgil Adams, prepares for an outing. She discards old calling cards from her 'Alys' period, dons a stylish outfit, and walks through town. She pauses at the Palm
- [Chapter IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/iv.md): Alice Adams decides to wear her white organdie dress to a dance and asks her mother to put in a new lining. Meanwhile, Virgil Adams, recovering from illness, tries to discuss his worries about his job and finances with A
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/v.md): Alice and her mother work on her dress for the dance, while the household cook quits after a frustrating experience with the gong. Alice daydreams about the evening, longing for flowers, and later finds violets in the ya
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/vi.md): Alice Adams, dressed in a beautiful white dress and violets, prepares for a dance at the Palmers'. She visits her ill father, Virgil, who admires her. Her mother provides a worn wrap and Virgil's raincoat for the drizzly
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/vii.md): Alice Adams, once a popular belle, now struggles to maintain appearances at a dance. She sits alone, pretending to await an escort, and fends off Frank Dowling's mother who interrupts to take him away. Alice reflects on 
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/viii.md): Alice attends a dance where she struggles with social rejection and her fading popularity. She employs the 'absentee partner' ruse to appear sought-after, but is left alone when her matron abandons her. Harvey Malone con
- [IX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/ix.md): Alice, still reeling from the disastrous dance, discusses her future with her father, Virgil, and briefly considers a stage career. Later, while running an errand, she encounters Arthur Russell on the street. At home, sh
- [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/x.md): Alice walks home with Arthur Russell after their encounter downtown, engaging in playful banter and revealing her insecurities about her family's social standing. She fabricates stories about her father's cigars and Walt
- [XI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xi.md): Alice reflects on her mother's persistent obsession with a glue factory formula that could supposedly make the family wealthy, while also grappling with her own self-deception and the lies she tells Arthur Russell to cre
- [Chapter XII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xii.md): Alice's hopes for a romantic adventure with Arthur Russell fade as her carnations wilt and no one visits. She throws them away and resigns herself to disappointment. Meanwhile, J.A. Lamb's visit revitalizes Virgil Adams,
- [Chapter XIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xiii.md): Mrs. Adams confronts Virgil about the social and financial struggles that have led to their daughter Alice being excluded from Henrietta Lamb's party, blaming Virgil's lack of ambition and his employment under J.A. Lamb 
- [Chapter XIV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xiv.md): Alice and Arthur Russell enjoy a sunny walk in the park. Alice elaborately constructs lies to explain why she cannot attend Henrietta Lamb's dance, claiming a feud with Henrietta and her father's fluctuating health. She 
- [Chapter XV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xv.md): Alice and her mother discuss Arthur Russell's reaction to seeing Walter with disreputable company, with Mrs. Adams trying to reassure Alice. Later, Virgil Adams confronts Walter about leaving his job at Lamb & Company to
- [Chapter XVI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xvi.md): Virgil Adams reflects on his past decision to share a glue formula secret with his wife, a secret he now regrets revealing. He recalls how he and Campbell developed the formula for J.A. Lamb, but Lamb lost interest in th
- [Chapter XVII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xvii.md): Virgil Adams, driven by a newfound ambition, throws himself into establishing a new business, leasing a dilapidated brick shed in a decaying industrial district. He works obsessively, ignoring his health, and seeks Charl
- [Chapter XVIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xviii.md): Virgil Adams is tormented by guilt and anxiety over having taken a glue process from his former employer, J. A. Lamb. He obsessively wonders what Lamb thinks of him and why he hasn't been confronted or retaliated against
- [XIX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xix.md): Alice and her mother discuss the necessity of inviting Arthur Russell to dinner, revealing Alice's anxiety about her family's modest home and her own deceptions. Mrs. Adams plans an elaborate meal to impress Arthur, whil
- [Chapter XX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xx.md): Alice Adams anxiously anticipates an evening with Arthur Russell, who has his own premonitions about their relationship. At a luncheon with his relatives, the Palmers, Russell becomes uneasy when Mr. Palmer mentions Virg
- [Chapter XXI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xxi.md): Mrs. Adams monopolizes Arthur Russell with a lengthy, boastful monologue about Alice's virtues, while Alice nervously arranges roses and her father struggles with his ill-fitting clothes. The dinner is announced, and the
- [XXII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xxii.md): The disastrous dinner for Arthur Russell continues with strained conversation, oppressive heat, and Gertrude's hostility. Alice works tirelessly to smooth over the awkwardness, while her father Virgil struggles with the 
- [Chapter XXIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xxiii.md): Walter Adams is discovered to have embezzled funds from Lamb and Company and has fled. The news devastates the Adams family: Mrs. Adams wails uncontrollably, Virgil Adams rages and vows to repay every penny, while Alice 
- [Chapter XXIV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xxiv.md): Mr. Lamb visits Alice to discuss the financial and personal rift with her father, Virgil Adams. He explains that he will not press charges against Walter if restitution is made, and offers to buy Virgil's glue plant for 
- [XXV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/alice_adams_se/chapters/xxv.md): Alice Adams, now dressed plainly, prepares to go downtown. Her mother urges her to dress more cheerfully to show others she is undaunted by Walter's disappearance and her father's business failure, but Alice rejects the 

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