The Magnificent Ambersons

I am the first to admit that I am a complete and total pushover.  I had been completely looking forward to reveling in George Amberson Minafer's "comeuppance".  I really had.  Towards the end he was so selfish and self centered that I wanted to slap him.  But when his downward spiral to poverty was complete, it was all so sadly pathetic I just couldn't help feeling sorry for him!  I can see why Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons won a Pulitzer as well as made the Modern Library List.  It is really well done.  We start out in this sleepy, little midwestern town, where the Ambersons were really "magificent".  They were a posh, rich family.  But progress being what it is--either you go with it, or get trampled in the process. The Ambersons were so stuck in their ways, they chose not to see what was happening around them.  By the end of the novel, all vestiges of the once Magnificent Ambersons are gone.  I am curious about both of the film adaptations for this novel.  Per the notes at the end of the novel, Welles's version was nominated for four Oscars and still retains a classic status, but much of the original film was cut out and destroyed by the RKO studio while Welles was in South America producing another film.  While much of the original footage no longer exists, Welles's original script survived.  A miniseries was made by A&E using this original script, but it appears the reviews for this were tepid at best as well.  Of course the solutions is to just read the book, which I think is a very worthwhile read!