Anthony Adverse (1936)

Infant Anthony is dumped anonymously at a convent by his mother's husband after she dies in childbirth (not his kid).  He's apprenticed out to a businessman -- who just happens to be his grandpa --  when he's 10, falls in love with the cook's daughter, becomes a slave trader in Africa to collect a debt for his boss/gramps, has an affair with a native while there and loses his woman since he dilly-dallies there for 5 years, almost gets killed by his old housekeeper who stood to inherit if he was dead, finds his woman (and kid!) in France but Napoleon's got his eye on her, and sails away to America without her but with his kid at the end.

It's got a huge scope and keeps things hopping just by having SO MUCH story packed into less than 2 1/2 hours...but it doesn't feel like it amounted to much in the end.  I wasn't invested in anyone's fate.

C+