Sister Carrie

It proves that young Carrie in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is a beautiful but cold and unfeeling woman in her dealings with others. She moves to Chicago in the early 1900’s to find work and has come from nearby Wisconsin. She briefly lives with her sister, brother-in-law and their child. She looks for work for several days and ends up in working as a seamstress but finds the work too strenuous and ends up moving in with the well-dressed Charlie Drouet, a traveling salesman. He buys her nice things and continually promises to marry her. She starts acting and her worth shines through and he sees her in a new light. So does the suave George Hurstswood, the manager of a local high-end pub. When Charlie is traveling, she and George start meeting at the park. She does not know that he is an unhappily married man whose wife controls the purse strings. In Carrie’s presence, he feels more like a man and less like a child, so he hotly pursues her not admitting that he is a married man. He even tricks her into taking a train trip with him. She thinks that they are going to see about an injured Charlie but, they are on their way to Detroit. She also does not know that he has stolen thousands of dollars from his employer. Detectives find him and get most of the money back and they go on to New York. He is almost broke and soon Carrie not only finds work but ends up being the breadwinner. She gets back on the stage and finds her way as she ascends the ladder. He slowly but assuredly descends into further despair and cannot find work. She finally leaves him and makes it big on the stage. She later runs into Charlie Drouet and he has continually done will for himself. However, poor George has become a homeless man who is reduced to a scruffy beggar. On one occasion, Carrie sees him and gives him about $2.00 though she is living at an exclusive hotel. His struggles are dark and heart-wrenching as he fades into obscurity while she becomes richer yet lonelier. What will become of them? Read this timeless piece and see how happens to Carrie and George!

I tried reading this as an e-book but couldn't slog it. So I bought it as "Sister Carrie: New York Public Library Collector's Edition" for a few dollars and that made a world of diffference. I didn't fight the medium to get to the massage. No typos. Easy-on-the-eyes page. Extra stuff thrown in from the Library's collection of Drieser attic. And they say the text is one that wasn't censored or softened by the fearful folks of the day. Oh yes, the story is compelling too, and has Sex and Unemployment.

Theodore Dreiser, an American novelist of the "naturalist school" published this, his first novel, in 1900, to limited acclaim. The wife of the publisher, Mrs. Doubleday, was adamantly opposed to its publication since, in her opinion, "immorality," by which she means, Carrie's relationship with men, was not clearly punished. At the end of my "Barnes & Noble Classics" copy, there is a spot-on retort from a review in the "San Francisco Argonaut": "But these critics will have little to say in condemnation of the immorality of a commercial system which offers young girls a wage of three or four dollars a week in payment for labor as destructive to the mind as to the body." As with numerous other American novelists, their merit was first recognized in Europe, and then reflected back to the States. The novel was re-issued in 1907, to a much more receptive public. Dreiser grew up in Indiana, and went to Chicago as a newspaperman. The principal character, Carrie, is based on his sister, who, in the novel, went from Wisconsin to Chicago. Though re-issued in the same year that Upton Sinclair published his famous muck-raking novel The Jungle , also set in Chicago, Dreiser's novel is actually set in the 1880's - `90's. In terms of the social classes, the two novels both complement and contrast the classes depicted, and there is a dash of some social mobility thrown in. Carrie is a classic country girl, fleeing a big family, for the lights of the big city. On the train to Chicago she meets Drouet, a smooth-talking salesman. Carrie's domestic situation, living with her sister and brother-in-law is not a happy one, and she soon takes up "domestic arrangements" with Drouet. And in the much more sedate time of what was the Victorian era in England, that is all you learn: the panting, puffing and groping are all carefully excised. Hurstwood, a married man of some property, and limited propriety, and an erstwhile friend of Drouet, also takes an unseeming interest in Carrie, which borders on Maugham's Of Human Bondage . With this essential dynamic, the novel is propelled forward, with the inevitable vicissitudes in the human interactions as well as the social standing of the main characters. Roughly half the novel is set in New York City, so the reader gains an appreciation of the two largest American cities in the post-Civil War period, an event that is never mentioned. "Naturalism" means a realistic account life in the aforementioned cities. No "stream of consciousness" or other innovative story-telling techniques. Just a straightforward story, an easy read. I felt that the characterizations of the men, both Drouet and Hurstwood, seemed to be more insightful. Carrie is depicted as a strong women, with an independent streak, but she is also simply swept along by events, and her motivation at times is difficult to understand. The economics of the times is also realistically portrayed, including the grinding poverty that was the fate of most. Unemployment, underemployment, many of the same themes that dominant today's economy were highly operative then. Carrie "made it," at least in terms of achieving success as an actress, but as Dreiser said, in terms of her relationship to Hurstwood: "She forgot her youth and her beauty. The handicap of age she did not, in her enthusiasm, perceive." She achieved "success," but not happiness. But that was not enough for Mrs. Doubleday, even though Dreiser says: "It is but natural that when the world which they represented no longer allured her, its ambassadors should be discredited...In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel." Regrettably, this is the first novel of Dreiser's that I have read. His other major work, published a quarter century later, An American Tragedy is now on the "to-read list." In terms of the characters, and the setting, it is an important American novel, relevant both then, and in our own troubled economic times. 5-stars.

Dreiser's classic, "Sister Carrie," was on my list of novels to choose from for my English 102 required reading. I chose it due to online reviews and the storyline's personal appeal to me. While Dreiser does an excellent job of describing his settings in their full historical context from Chicago to New York City, and is very thorough about his explorations of his characters' minds, I thought his novel too abundant with unimportant (yet painstakingly described) characters, meaningless details, lengthy explanations, and self-important philosophical ponderings. If you enjoy such literary journeys, however, give the book a read. Sister Carrie is unique for her time and her surroundings are fairly fascinating. I was unhappy with the somewhat chauvinistic undertone the story carries, although perhaps for the time period Dreiser would be considered fairly progressive. Many readers can likely identify with the story's opening theme, of a girl on her own for the first time, timid and feeling alone in a big, imposing city. Carrie's struggle with finding a job, money, independence, and her place in the world is easy to relate to and her inner journey is portrayed well. After reading the Shmoop review of the book, I decided I could have skipped laboring through Dreiser's long-winded writing and simply hopped through a few much catchier, more interesting scholarly critiques. The bottom line: If you're looking to spend many hours soaking into the pages of a well-developed rags-to-riches tale, check out Sister Carrie. If you're looking to enjoy the gist in a jiff, just read the reviews.

This book arrived promptly and was very carefully packaged. It is absolutely beautiful and in perfect condition.

What I liked about this book is having another view into how people lived in Chicago and New York in the late 1800's, and that the author shows how people can slip into a detrimental lifestyle. The treatment of pre/extramarital relations is interesting - there is no direct mention, you have to guess. Women seem to have more freedom than I would have expected for that period, in spite of the expectation to be taken care of by a man. It would have been better if the characters spoke more. Carrie's default line is "I don't know"'; she doesn't say a whole lot more than that. The author tends to pontificate, moreso in the beginning than the end, and I found myself fast-forwarding over those parts. Nevertheless, I got into it fairly quickly and it was an interesting and enjoyable read.

Written in 1900, this book is an American classic that has certainly passed the test of time. From the very first page I was immediately so caught up in the story that I read 220 pages the first night and only stopped reading when I was too sleepy to continue. This is a fine story that keeps getting better and better as it progresses. I loved every word of it! There are three memorable characters in the book. The first is Carrie herself, a young woman who comes to the big city of Chicago at the age of 18. Her quest for a job and the challenges of working in a factory are clearly brought to light. I pitied her situation and was actually rather glad when the prosperous salesman, Drouet seduces her and she seems to better herself. He's not into marrying her but he supports her and treats her well. She even gets a chance to take part in a play that his lodge is putting on. There's another man who is interested in her though, Hurstwood. He is a manager of a prosperous restaurant-bar and has a good life. Even though he is married, he courts her. How this all turns out is the stuff of real drama. This book has it all, but most especially it is a deep exploration of character. Each of them is sympathetic in his or her own way. And they are depicted so well that I could view the world through their eyes and actually get under their skin. This is a powerful emotional story. It is as real as it can get and the cities of Chicago and New York are presented in ways that clearly impact the characters and the challenges they face. Don't miss this book if you can help it. It is a lush and real treat!

I was pleasantly surprised by Sister Carrie as a character study and a commentary on the social restrictions forced upon women during the late 1800's. Carrie's experience was so similar to my own situation when job hunting in the mid-1960's that the book could easily have been written about me. Carrie's decisions to use the men in her life who offered an easier life made sense to me, given her ambition and lack of opportunity for self-expression. All of the men in this book willingly gave everything to Carrie without asking her for commitment in return. Their characters and goals were different, but the development of Carrie's relationships with each man taught her how to grow as a woman. Dreiser had genius in writing his characters vividly and sympathetically. None of the men was a beast or cruel, just a simple human man trying to possess a woman who had different ideas about what her life should be. I found this book much more compelling and deep than I'd expected it to be. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in great literature, especially to those interested in literature about women finding their place in a male-dominant society.

Perfettamente integro

A wonderful read. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't recommend this book! enough. Couldn't put it down once I started reading it.

Das Buch traf rechtzeitig ein. Qualität und Preis waren ausgezeichnet. Da ist es sehr schwierig noch mehr Text zu erstellen..

Sister Carrie, published in 1900, was Dreiser’s first novel, and what a deep novel it is. It follows a clear narrative journey, has completely believable characters, the central ones of whom are particularly complex, nuanced and perfectly credible as recognisable individuals – but we also absolutely see the history and culture of time and place acting on them, moulding them, influencing and shaping them. Choices may be made, which seem individual, but the freedom of expression may be more circumscribed than some characters – or some readers – may believe. Carrie is a young rural girl, who comes to Chicago in 1889, to stay with her sister and her brother-in-law. Carrie has ambition, she is a young woman of beauty and some delicacy, wanting to improve her status and opportunities. She aspires to some kind of clerical office job, or perhaps as a sales assistant in one of the burgeoning glossy department stores. Unfortunately, her poverty and lack of experience are against her. It is an employer’s market, and all she can get is dirty, badly paid, unskilled factory work, exploited and working in impossibly harsh conditions. Dreiser, writing with irony, looks back on the 1889 working conditions and compares them to the more enlightened thinking of ‘now’ (1900): “The place smelled of the oil of the machines and the new leather – a combination which added to by the stale odours of the building, was not pleasant, even in cold weather. The floor, though regularly swept each evening, presented a littered surface. Not the slightest provision had been made for the comfort of the employees, the idea being that something was gained by giving them as little and making the work as hard and unremunerative as possible. What we know of footrests, swivel-back chairs, dining rooms for the girls, clean aprons and curling irons supplied free, and a decent cloak room, were unthought of. The wash rooms and lavatories were disagreeable, crude, if not foul places, and the whole atmosphere of hard contract” Another writer with a socialist, humane ideology, Upton Sinclair, in his famous book The Jungle, set also in Chicago, in the meat processing industry, and published in 1906, rather shows the ‘atmosphere of hard contract’ had not changed in the intervening years, so Dreiser was writing at a time when, practically, those footrests, dining rooms, clean lavatories and the rest, were still unthought of in factories. Dreiser’s particular focus in this book though, is on women, on the circumscribed choices available to women, and how poverty and want may drive a woman to make a living by selling herself. He explores the different power dynamic between men and women, and also the different morality expected of the sexes. I discovered with interest that though Sister Carrie found a publisher, the book was considered too hot – or even too offensive – to handle, and was expurgated What 1900 society found so offensive in Dreiser’s writing was his refusal to act the moralist, thundering down abuse on this fallen woman – instead, he reminds us how society itself creates the world in which the Carries must make this choice. There are three major figures in this book, Carrie herself, the travelling salesman Charles Drouet and the sophisticated bar manager G.W. Hurstwood, looked up to by both Carrie and Drouet. Hurstwood is a man beginning to move in circles near the people of greater power, celebrity and wealth. In fact, the adulation of celebrity, and its shallowness, so symptomatic of our own age, is also laid out here. I found the authorial voice, and the wide ranging evidence of Dreiser’s sophisticated, nuanced thinking, as fascinating and absorbing as the story of Carrie and Hurstwood, the trajectory of their entwined histories. The first section of the book has Carrie, starting from a kind of point of lowliness and desperation, and follows her rise (looked at one way) which might also be considered her fall. When she first meets Hurstwood, his star is in the ascendant, and life is rosy, and showing every possibility of getting rosier, for him. From thence, the fortunes of the two, initially linked, begin to travel in different directions. It is Hurstwood who becomes the major focus, and the drift of his story also offers a glimpse into early twentieth century capitalism in America, and the hard fought struggles of labour to achieve fair wages, fair conditions I must admit that Dreiser’s style is style is not always the most flowing, and he isn’t a writer of what appears to be so well and beautifully crafted that the writing seems effortlessly poised, but what at times may be rough-hewn has honesty, and the ‘stuff’ of his writing is powerful, important and necessary. I found this an absorbing, humane, compassionate and thought provoking read Finally, kindly alerted by other reviewers, I did NOT get this on Kindle, and went for a second hand market place seller paperback, for readability instead of poorly formatted eread!

When the heroine, Carrie, was first introduced as a naive small-town girl heading to Chicago and falling for the advances of a travelling salesman on the train, I was worried that this would be a simple tragedy, where the helpless Carrie gets chewed up by the big city and ruined. Fortunately, the book is a lot more interesting than that. Carrie does suffer, she does get disillusioned, but she also fights back and makes a concerted attempt to find happiness, and the results are far from predictable. Some of the men who try to prey on her end up as victims themselves, while Carrie experiences a real mix of good luck and bad. Dreiser's writing style is a little verbose by modern standards, but still the story moves along quickly enough. The author also puts in some moral judgments and quasi-scientific explanations for the characters' actions, things which a modern writer would leave out but which work fine as artefacts of the age. The story was compelling and unpredictable, and I'm glad I read it.