Main Street - Softcover

Lewis, Sinclair

3.78

25,903 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451518985 ISBN 13: 9780451518989

Publisher: Signet Classics, 1961

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"The lonely predicament of Carol Kennicott, caught between her desires for social reform and individual happiness, reflects the position in which America's turn of the century, emancipated woman, found herself. Carol's dilemma is intensified by the fact that she lives in the small, self-satisfied, Midwestern town of Gopher Prairie. An allegory of exile and return, Main Street attacks the drab complacency and ingrown mores of those who resist change, who are under the illusion that they have chosen their tradition. Carol's ostracism, however, results more from her own guilt at crusading that from her rejection by those whom she would have changed. Maxwell Geismar lauded this work as a remarkable diary of the middle class mind in America. It's author was hailed by John Gaisworth for having written a most searching and excellent piece of work; a feather in the cap of literature." This is from the back cover of this book.

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From the Inside Flap:

This classic by Sinclair Lewis shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire. "Main Street attacks the conformity and dullness of early 20th Century midwestern village life in the story of Carol Milford, the city girl who marries the town doctor. Her efforts to bring culture to the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, and petty small-minded bigotry. Lewis's complex and compelling work established him as an important character in American literature.

About the Author:

Nobel Prize-winning writer Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) is best known for novels like Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith (for which he was awarded but declined the Pulitzer Prize), and Elmer Gantry. A writer from his youth, Lewis wrote for and edited the Yale Literary Magazine while a student, and started his literary career writing popular stories for magazines and selling plots to other writers like Jack London. Lewis s talent for description and creating unique characters won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, making him the first American writer to win the prestigious award. Considered to be one of the greats of American literature, Lewis was honoured with a Great Americans series postage stamp, and his work has been adapted for both stage and screen.

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