Sister Carrie
by Theodore Dreiser
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Read in February, 2008
I read this book for my book club, and it's definitely one I would not have read otherwise. But, I'm very glad I read it. It's not one of the greatest books I've read and I didn't like any of the characters, but it was well-written, for the most part, and - I've learned - had a huge influence on American literature.
The themes are timeless and it's sad to see how little our society has changed in the last century-plus. Our priorities (as a whole) are just as out-of-whack now as they were the...more
The themes are timeless and it's sad to see how little our society has changed in the last century-plus. Our priorities (as a whole) are just as out-of-whack now as they were the...more
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"Sister Carrie is the story of 18-year-old Carrie Meeber, a girl from a small town who comes to live with her sister and her husband in Chicago, in order to find work. Overwhelmed by the lack of interesting, well-paid work for someone with no experience, she winds up working in a shoe factory and is almost immediately thrown into despair by the long hours of mindless, back-breaking work and appalling working conditions.[return][return]On the train to Chicago, she met George Drouet, a fairly...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
This is a classic that I could read over and over again. What a story! If you haven't read it, you should! The story not only captures the reader into the story, it gives you a deep sense of mans crazy nature.
I just finished reading this one again. I first read it 7 years ago, and felt is was time to try it again. Dreiser really speaks to my soul!!
"Oh Carrie, Carrie! Oh blind strivings of the human heart! Onward onward, it saith, and where beauty leads, there it follows. W...more
I just finished reading this one again. I first read it 7 years ago, and felt is was time to try it again. Dreiser really speaks to my soul!!
"Oh Carrie, Carrie! Oh blind strivings of the human heart! Onward onward, it saith, and where beauty leads, there it follows. W...more
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Read in June, 2008
Sister Carrie is a deceptively good book. It starts out looking like a simple morality play about the evils of the big city but Carrie is no innocent girl from the country. Apparently Carrie's willingness to use people to better herself without any thought of the consequences caused quite a scandal in its day (1900) and the original manuscript had to be toned down before it could even be published. The 1927 edition I read most certainly was the edited version but it was still modern, crass and e...more
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Read in January, 2008
OK, this is an old book, a "classic" many people were forced to read in high school or college. I picked it up when I was home visiting my parents. I don't know why I love Victorian novels so much. Characters, their intentions and their actions are explained TO DEATH and it can feel very claustrophobic to read them sometimes. There's not a ton that's left open to interpretation. In this novel. Dreiser tells you exactly what kind of person Carrie is—emotionally intelligent—and exact...more
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Read in January, 1998
I appreciated Sister Carrie for its searing portrait of a young woman whose innocence and self-worth is ravished by the realities of the urban environment.
I think the saddest aspect of the story is that success for a woman in cities like Chicago and New York is inevitably intertwined with sin and moral decay. Carrie achieves the glamorous lifestyle that she coveted from afar only to learn that her dream is not worth aspiring towards, as it leaves her calloused, inured and empty. On a lesser ...more
I think the saddest aspect of the story is that success for a woman in cities like Chicago and New York is inevitably intertwined with sin and moral decay. Carrie achieves the glamorous lifestyle that she coveted from afar only to learn that her dream is not worth aspiring towards, as it leaves her calloused, inured and empty. On a lesser ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
recommends it for:
people of all ages! There is a fun character for everyone here!
"Poor Sister Carrie!"
That line makes me laugh. Because what Carrie's sister doesn't know is that Carrie will be quite fine on her own. Or by mooching off different men. Or whatever. Regardless, there's no reason to feel sorry for the girl!
I was really shocked at how much I enjoyed this novel. I'm not completely anti-period pieces, so I'm sure that's half the battle. Drieser does a great job with his descriptions and with Carrie's spunk and all the interesting turns of ev...more
That line makes me laugh. Because what Carrie's sister doesn't know is that Carrie will be quite fine on her own. Or by mooching off different men. Or whatever. Regardless, there's no reason to feel sorry for the girl!
I was really shocked at how much I enjoyed this novel. I'm not completely anti-period pieces, so I'm sure that's half the battle. Drieser does a great job with his descriptions and with Carrie's spunk and all the interesting turns of ev...more
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Read in November, 2003
I would recommend this book to people interested in the concept of the city. Although its notoriety stems from its "naturalistic" depiction of the characters, I thought it was the depcition of the urban environment of Chicago and New York which stood out.
While the intertwined fates of Carrie, Drouet and Hurstwood occupy the foreground of this book, I found myself consistently drawn to the back ground.
Since Dreiser came up as a newspaperman, this makes a certain amount of sens...more
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Read in June, 2008
This book was written in 1901. Dreiser obtained a publishing contract, however, the book was never distributed because the wife of the publisher read it and objected to its scandalous content. Sister Carrie lives with two men without the benefit of marriage, which was the objection. It didn't see the light of day for another fifteen years.
The theme of the book is that happiness, security, and peace cannot be obtained through depending on and seeking after conventional trappings of "beau...more
The theme of the book is that happiness, security, and peace cannot be obtained through depending on and seeking after conventional trappings of "beau...more
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An experimental and challenging turn-of-the-century novel, featuring a woman who lives the Wages of Sin lifestyle and never pays for it; rather, she and her lovers rise and fall in society at the whims of economics. As you can imagine, this book occupies a pretty high rank on the "Most Banned" list. Engaging, relevant and intelligent.
On an academic note, it's very interesting to see how novels could look, sound, and move back before the standards for quality fiction had been establ...more
On an academic note, it's very interesting to see how novels could look, sound, and move back before the standards for quality fiction had been establ...more
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Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
everyone
Theodore Dreiser is one of my favorite authors and Sister Carrie is his best book. So many reasons to love it. Every character in the story is so well defined -- you love and hate them all at the same time. What sticks with me about this book is how Hurstwood sinks into such a decline -- watching him crumble apart in front of your eyes and seeing him basically throw his hands up helplessly, like he can do nothing to stop it. You start to hate him for it -- much like I started to hate my ex-h...more
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I was looking around my room last night, and I saw Sister Carrie. I think the memories are almost more important than the book. If you go into my parents' living room, there are two floor to ceiling bookshelves. Filled with books that I would take to my room to read, convinced I was being naughty to touch the "good books." One of these was Sister Carrie. Looking back, maybe I shouldn't have been trying to read this at 10 and at 11 and at 12...but by 14 it was mine! Some books just...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
no one
Although good for the first 200 pages, Dreiser should have stopped while he was ahead. This book is incredibly and unnecessarily lengthy, dragging on and on until the reader wonders why Carrie didn't just submit to a tragic, suicidal death long ago, like her other heroines of her time. I know Dreiser was trying to make a point, but by the time I got to the end at page 600-something (and over a year after picking up the book)... I had quite forgotten what it was. I'm really glad I didn't waste ti...more
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Read in January, 2002
This is Dreiser's first novel. It's truly remarkable. I recommend the Penguin edition, with Alfred Kazin's introduction. Kazin writes of "Dreiser's view of the modern soul merging into a situation from which the mind, the soul, the affections, remain detached. Classical tragedy was based on human insufficiency; modern tragedy is unreflectiveness, apartness in our hearts from the lives we actually live and drive others to live."
And I'll quote Kazin again because I don't know if ...more
And I'll quote Kazin again because I don't know if ...more
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Read in February, 1981
I read this book when I was 30 years. I had just moved to Chicago from the suburbs. My divorce was finalized and my two year old daughter was in the custody of her dad in Elk Grove Village. My car was barely running, I was paying child support, working temp jobs as a secretary and picking my daughter up every weekend to spend time with me. I related in many ways to both characters though I didn't agree with or understand all of their choices. My favorite character and the one that had the m...more
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Read in April, 2008
This book was a bit racy at times, a little too much for me. However, it really interested me to read about Carrie because she was quite the people watcher.
Having a secret longing for wanting to be an actress, she pays a lot of attention to what the men around her are looking for and admiring in other women. She picks up on tiny traits and quirks and emulates them. But by doing this she begins to resent men and also begins to feel a little bit, well cocky.
I think knowing this published...more
Having a secret longing for wanting to be an actress, she pays a lot of attention to what the men around her are looking for and admiring in other women. She picks up on tiny traits and quirks and emulates them. But by doing this she begins to resent men and also begins to feel a little bit, well cocky.
I think knowing this published...more
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The story of a silly woman laden down with sins and led away by diverse lusts, preyed upon by a selfish, supposedly kindly sensualist and a man who lusts after her beauty (though he has his own wife) and is reduced to poverty, starvation, and ultimately suicide. It has good descriptions of different classes in it, and of the cities of Chicago and New York around the turn of the century. There were a couple of awkward spots in the writing, but overall it was good. It didn't glorify the badness of...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
no one
in high school, or maybe a little later, i read, and tremendously enjoyed 'american tragedy' by the same author. i picked this up off my sister's bookshelf at home over a vacation, and was so disappointed. i could not get excited for carrie when she prevailed,and i didn't feel sorry for the men she left behind her. i was completely unmoved by this story, and felt it was a runner up to AT. the problem is, i'm not sure if the discrepancy in my level of satisfaction with these two novels has anythi...more
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Read in May, 2008
So So I'm into a paper on this but the whole American REALISM deal of the 19th century is bogus. Henry Jame is good cause he's Henry James and that is only if you like him. I do as a writer. He is whacked out an neurotic but a good writer and he foreshadowed a lot of things coming later as far as style and interior and all. Dreiser I suppose was braver than most of his day but so much of it is WASP white people lost is some weird propriety and corrupt Anglo Saxon manners. Going through the motio...more
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Read in September, 2007
I read this to learn about turn-of-the-century New York and the growth of the industrial American city in general. It is useful for this project in two ways: (1) in that it describes the culture -- material and otherwise -- of Chicago and New York in extreme detail; (2) in that it is an example of literature that offended and provoked contemporary urban publishers and readers.
I give five stars to most literature because it seems reasonable, not being a writer or a student of literature, to ...more
I give five stars to most literature because it seems reasonable, not being a writer or a student of literature, to ...more
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