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The Job
book
327 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1917
68 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
About the author
Sinclair Lewis
509 books1,120 followersNovelist Harry Sinclair Lewis satirized middle-class America in his 22 works, including
Babbitt
(1922) and
Elmer Gantry
(1927) and first received a Nobel Prize for literature in 1930.
Middle-class values and materialism attach unthinking George F. Babbitt, the narrow-minded, self-satisfied main character person in the novel of Sinclair Lewis.
People awarded "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."
He knowingly, insightfully, and critically viewed capitalism and materialism between the wars. People respect his strong characterizations of modern women.
Henry Louis Mencken wrote, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade...it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclai...
Middle-class values and materialism attach unthinking George F. Babbitt, the narrow-minded, self-satisfied main character person in the novel of Sinclair Lewis.
People awarded "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."
He knowingly, insightfully, and critically viewed capitalism and materialism between the wars. People respect his strong characterizations of modern women.
Henry Louis Mencken wrote, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade...it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclai...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 24, 2025
I love the unique, almost sarcastic writing style of Lewis. This is one of his early works, and some may find it outdated. The book examines the beliefs and values of early 20th-century America. It follows the life of a young woman who, because of her circumstances, becomes a stenographer and breadwinner, defying the accepted norms of the time.
June 2, 2015
Una is unforgettable, that's for sure. In a way, she reminds me very much of Tarkington's "Alice Adams." No, Alice and Una don't have much in common--Una lives in the real world--a world that Alice has only visited once or maybe twice in her life.
What they both are is real. You come away knowing them inside out. You know what they think, how they speak, what they like, what they don't like. It is amazing that two men managed to capture the spirit and essence of these two very different young women so well.
Guess that's the reason for the Nobel and the Pulitzer, huh?
What they both are is real. You come away knowing them inside out. You know what they think, how they speak, what they like, what they don't like. It is amazing that two men managed to capture the spirit and essence of these two very different young women so well.
Guess that's the reason for the Nobel and the Pulitzer, huh?
October 25, 2011
Reading about the career of Una Golden was interesting; like his other novels, very dated, but it presents a snapshot of what America was like in the early 20th Century. Reading her adventures in commercial school, job hunting, early office jobs, etc. showed that some things remain the same after a century - soul-killing office work. Her romantic affairs seemed contrived, and the ending when Walter Babson, her first love, turns up, is ridiculous. I wondered if Babson is Lewis. The use of roman a clef - the department store is "Wanamacy's" and so forth ("The Zodiac Building" and the "Septimus Building" - not sure what they are supposed to be) also weak. Patronizing and bigoted view of Jews, Italians and "darkies." Good description of a packed subway car ride. Not as condescending or cynical as some of the other novels by Lewis, or I'm getting used to the narrator's voice.
February 22, 2012
Classic Lewis. I love his writing and his stories of "woman alone in the big, bad city." Set in the first decade of the 20th century in New York, The Job looks at an American woman's career options: work a relatively meaningless job until you find a husband, or commit to a lifelong, relatively flat secretarial career and remain a spinster.
It's amazing how much has changed, yet how many little pieces ring true today.
It's amazing how much has changed, yet how many little pieces ring true today.
September 14, 2007
The setting is New York City, the time period is just pre-WWI, and the heroine Una is a New Woman who leaves her small town with her widowed mother and strikes out as a stenographer in the Big City. Along the way she loves and loses her True Love, makes a mistake of a marriage, and finally finds her way as a Career Woman. I think this is an interesting read for anyone who wants to learn more about the details of life for working women in the early part of the 20th century and isn't turned off by a Horatio-Alger sort of tale. I found ending plot twist a little sudden, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book.
Period odds and ends from the book - Sinclair Lewis makes (somewhat delicate) references to sexually transmitted disease and of birth control. In passing, we find out that a woman's boarding house has no problem admitting Jews but won't take Catholics. Long Island is so far from the city, in commuting terms, that when Una is sent there for work, she has to set up a place to live there. While a single working girl, our heroine vacations in a bed and breakfast in the countryside, where it seems like everyone else also comes alone and spends their holiday hanging out and going to social events with their fellow travelers in the inn - a very different version of a summer getaway.
Period odds and ends from the book - Sinclair Lewis makes (somewhat delicate) references to sexually transmitted disease and of birth control. In passing, we find out that a woman's boarding house has no problem admitting Jews but won't take Catholics. Long Island is so far from the city, in commuting terms, that when Una is sent there for work, she has to set up a place to live there. While a single working girl, our heroine vacations in a bed and breakfast in the countryside, where it seems like everyone else also comes alone and spends their holiday hanging out and going to social events with their fellow travelers in the inn - a very different version of a summer getaway.
January 13, 2009
Just finished this. Very good. If you enjoyed Arrowsmith and Main Street you'll enjoy this one.
June 18, 2012
Just read this early work by Lewis. Truly progressive piece (1917) about a woman struggling to make her place in the world of work.
November 6, 2024
Fantastic book! Loved the character development and twists along the way. This was the happy ending I needed on the day after the election. Just read it and you’ll know what I mean. Una Golden represents an early 20th century Kamala Harris that had me hopeful!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2016
Mostly depressing and meandering. At some point, there appears to be some point. But, in general, it's not clear. It seems like the thesis really is "Even though the world is unfair and unreasonable, if you work hard, you will still be rewarded immeasurably even if you also failed to work hard for most of your life." Confusing.
The most consistent part of the book was Lewis's criticism of people critical of novelists like him. Over and over again, he really goes after people who think novel-writing is easy or depressing and "realistic" fiction meant to teach lessons are unpleasant and bad.
The most consistent part of the book was Lewis's criticism of people critical of novelists like him. Over and over again, he really goes after people who think novel-writing is easy or depressing and "realistic" fiction meant to teach lessons are unpleasant and bad.
December 6, 2012
Zadie Smith confessed she was a kind of a writer who nurtured the beginning of her novels and then let her stories thrive. She admitted that the quality of the middle and the end of her novels would be inferior to the beginning. I feel the same way about Lewis' works. The beginning of The Job was charming and poetic, towards Una's marriage with Schwirtz and the end, I thought Lewis could have put in more work.
This may be a subjective thing, but what kind of ghastly name is "Una?" I could think of thousands of prettier names than that.
This may be a subjective thing, but what kind of ghastly name is "Una?" I could think of thousands of prettier names than that.
March 12, 2021
This was one of Sinclair Lewis' earlier books but very recognizably written in his distinctive style. Most of his work was satirical looks at modern living (which for him was the very early 1900's) and the topic for this book was the emergence of women in the workplace. It followed young Una Golden who moved to New York to learn stenography so she could get a job and her slow often exasperating climb to success. This was written at a time when women were expected to marry and become subservient to their husbands and was the main point of Lewis' satire.
June 16, 2012
Woops, I finished this book awhile ago and forgot to mark it. A good book if you're interested in the time period in which it's set (~1910), especially as regards women in the workforce. It's aged a little awkwardly, though it's still very clever. Sinclair Lewis was actually the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and I'm a little surprised he's not better known.
December 20, 2015
Curious little story. Set in a time when 'business' meant a pragmatic way of thinking. People found their position somewhere in a huge machinery and believed the tide would carry them into a meaningful future.
Consider the class society that preceded this faith.
Alas, we know now where this kind of thinking will end us up.
Neat study of the pre-WW1 times.
Consider the class society that preceded this faith.
Alas, we know now where this kind of thinking will end us up.
Neat study of the pre-WW1 times.
October 14, 2007
About a career woman in 1920's New York. One of the first novels about feminism.
July 4, 2011
Interesting take on the life decisions of women in the early 1900's: be an old maid secretary or get married to escape the deadend female career ladder.
July 5, 2018
Written 101 years ago, "The Job" is, to me, a book that probably needs hardcore footnotes to help place it in a more specific context. There are two things going on here that are somewhat foreign to me. One is the sociological context, whereby the heroine, Una Golden rises from a New York stenographer to a 'business woman'. Lewis presents her struggles in a male-dominated world in very black and white terms as Una does anything-but claw her way to the top. Her encounters with men and bosses, which we would now consider cliche, were probably very institutional at the time. So, readers must be willing to deal with serial insults and putdowns so that Lewis can get his point across in a not so subtle fashion.
The second is the literary context. Needless to say, a book of this age if filled with many cliches and old-fashioned argot that sounds alien today. Furthermore, I suspect that Lewis was bound by certain laws or mores of the time that causes much of the conflict in the book to seem very sugary when he wanted to pull out his knife and go for the throat.
For most of the book, I actually did not care much for Una and much of her self-imposed weakness. But, as she learns her way about the man's world of business, she becomes more interesting and likable. Most of this occurs about two-thirds of the way through. While the end is very satisfying, the last page seems like Lewis, who was not as emboldened as he later would be in his career, is conforming to literary devices of the day.
If you are a big Lewis fan, like I am, I do recommend "The Job". While not his best, most ever-lasting novels, it is far from his worst.
The second is the literary context. Needless to say, a book of this age if filled with many cliches and old-fashioned argot that sounds alien today. Furthermore, I suspect that Lewis was bound by certain laws or mores of the time that causes much of the conflict in the book to seem very sugary when he wanted to pull out his knife and go for the throat.
For most of the book, I actually did not care much for Una and much of her self-imposed weakness. But, as she learns her way about the man's world of business, she becomes more interesting and likable. Most of this occurs about two-thirds of the way through. While the end is very satisfying, the last page seems like Lewis, who was not as emboldened as he later would be in his career, is conforming to literary devices of the day.
If you are a big Lewis fan, like I am, I do recommend "The Job". While not his best, most ever-lasting novels, it is far from his worst.
November 19, 2021
I learned A LOT about a time, place and social strata that interests me.... and that is why I read old novels!
I really cannot comprehend those reviewers who feel that it is incumbent on them to point out where the author differs from modern standards of political correctness or make comments on how the novel is "dated" .... If they want a modern perspective perhaps they should stick to reading a modern novels!
But as C.S. Lewis said when explaining why this would be a bad idea, "If you join at eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said... None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books.... The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us."
I'm glad I read "The Job" so soon after Edna Ferber's books "Fanny Herself" and "So Big" and Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "The Homemaker." Each of these books, written in the 1920s, concerns women in business but each has a very, very different perspective.
I really cannot comprehend those reviewers who feel that it is incumbent on them to point out where the author differs from modern standards of political correctness or make comments on how the novel is "dated" .... If they want a modern perspective perhaps they should stick to reading a modern novels!
But as C.S. Lewis said when explaining why this would be a bad idea, "If you join at eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said... None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books.... The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us."
I'm glad I read "The Job" so soon after Edna Ferber's books "Fanny Herself" and "So Big" and Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "The Homemaker." Each of these books, written in the 1920s, concerns women in business but each has a very, very different perspective.
November 14, 2025
A jewel of a short novel about a young woman from the provinces trying to make her way in the, mostly, grinding, soul-destroying and alienating world of office work in New York in the 1910s. Lewis is a wonderful writer and is rightly revered and, at least when I was doing my degree, (decades ago!) a well-deserved part of American lit syllabuses. He was a socialist, and many of his novels deal with the humanity and individuality of seemingly 'ordinary ' people as they struggle to find their place and keep their head above water in the early 20thc market driven and ruthless consumerist economy of the US at the time. 'The Job' is no exception, and the understanding, empathy and warmth Lewis shows in his depiction of the female protagonist is a very appealing aspect of this book. I highly recommend it, and it reminded me a little of the much wider ranging and more tragic, (excuse the pun, but this is what it is) 'An American Tragedy' by Theodore Dreiser. (which I now feel like re-reading)
November 4, 2020
I seldom read classics, but The Job is making me rethink this habit.
This book tells the story of a small-town girl who heads to New York after her father’s death, not long before World War One. It follows her path from secretarial school to living in poverty during her first job to success as a business leader. It also features her internal conflict between hungering for romance and needing to keep her independence. I really enjoyed how she grew and developed over the course of the novel.
I read the book for historical research reasons and was surprised to enjoy it so much. It certainly does open a window to a different time. There are references to minorities which have not aged well, so if that bothers you, steer clear of this book.
If history bores you, or you expect people from a century ago to think like modern ones, you should probably knock a star from my rating to arrive at your’s.
This book tells the story of a small-town girl who heads to New York after her father’s death, not long before World War One. It follows her path from secretarial school to living in poverty during her first job to success as a business leader. It also features her internal conflict between hungering for romance and needing to keep her independence. I really enjoyed how she grew and developed over the course of the novel.
I read the book for historical research reasons and was surprised to enjoy it so much. It certainly does open a window to a different time. There are references to minorities which have not aged well, so if that bothers you, steer clear of this book.
If history bores you, or you expect people from a century ago to think like modern ones, you should probably knock a star from my rating to arrive at your’s.
December 22, 2022
Written over a hundred years ago yet his description is very similar to what is currently happening in the office work place. I loved when Una left her position from one office to go to another and the boss used the quotes from the little red manual that all bosses receive to tell employees "what a mistake they are making for leaving their current position." I heard those same words once when I made the choice to leave. The characters in the workplace are the same people we encounter today. It is nice to see that we have made progress in bettering our lives but at the same time we still have a long way to go. Great story and enjoy reading!
February 6, 2023
I do not think this is a good book. I did not enjoy reading it. It is very negative and depressing most of the time. Every character in the book is described negatively. So readers don't really like any of
them. The main character Uma's life is very boring and/or pathetic for most of the book. There is not much of a plot. It just follows Uma and we do see how see either changes or discovers who she is and does finally get out of her boring pathetic life. There is commentary on some issues of the day. There are words in the book that I have no idea what they mean. I do NOT recommend reading this book.
them. The main character Uma's life is very boring and/or pathetic for most of the book. There is not much of a plot. It just follows Uma and we do see how see either changes or discovers who she is and does finally get out of her boring pathetic life. There is commentary on some issues of the day. There are words in the book that I have no idea what they mean. I do NOT recommend reading this book.
January 23, 2026
This is an early 20th century coming of age story of a young woman who leaves her small town and moves to New York City. She is somewhat well educated for that time and is way ahead of her time on ambition and skill set. Una Golden becomes a stenographer who moves up steadily because of her professionalism and willingness to work. We see her through some love interests, extended family issues, marriages and life in general. Her gentle tenacity wins most situations but it is disheartening to read about some issues that after 100 years are still present in the workplace and life.
October 8, 2017
Fascinating. A view of what it was like to be a woman trying to make her way in the working world a century ago. I am a huge Sinclair Lews fan, Babbitt being one of my favorite novels. His sympathy for regular folks and commitment to writing truth without exaggeration or sugar coating are rare and precious.
September 21, 2018
Had to read this for my book club. There is a lot of tell and very little show. The personality of every character is described in great detail, but we don't really get to form our own opinions based on their words or actions. The final third of the book is the most interesting, but then we're slammed with a ridiculous ending.
February 4, 2018
What an interesting story, written over 100 years ago (1917) and depicting a woman who was a feminist, a strong person, and very independent. I enjoyed it and was amazed at the similarities, in some ways, to life today.
August 8, 2024
this is a snapshot of the life of an american woman without much income just prior to WWI. the plot is nothing to rave about, but the writing and the use of language definitely makes this early sinclair lewis worth reading.
October 13, 2024
The story follows the life of a young woman making her way in the business world of New York in the early 1900s. A fascinating look at the budding feminist movement and the difficulties of women trying to earn a living in a world of men.
March 13, 2018
4.3 Stars
March 15, 2019
The Job
An interesting story of the difficult world of women in the work force. A lot still true today. A classic story.
An interesting story of the difficult world of women in the work force. A lot still true today. A classic story.
October 10, 2019
Loved this early career woman and the glimpse of early 20th C NYC.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews