Sister Carrie

by Dreiser, Theodore; Kazin, Alfred; Berkey, John C.; Winters, Charles D.; West, James

• ISBN13: 9780140188288
• ISBN10: 0140188282
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-08-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Theodore Dreiser's first and perhaps most accessible novel, Sister Carrie is an epic of urban life - the story of an innocent heroine adrift in an indifferent city. When small-town girl Carrie Meeber sets out for Chicago, she is equipped with nothing but a few dollars, a certain unspoiled beauty and charm, and a pitiful lack of preparation for the complex moral choices she will face.

Author Biography

Theodore Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871. After a poor and difficult childhood, Dreiser broke into newspaper work in Chicago in 1892. A successful career as a magazine writer in New York during the late 1890s was followed by his first novel, Sister Carrie (1900). When this work made little impact, Dreiser published no fiction until Jennie Gerhardt in 1911. There then followed a decade and a half of major work in a number of literary forms, which was capped in 1925 by An American Tragedy, a novel that brought him universal acclaim. Dreiser was increasingly preoccupied by philosophical and political issues during the last two decades of his life. He died in Los Angeles on December 28, 1945.

Table of Contents

The Magnet Attracting: A Waif Amid Forces	p. 1
What Poverty Threatened: Of Granite and Brass	p. 8
Wee Question of Fortune: Four-Fifty a Week	p. 12
The Spendings of Fancy: Facts Answer with Sneers	p. 20
A Glittering Night Flower: The Use of a Name	p. 30
The Machine and the Maiden: A Knight of To-day	p. 35
The Lure of the Material: Beauty Speaks for Itself	p. 45
Intimations by Winter: An Ambassador Summoned	p. 53
Convention's Own Tinder-box: The Eye That Is Green	p. 59
The Counsel of Winter: Fortune's Ambassador Calls	p. 64
The Persuasion of Fashion: Feeling Guards O'er Its Own	p. 71
Of the Lamps of the Mansions: The Ambassador's Plea	p. 78
His Credentials Accepted: A Babel of Tongues	p. 85
With Eyes and Not Seeing: One Influence Wanes	p. 92
The Irk of the Old Ties: The Magic of Youth	p. 98
A Witless Aladdin: The Gate to the World	p. 107
A Glimpse Through the Gateway: Hope Lightens the Eye	p. 113
Just Over the Border: A Hail and Farewell	p. 120
An Hour in Elfland: A Clamour Half Heard	p. 124
The Lure of the Spirit: The Flesh in Pursuit	p. 134
The Lure of the Spirit: The Flesh in Pursuit	p. 141
The Blaze of the Tinder: Flesh Wars with the Flesh	p. 144
A Spirit in Travail: One Rung Put Behind	p. 153
Ashes of Tinder: A Face at the Window	p. 162
Ashes of Tinder: The Loosing of Stays	p. 165
The Ambassador Fallen: A Search for the Gate	p. 169
When Waters Engulf Us We Reach for a Star	p. 178
A Pilgrim, an Outlaw: The Spirit Detained	p. 186
The Solace of Travel: The Boats of the Sea	p. 194
The Kingdom of Greatness: The Pilgrim Adream	p. 204
A Pet of Good Fortune: Broadway Flaunts Its Joys	p. 210
The Feast of Belshazzar: A Seer to Translate	p. 217
Without the Walled City: The Slope of the Years	p. 228
The Grind of the Millstones: A Sample of Chaff	p. 234
The Passing of Effort: The Visage of Care	p. 241
A Grim Retrogression: The Phantom of Chance	p. 249
The Spirit Awakens: New Search for the Gate	p. 257
In Elf Land Disporting: The Grim World Without	p. 263
Of Lights and of Shadows: The Parting of Worlds	p. 271
A Public Dissension: A Final Appeal	p. 280
The Strike	p. 286
A Touch of Spring: The Empty Shell	p. 299
The World Turns Flatterer: An Eye in the Dark	p. 306
And This Is Not Elf Land: What Gold Will Not Buy	p. 313
Curious Shifts of the Poor	p. 320
Stirring Troubled Waters	p. 331
The Way of the Beaten: A Harp in the Wind	p. 340
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