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Summary: An American Version of Anna Karenina
Review: This equisite novel quickly worked its way onto my favorite books of all time list, ranking among Anna Karenina. Hurstwood's character reminded me much of a male version of Anna, and I believe Dreiser did an EXCELLENT job at writing his demise. The novel drips irony off every page. Hurstwood and Carrie have more or less switched social positions by the end of the novel. In order to understand the full value of the novel, and why it is so daring and ahead of its time, the reader MUST remove himself from today's time period. I compare this novel to Anna Karenina because much like Tolstoy wrote of Anna's demise in society, Dreiser writes of Hurstwood's demise in society: the new industrial America. On the other hand, Carrie was achieving unspeakable status all on her own. This was unheard of by a woman at the turn of the century.The second half of the novel Dreiser develops the theme of chance, and how it led Carrie, Hurstwood, and Drouet to where they are in life. Unfortunately, he does not ever return to Carrie's sister. I would have liked to learn a little more about her and her family as well as where times took them. Dreiser also explores Carrie's fascination with materialism. Probably one of my favorite parts of the novel was when Carrie realized money wouldn't buy her happiness. Here Dreiser reflects Camus' ideas of happiness versus reality. No matter what she bought, it was never enough, and Carrie was never able to achieve the happiness she dreamed of. "In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel." All in all, this book is an excellent read. Anyone wishing to find a book to fall in love with-- the characters, the setting, plot, etc.-- this book is a must. It is an easy and quick read filled with much more than what merely appears on the surface. Sister Carrie is a story of love, deceit, greed, violence, and much more. Definitely read it.
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Summary: Money and manners, Ã la Dreiser
Review: "Sister Carrie", first published 100 years ago, is Theodore Dreiser's ironic story of the acquisition and loss of wealth in a country devoted to commerce and pleasure. No one ever accused Dreiser of being sparkling -- one of my reference books calls him "ponderous" -- but he had the strength of his convictions, and he was convinced that American materialism was the root of American unhappiness. Caroline Meeber is a country mouse who, coming to Chicago in search of work, is pounced upon by big-city cats, including a flashy traveling salesman straight out of back-room jokes. When Charles Drouet seduces Carrie, it seems more like he's adopting a pet, she's so innocently compliant. And when she becomes involved with his friend George Hurstwood, it seems incredible she doesn't suspect that this middle-aged affluent man is probably married (or that Drouet doesn't reveal it to her long before he does). It is Hurstwood's abandonment of his family and embezzlement from his employers that is the plot's turning point. With his stolen money, Hurstwood and Carrie escape to New York, he to ultimate destitution, she to stardom on the stage. All this is interesting but terribly dry, like flowers pressed in a book. The main problem in "Sister Carrie" is Carrie herself, who's such a passive character it's difficult to feel much for her. Even her success in the theatre seems to just sort of happen. (But, a reader may ask, if Carrie is so boring, how does she become a popular star? Well, turn on prime time TV for ten minutes and there's your answer.) Of course, there is no guarantee that Carrie's alluring situation is going to last -- I kept thinking of Evelyn Nesbit Thaw -- and Dreiser only hints at the fine line between stage work and prostitution a century ago. "Sister Carrie" is worth reading because it's a serious novel of life in a dichotomous society. Dreiser details with equal skill the drudgery of daily toil (not to mention the search for daily toil) and the glittering pursuits of those who can afford Michigan Boulevard and Fifth Avenue. If his style seems a little -- well, ponderous -- it should be remembered he was writing strictly from the brain. Dreiser really seemed to have no warm sympathy for the vagaries of capitalism.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting glimpse into history
Review: This book is an interesting commentary on class relations at the beginning of the 20th century. Having been written at the time, I never got the impression that the author was stretching to capture the ethos of the period. The story of a girl leaving home life to escape poverty and experiencing many changes is one that can also be seen in Hardy's Tess D'Ubervilles and Shaw's Pigmalion. In fact, the author was influenced by those authors. The evolution of the characters is delicately written and extremely convincing. My one complaint would be that the characters are somewhat transparent in terms of their emotions and desires.
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Summary: Better than I expected
Review: I sometimes fear that novels heralded as "classics" may have been great in their time, but no longer have as much wallop. That was my prejudice approaching "Sister Carrie." I'd read "An American Tragedy" years ago and was impressed, though not as much as I'd been led to believe. Thus, I wondered whether Dreiser's "second most famous" novel would be worth the effort. It was. Although firmly set in its time, it is not dated, and the book moves briskly from start to finish. The characters are well drawn, and I found myself drawn into their stories and the choices they made, with the consequences laid out as the novel progresses. Dreiser manages to convey the gritty reality of living in Chicago and New York at the turn of the last century, with the contrasts between wealth and poverty so pronounced. His attention to detail makes the scenes come alive, and he tells the story without being didactic or preachy. For example, there is an episode involving a streetcar strike, which the author tells in a way that makes clear his own political views, yet those views are not crammed down the reader's throat.
This one is worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Rags to Riches
Review: Achieving happiness through worldly goods is a mistake that is often made in society today. In his novel, Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser explores this situation. Dreiser uses many different symbols, themes, and contrasts to teach the moral lesson that happiness lies not in worldly goods, especially when achieved by immoral means. Drieser beautifully states the cycle of Carrie's emotions, which involve first Carrie's aspirations, then her achievement, and then her unhappiness, which makes her aspire to do more. This cycle repeats throughout the novel, and through this cycle Carrie systematically climbs up the social ladder. Therefore, Carrie is the embodiment of the "American Dream" of rags-to-riches which was prevalent in the late 1800's. Dreiser also explores the idea that too much of a longing for something leads to disaster, but desire for the unknown or for improvement is hope, innocence or even a form of redemption. This contrast is shown later in the novel between Carrie and Hurstwood. Dreiser's main point in the novel is a contrast between material goods and true happiness or fulfilment. Because of Dreiser's beautifully created characters, the book has a sense of true reality due to the characteristics of each person in the novel. Carrie is susceptible to bribes, while Hurstwood is the typical working-class husband. Dreiser recounts the contrast of Hurstwood's decline into utter poverty and Carrie's rise to stardom, which becomes a central irony of the book. These two characters, along with all of the rest, are very easy to relate to and help to create a more powerful story. This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys stories of the past and of the struggle of women to find their place in society. This is without a doubt one of my favorite novels. The powerful reality and moral lesson of the story made a lasting impact.
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Summary: surprisingly engaging and fascinating
Review: Sister Carrie is a lovely book. It tells a rather profound story--placed specifically in its time, which was of course the 'Modern Day' for the time it was written. As a result a book that was once a critical document of patterns of behavior of some of the author's contemporaries has become, for better or worse, an important historical chronical of the dangers of selfishness and uninhibited personal ambition. Oh, the story is no longer anything unfamiliar, but the grounding and the character studies make this book very affecting and, true to the ideals of its unfortunate literary designation of 'Naturalism' (a meaningless term which limits instead of explains a readers' expectation, much in the way that science-fiction or horror classify something as not necessisarily what it in fact is), this is a very believable and realistic story. The writing itself, as other readers and critics throughout the past one hundred years or so have repeated when attempting to find fault with Sister Carrie, isn't the most impressive thing about the book. However, in its defense, the cut and dry, occasionally pasted on moments of philosophical conversation and the rugged and perhaps at times inconsistant speech patterns of the various characters somehow, for me, created an even more believable picture, zoning in on those people who attempt to speak both above and beneath their social class and educational backgrounds for either personal gain or in a futile effort to 'fit in'. A wonderful book, because of its flaws, in fact, that reads like a quick-paced and absorbing tale always on the verge of tragedy. That tension, that what-will-happen-next feeling pervades throughout the book and concludes by providing quite an impact indeed.
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Summary: Read it for English class...
Review: In my English 3 honors class, we had to pick a novel out of a list, and then do a big project on it. I chose this book, because the summary that my teacher gave me made it look very interesting. This book took me so long to read, but I still enjoyed it! It ends totally different from the how it starts and there was no way to predict what was going to happen. I'd heard that this book was banned by some when it came out, I didn't find it offensive at all. Maybe women were'nt allowed to have affairs back then?! Overall, I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to any book lover!
Rating:
Summary: A worthy classic
Review: Sometimes you are told to read a book because it is a classic and then it turns out to be really awful. 'Sister Carrie' is a classic, written in 1900. And it still is... it is the great story of Carrie, a Midwestern girl who moves to Chicago, moves in with a man, gets stolen in a way by someone else and moves to New York. It is a story about wealth and poverty and many opposites. She makes her own life, starts out poor and living with her sister to becoming a succesful Broadway star while her husband in NY ends poor and eventually commits suicide. I didn't like it as much as 'An American Tragedy' but it is still very good.
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Summary: A Classic of American Naturalism
Review: Wow. I can't believe how many reviews have been written about this book! 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 sense. The details that Dreiser includes about the day-to-day life in the big city at the turn of the century were worth the price of admission, so to speak. The plot of the novel, concerning Carrie and her rise and fall and rise, was less notable, as far as I'm concerned. This is not a short book, and some of the economic turmoil suffered by the characters tapped in to a larger well spring of fear and anxiety about social status that many Americans(including myself) share. While not what I would call a "fun" read, it is fairly light, and certainly worthwhile.
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Summary: The Heights of Naturalism
Review: It is no mystery why Frank Norris praised to high heaven Theodore Dreiser's 1900 novel "Sister Carrie." Norris, one of America's great naturalist writers, saw in Dreiser's tale about a young woman on the make a reflection of the same bleak vistas he wrote about in "Vandover and the Brute," "The Octopus," and "McTeague." When Dreiser submitted his book for publication, it was Norris who read the book and made a glowing recommendation to the publisher. There were immense problems with "Sister Carrie" from that point forward: the wife of the publisher hated the story and worked hard behind the scenes to prevent its release. With a contract already signed, Dreiser's book did become a reality but the publishing house refused to support it with any marketing. The story languished for years in a paper limbo before finally emerging to great success and acclaim. Thank goodness it did because this may be one of the most powerful books ever written about social climbing and the perils of bad morals. Dreiser went on to publish more novels (American Tragedy, The Financier) before dropping out of the literary scene and converting to communism before his death in 1945. "Sister Carrie" doesn't promise much at the beginning. In fact, this is yet another story about a rural person arriving in the big city seeking fame and fortune. In this case, it is Carrie Meeber, a young woman moving to Chicago to live with her sister and her husband while she tries to find work. Carrie quickly discovers big city life is tough; her sister's home life bores her to death, the work she finds in a shoe factory is pure drudgery, and she doesn't have enough money to buy decent clothes because she has to pay her sister four dollars a week for rent. Carrie hates her base co-workers and spends most of her free time watching people pass on the street outside of her sister's apartment. When Carrie loses her job after an illness, it looks like she will have to return home to Columbia City and forget about her dreams in Chicago. Enter George Drouet, a semi-successful salesman with a voracious appetite for the ladies. George finagled Carrie's address when he met her on the train into Chicago, and now the two meet again by chance. The results of this meeting shape the rest of the book. Carrie abandons her sister's lodgings and becomes "kept" by George. It is during this period that Carrie meets George Hurstwood, the wealthy manager of a fancy Chicago tavern and friend of Drouet. Through a series of misunderstandings about the marriage status of Carrie and Hurstwood, and serious lapses in moral judgments, Hurstwood and Carrie move on to bigger and better things in New York City. It is at this point that Norris must have began enthusing, for Dreiser embarks on a harrowing tour through the destruction of a human being's body and soul. Just when you think a person could sink no lower, Dreiser yanks you back to reality and illustrates for you just how bad things can get before the inevitable occurs. When the author contrasts the utter humiliation of one character with the elevation in status of another, the tension becomes too much to bear. This novel is painful to read, but at the same time it is so riveting it is nearly impossible to put it down. We've all seen or known people who suffered the fates revealed in this story, or at least I have, and that makes it even more chillingly realistic. How Dreiser managed to capture the feel of his characters' lives is a mystery, but that is what makes this book great literature; it is timeless in its examination of the inner workings of the human soul. "Sister Carrie" is classic literature, but that does not mean there are not problems with the story. Dreiser's prose takes some getting used to before it starts to flow. In fact, this may be the best book I have ever read where the prose is often mediocre. I told one person that the author's style reminded me of an intoxicated welder, and I still believe that to be the case for most of the book. Dreiser has a tendency to jam his sentences together into an unwieldy mix of clauses and commas. After a few hundred pages this hardly seems to matter but it could provide a reason for someone just starting the book to quit reading it. Do not quit, however, because the story ends up being so good that the stylistic problems quickly fade into insignificance. Another difficulty involves the middle portion of the story, when Carrie, Drouet, and Hurstwood vie for position with each other. These chapters appreciably drag while providing no clues about the goldmine that soon follows. Looking at the story as a whole, I understand now why these chapters were necessary but I didn't while I was reading them. Again, do not give up too soon lest you miss out on the extraordinary buildup to the soul shattering conclusion. Ultimately, the messages conveyed by Dreiser outweigh the dual problems of prose and a few plodding chapters. The scandalous behavior the author wrote about angered many during his time because people believed that divorce, infidelity, loose morals, and social positioning were things better talked about privately than brought out in the open. The fact that Dreiser wrote such things without delivering a blistering rebuke about such behaviors also stunned society. Perhaps it is not too far off to say that Theodore Dreiser was the Jerry Springer of his generation, merely revealing things that everyone knew happened behind closed doors. Whatever the case may be, "Sister Carrie" is sheer brilliance. I was so fired up after reading this book that I went right out and got "American Tragedy." I now understand why Frank Norris went into paroxysms of delight about Dreiser's book.
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