- Paperback: 420 pages
- Publisher: Bantam USA (April 1983)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553210580
- ISBN-13: 978-0553210583
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.4 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser's revolutionary first novel, was published in 1900--sort of. The story of Carrie Meeber, an 18-year-old country girl who moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman, was strong stuff at the turn of the century, and what Dreiser's wary publisher released was a highly expurgated version. Times change, and we now have a restored "author's cut" of Sister Carrie that shows how truly ahead of his time Dreiser was. First and foremost, he has written an astute, nonmoralizing account of a woman and her limited options in late-19th-century America. That's impressive in and of itself, but Dreiser doesn't stop there. Digging deeply into the psychological underpinnings of his characters, he gives us people who are often strangers to themselves, drifting numbly until fate pushes them on a path they can later neither defend nor even remember choosing.
Dreiser's story unfolds in the measured cadences of an earlier era. This sometimes works brilliantly as we follow the choices, small and large, that lead some characters to doom and others to glory. On the other hand, the middle chapters--of which there are many--do drag somewhat, even when one appreciates Dreiser's intentions. If you can make it through the sagging midsection, however, you'll be rewarded by Sister Carrie's last 150 pages, which depict the harrowing downward spiral of one of the book's central characters. Here Dreiser portrays with brutal power how the wrong decision--or lack of decision--can lay waste to a life. --Rebecca Gleason --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"In restoring Dreiser's masterpiece, the editors of the Pennsylvania Edition have given us more than a literary curiosity; like art historians cleaning a da Vinci fresco, they have uncovered the original glowing with an ancient newness."-Richard Lingeman, The Nation "No work of such historical repute ... has ever been republished with such major change... The 'new' novel ... will probably become the accepted standard."-Herbert Mitgang, New York Times "The 'restored' Sister Carrie ... is in many ways a different book, fuller, less cruel, more recognizably Dreiser's own work."-Alfred Kazin, New York Review of Books
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greats,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sister Carrie (Mass Market Paperback)
Okay, I'll admit it: I'm normally one to stick with the bestseller or current Oprah list suggestion; books like "The Da Vinci Code" or "The Bark of the Dogwood." And while those books were enjoyable, I will go back and visit (or re-visit) the "classics." Such is the case with "Sister Carrie." At first I was afraid this was going to be some turn-of-the-century, stodgy, "Oh, My! Look at that!" type of novel. Boy, was I wrong. This is one great book, and Dreiser not only gets down and dirty with the material, but presents it in a non-preachy way that will knock your socks off. T.Dreiser is without a doubt, one of the most underappreciated authors ever to grace the American scene. This book is, or should be, on the same level as "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "Grapes of Wrath." I highly, highly, highly (can you tell I liked it?) recommend this book to you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
surprisingly engaging and fascinating,
By asphlex "asphlex" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sister Carrie (Paperback)
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read it for English class...,
By blackholesun1Girl "blackholesun1" (Weaverville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sister Carrie (Mass Market Paperback)
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!
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