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Sister Carrie
Sister Carrie
Sister Carrie
Audiobook18 hours

Sister Carrie

Written by Theodore Dreiser

Narrated by Rebecca Burns

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Alone in the city, a young woman meets a man who promises to make her dreams come true. Eighteen-year-old Carrie is drawn to the glamour, wealth, and excitement of Chicago. But to be part of this glittering world, she will need much more money than she can even imagine. The only jobs she can find offer harsh conditions and little pay. Finally, inexperienced and desperate, she allows the smooth-talking salesman Charles Drouet to buy her meals and pretty clothes. Will Carrie ever find true happiness? And how much will she have to give up to get what she wants?

Theodore Dreiser's unsparing story of a country girl's rise to riches as the mistress of a wealthy man marked the beginning of the naturalist movement in America. Both its subject matter and Dreiser's objective, nonmoralizing approach made it highly controversial, and only a heavily edited version could be published in 1900.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 26, 2009
ISBN9781400179053
Author

Theodore Dreiser

The Indiana-born Dreiser (1871-1945) has never cut a dashing or romantic swath through American literature. He has no Pulitzer or Nobel Prize to signify his importance. Yet he remains for myriad reasons: his novels are often larger than life, rugged, and defy the norms of conventional morality and organized religion. They are unapologetic in their sexual candor--in fact, outrightly frank--and challenge even modern readers. The brooding force of Dreiser’ s writing casts a dark shadow across American letters. Here in <i>An American Tragedy</i>, Dreiser shows us the flip side of The American Dream in a gathering storm that echoes with all of the power and force of Dostoevsky’ s <i>Crime and Punishment</i>. Inspired by the writings of Balzac and the ideas of Spenser and Freud, Dreiser went on to become one of America’ s best naturalist writers. <i>An American Tragedy</i> is testimony to the strength of Dreiser’ s work: it retains all of its original intensity and force.

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Rating: 3.864864864864865 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A naturalistic tour de force. A good girl is led astray, and there is a downward spiral, but not exactly as you might think. Very powerful and not the book to read if you are feeling down.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I had to work to get through this book. I'm not a big fan of Theodore Dreiser's work. I understood his point and there were a few instances where he was quite eloquent, but overall, it took an unnecessarily long time to get there.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Published in 1900, this book is credited with having an impact on the course of American literature. Dreiser's sparse style depicts the realities of everyday city life (Chicago and New York) at the turn of the 19th Century in a way that seems to hide nothing. It thus allows the reader to feel that they can see the characters as they really are. The novel does not judge the behavior of the characters in the story. But rather it simply lays out the story of their actions for the reader to ponder. Carrie is a woman dealt a bad hand, who determines to make the most of what she has, seizing opportunity when it is offered. Charles Drouet is a pleasure seeker, a mixture of the vulgar and the appealing. And George Hurstwood experiences what we now call a mid-life crisis and ends up losing everything in his pursuit of happiness. Of the three protagonists living in the big City, one is destroyed, one rises to the top, and the third passes through unscathed. Success appears to have nothing to do with being good or bad. But rather, people strive to do their best and things happen.Read in March, 2008
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    [Contains some spoilers]Sister Carrie (1900) was Theodore Dreiser's first book, and the tale of the small-town girl coming to the big city was loosely based on the experiences of Dreiser's sister. In Sister Carrie our protagonist takes the train from her small town in Wisconsin to the big city of Chicago in order to take the extra room in the apartment of her older sister and her family and to make her way in the world. She is 18, very pretty, not very curious and more than a little naive.Carrie gets a job in a shoe factory, barely makes enough money to pay her rent, and pines for all the beautiful clothes she sees in the department stores on her long walk to work each morning. After losing her job due to illness, Carrie can't find more work and is on the verge of going back home when she reconnects with Charles Drouet, a dapper and smooth-talking salesman she met on the train to Chicago. Drouet sets Carrie up in an apartment and takes care of all her expenses. This seems to satisfy Carrie for awhile, but after meeting Drouet's much richer friend George Hurstwood, Carrie's eye begins to wander. Not really maliciously or hurtfully (since Carrie doesn't seem to think about anything strongly enough to really mean it), but enough to set Hurstwood on a path of adultery, crime and deception that eventually leads to a hasty retreat for both Carrie and Hurstwood from Chicago to the anonymity of New York.Although originally published in 1900, Sister Carrie was buried by its publisher and had little success. After an extensive editing by Dreiser and his wife, a new version was published in 1912 to wider acclaim. Even in its edited version, the contemporary audience was shocked by the implied sex in the book and the lack of comeuppance for the immoral characters. It all seems pretty mild today, but you can see how a character like Carrie, no matter how naive and well-meaning she is supposed to be, who basically sleeps her way to comfortable living and attains fame and riches, could rub a turn-of-the-century audience the wrong way.Although I loved the detailed descriptions of life in Chicago and New York, the philosophical/moralizing sections are insufferable, and the characterization is (probably intentionally) very two-dimensional. Carrie couldn't be more boring or unlikeable. The only things she gets excited about are new clothes and, to a lesser extent, her acting career (but really only to the extent that she can get more money). She lives with men for years without really seeming to care for them, to think about their pasts, or to ask any questions or show any interests in anything at all. So, when she is still melancholy at the end of the novel, despite her success on the stage (which is hilariously based on her ability to pout), I can't say I feel that bad for her.Sister Carrie is definitely worth reading if you have the time, but if you don't, I'd probably start with one of Dreiser's other books...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Definitely one of my favorite books; it was incredibly hard to put down once you get past the initial chapters. You find yourself loving and hating the characters all at the same time. Dreiser does not sugar coat anything in this novel. I feel that this book is one that everyone should read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Definitely one of my favorite books; it was incredibly hard to put down once you get past the initial chapters. You find yourself loving and hating the characters all at the same time. Dreiser does not sugar coat anything in this novel. I feel that this book is one that everyone should read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sister Carrie is Dreiser's commentary on industrialized, urban life around the turn of the century and its effects on the typical American. The protaganist is Carrie Meeber, a young country girl determined to make it in the big city. A girl of any age can relate to her yearning for material things and her desire to achieve the American Dream. Dreiser's failure to judge Carrie's morality shocked publishers and readers when the book was first released in 1900 and it remains a superb example of literary realism.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When the heroine, Carrie, was first introduced as a naive small-town girl heading to Chicago and falling for the advances of a travelling salesman on the train, I was worried that this would be a simple tragedy, where the helpless Carrie gets chewed up by the big city and ruined.Fortunately, the book is a lot more interesting than that. Carrie does suffer, she does get disillusioned, but she also fights back and makes a concerted attempt to find happiness, and the results are far from predictable. Some of the men who try to prey on her end up as victims themselves, while Carrie experiences a real mix of good luck and bad. Dreiser's writing style is a little verbose by modern standards, but still the story moves along quickly enough. The author also puts in some moral judgments and quasi-scientific explanations for the characters' actions, things which a modern writer would leave out but which work fine as artefacts of the age. The story was compelling and unpredictable, and I'm glad I read it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There is nothing like going back and reading a classic to appreciate the back in the day American writers who had such a strong command of the English language.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In Sister Carrie, Dreiser writes as an unflinching realist, and there seem to be two main thrusts to his message: first, that despite its democratic ideal, late 19th century America was still divided into classes – those that are very poor and struggling, and those that are affluent and comfortable within the “walled city”. Secondly, as Leibovitz states in this edition’s introduction, that “mankind is stranded in evolutionary limbo: too far removed from natural instinct to behaving according to its dictates, and too inchoate to govern the self according to the dictates of reason.” The result is erratic behavior, and people using one another while having pretensions to finer feelings. It’s a bleak view.After moving to Chicago to be with her sister and her brother-in-law, Carrie determines early on that the ‘hard life’ is not for her, and then resorts to using the attention of men to her advantage. The men end up making fools of themselves, in particular Hurstwoood, who goes from the suave manager at the Fitzgerald and Moy saloon to utter ruin, a portrayal that many believe is the best part of the book.That may be, but the problem I have with Sister Carrie is it’s poorly written. It’s not lyrical in the slightest and badly in need of editing; awkward prose abounds and is hard to get used to. An example, from the beginning of Chapter 17: “The, to Carrie, very important theatrical performance was to take place at the Avery on conditions which were to make it more noteworthy than was at first anticipated.” Another is this odd use of punctuation (what are the colon and the comma doing in this sentence?): “She might have been said to imagining: herself in love, when she was not.”Furthermore, Dreiser offers few pearls of wisdom, and I don’t think it took much skill to write this book. I would recommend Zola or Balzac if you want fiction of this type; they not only predate Dreiser but are better writers. And yet, I extract quotes nonetheless. :) On love:“A real flame of love is a subtle thing. It burns as a will-o’-the-wisp, dancing onward to fairy lands of delight. It roars as a furnace. Too often jealousy is the quality upon which it feeds.”On marriage going stale:“On this trip he enjoyed himself thoroughly, and when it was over he was sorry to get back. He was not willingly a prevaricator, and hated thoroughly to make explanations concerning it. The whole incident was glossed over with general remarks, but Mrs. Hurstwood gave the subject considerable thought. She drove out more, dressed better, and attended theatres freely to make up for it.Such an atmosphere could hardly come under the category of home life. It ran along by force of habit, by force of conventional opinion. With the lapse of time it must necessarily become dryer and dryer – must eventually be tinder, easily lighted and destroyed.”On pathos, this while watching a stage performance:“Hurstwood began to feel a deep sympathy for her and for himself. He could almost feel that she was talking to him. He was, by a combination of feelings and entanglements, almost deluded by the quality of voice and manner which, like a pathetic strain of music, seems ever a personal and intimate thing. Pathos has this quality, that it seems ever addressed to one alone.”On women, ok, on looking at women:“Drouet had a habit, characteristic of his kind, of looking after stylishly dressed or pretty women on the street and remarking upon them. He had just enough of the feminine love of dress to be a good judge – not of intellect, but of clothes. He saw how they set their little feet, how they carried their chins, with what grace and sinuosity they swung their bodies. A dainty, self-conscious swaying of the hips by a woman was to him as alluring as the glint of rare wine to a toper. He would turn and follow the disappearing vision with his eyes. He would thrill as a child with the unhindered passion that was in him. He loved the thing that women love in themselves, grace. At this, their own shrine, he knelt with them, an ardent devotee.”And:“She did not want anything to do with him. He was married, he had deceived her once, and now again, and she thought him terrible. Still there is something in such daring and power which is fascinating to a woman, especially if she can be made to feel that it is all prompted by love of her.”
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.) The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the labelEssay #31: Sister Carrie (1900), by Theodore DreiserThe story in a nutshell:One of the last Victorian-style morality tales to make a big splash, Theodore Dreiser's 1900 Sister Carrie tells the story of late teen and rural Wisconsinite Caroline Meeber, who at the beginning of the novel moves to bustling post-Fire Chicago to start making a name for herself, staying at first with her sister Minnie and her dour Swedish husband over in the city's blue-collar west side. But alas, life in the pre-workers-rights Windy City is not exactly the bed of roses she thought it would be, with Carrie finding herself slaving away in dangerous sweatshops for almost no pay on the rare occasions she can find any work at all, becoming more afraid each day of turning into the hard, humorless housewife her older sister has become; so when she starts receiving gifts and attention from local middle-class playboy Charles Drouet, Carrie jumps at the chance, eventually even agreeing to live with him and accept an allowance even though Drouet is in not much of a mood to marry (one of the many "shocking" details that got this book banned when it first came out). Eventually, though, Carrie's charms become too tempting for Drouet's acquaintance George Hurstwood, a married retail manager living a comfortable existence up in Lincoln Park, who especially after watching Carrie's unexpectedly successful performance in a community play starts falling in love with her, eventually convincing her to leave Drouet on the promise that he will instead do the right thing and marry her (conveniently of course omitting the fact that he is already married and with children). Through a series of implausible plot developments, then (easy money stolen on a whim one night while drunk, flight from the law, a return of the money but subsequent social disgrace), the couple find themselves in 1890s New York, trying to resume a comfortable domestic life but with this becoming more and more difficult, due to the current recession and Hurstwood's lack of business contacts in this cold east-coast city. It's at this point that the plot essentially splits into two, as we watch Hurstwood's rather spectacular fall into destitution (the spending of his reserves, his stint as a train-conductor scab during a violent union strike, his eventual descent into homeless vagrancy), even as Carrie's fortunes improve just as dramatically, eventually leaving Hurstwood for a rising career on Broadway, the book ending with her rich and famous but still unhappy, and still unsure of what she wants out of life in the first place.The argument for it being a classic:The main reason this book should be considered a classic, argue its fans, is for the groundwork it laid for the literature that came right after it; because even though it was published right on the tail end of the Victorian Age, it in fact contains many of the seeds that would become the trademarks of Modernism a mere two decades later, things like an embrace of moral relativism and more prurient subject matter, not to mention a much more naturalistic writing style. In fact, it's no coincidence that Dreiser is considered one of the founders of the Naturalist school of literary thought (best typified anymore by European author Emile Zola, a writer Dreiser is often compared to), a movement similar to the Realism of Henry James and Edith Wharton of the same time period, in that both attempted to strip fiction of the flowery, overwritten purple prose so indicative of the Victorian Era. If not for the bold stylistic experiments of people like Dreiser, his fans argue, we would've never had the more perfected stylings of people like Henry Miller or William Faulkner just one generation later; and if not for his embrace of more modern subject matter (because let's never forget, this was one of the very first American novels to become known precisely for its sordid content and subsequent censorship), it would've never been possible for F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway to write their truly transgressive books a mere twenty years later. The argument against:Ironically, critics of this book argue nearly the exact opposite of its fans: that despite it being written a mere two decades before the explosive birth of Modernism, it remains a badly dated relic of Victorianism, not a harbinger of things to come but a perfect example of the kind of tripe the Modernists were precisely railing against. And indeed, no matter what you think of Dreiser's appropriate place in history, it's hard to deny that his actual prose is awfully heavy-handed; despite his embrace of such modern concepts as unmarried couples "living in sin" and that some women might actually be better off as entertainment-industry floozies, the actual writing found in Sister Carrie is riddled with the exact kind of ponderous, directly-talking-to-the-audience nonsense that makes up the worst of Victorian literature, the kind of Bible-quoting finger wagging that we now cite when making fun of the genre. There's a very good reason that Dreiser was such a polarizing figure during his own lifetime, with conservative professors extolling his work and young rabble-rousers thumbing their noses at it; and that's because, critics argue, Dreiser was the last gasp of a form of the arts violently killed off during the first half of the 20th century, making him merely a minor footnote in history whether one is discussing Romanticism or Modernism. My verdict:So before anything else, let me make it clear what a delight this book was from a purely historical standpoint, and especially as a fellow Chicagoan; his description of how chaotic and exciting the Loop is on a Monday morning, for example, is so spot-on perfect that it could've literally been written yesterday, while his description of a lonely Garfield Park existing out in the middle of the wilderness, nothing around it except for a series of dirt roads and an occasional farmhouse, will be enough to make most locals' hearts flutter in nostalgic wonder. But that said, Sister Carrie may be the best example yet of one of the surprising conclusions I've discovered while writing this "CCLaP 100" essay series -- of just how relative and transitory our entire definition of "literary classic" actually is, given that the term is supposed to denote books that have a timeless quality. Because the fact of the matter is that throughout the entire first half of the 20th century, Dresier was breathlessly revered by the academic community in the same way they currently fawn over, say, John Updike, and in fact it's rare to find someone over the age of 60 these days who wasn't forced to read one of Dreiser's books back in high school or college themselves (usually An American Tragedy, his most famous). The reason, then, that in the early 2000s he is only known anymore by the most hardcore book-lovers out there is because what his critics claim is sadly but undeniably true: that although to Modernist eyes in the '50s and '60s Dreiser seemed merely stuffy and dated, to our own Postmodernist eyes his work is nearly unreadable, the exact kind of 19th-century fussy finery that 20th-century literature stamped out once and for all. It's nearly impossible in fact to read Sister Carrie anymore strictly for pleasure, with for example this book's listing at Goodreads littered with nightmarish accounts of people trying dozens of times to get through it, just to have the book disintegrate into pieces from the number of times they frustratingly threw it against the wall; like I said, although it was fascinating from a bibliophilic standpoint, and indeed did pave the way for the Modernist stories that came after it, it is in absolutely no way able to hold its own anymore as a simple tale to be enjoyed in a simple way. It's a perfect example of an argument I've been making more and more in this essay series, that the determination of whether or not a book is a "classic" is a much slippier notion than most of us realize; and that's why, although I myself personally enjoyed it, I have absolutely no hesitation in coming down on the "no" side of the classic question today. Is it a classic? No
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The progression of a "Good Girl" down the primrose path to becoming a kept woman. If you have ever known an attractive girl, with a winning personality and an astute intelligence - who hasn't known such a person - and wonder what has become of her, hopefully she has not had a similar life as Carrie. Her devolution by incremental poor choices could happen to anyone. More is the pity. Very well written by one of my favorite authors.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At the turn of the century, a country girl leaves home for the big city. At a time when the only choice for women was to marry well, Carrie shows us a different road. While her rabid ambition and vanity indicate her true nature, the society in which she navigates is harsh and unforgiving. Dreiser's portrait of the ugliness of human nature is stunning.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Theodore Dreiser was an accomplished journalist and it shows in the brisk, detailed style of this, his first novel. It is a novel with a theme: we are doomed to lead empty lives because all of our striving gets us no where. All of the characters are flawed, but some lead more successful lives than others. Carrie and Drouet achieve their dreams, but still feel empty. Hurstwood sinks into poverty, but that is more by chance than any moral failing on his part. You cannot read this book thinking that the good person will win in the end. There is no thing as justice. Hurstwood performs a criminal act, but he gives the money back and still he seems to be punished. Carrie is very lucky, but her good luck doesn't make her happy. No one can win in Dreiser's world because we are doomed to sit in our rocking chairs, moving back and forth but going no where. Trying to be a better person, like Ames does, is a good thing, but it won't make any difference to the outcome of your life.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A book that is awkward and stuttering in some places, and very interesting and insightful in others - characteristic Dreiser. The last 150 pages somehow redeem the first 350. If I were a less patient person, I probably would have given up on him long ago.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Satisfying read by the time I got stuck into it. But the initial impression is odd. Though it was greeted at the time as rampantly realistic and steamily sexual , times have changed so much it now seems a bit of a eunuch. Characters meet and eye each other up and even end up living together but physical expression is never more than a chaste hug or kiss. so the impression is a bit like The Young Visiters; adult puppets without real motives. The characters are indeed at the whim of random events and driven by shallow desires, mainly materialistic, so by the end we get a sense of a society at the mercy of greed for fripperies and empty status. Other oddities: the title "Sister Carrie" makes it sound like she's a nun or a nurse; she's quite the reverse, a slightly loose woman with no inner life. Her name is what her family called her, but she has no contact or mention of the family at all once she leaves home early in the story. Another: the bar/club which the main male manages includes an extraordinarily wide range of classes. Could travelling salesmen and smalltimers frequent the same locales as politicians, leading actors and celebrities (yes, the word is used!)?All moves a bit slowly and there's more philosophic-moralising than I can use - and that's after advisers cut a lot out! - but there is a sense of a story, people rise and fall in ways that are credible but not obvious. Though none are sympathetic or likeable, there's a certain momentum in the story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Carrie lost my sympathy about halfway through when she rounds on Drouet and claims he never did anything for her. He supported her for several years while she didn't make any attempt to find work during this period!! This feeling turned to active dislike later when she dumps Hurstwood as soon as she starts earning some money.. She struck me as completely self-centered.I did find that this book kept me engaged more than "An American Tragedy" did but I think that I liked the plot of that book better.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sister Carrie, Dreiser's first novel, tells the story of a young girl from a small town who moves to Chicago and is corrupted by the ills of the big city.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Definitely one of my favorite books; it was incredibly hard to put down once you get past the initial chapters. You find yourself loving and hating the characters all at the same time. Dreiser does not sugar coat anything in this novel. I feel that this book is one that everyone should read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This classic first novel by Theodore Dreiser tells the unlikely rags to riches tale of Carrie Meeber. But unlike the Horatio Alger tales, this is an anti-morality tale. Carrie comes to the big city, Chicago, to make a living under the supervision of her older sister and her husband. Quickly, however, Carrie attracts the attention of a playboy suitor, who begins providing for her.While under his attention, Carrie crosses path with an even more well-to-do man who becomes infatuated with her, despite having a wife and daughter. After a while, he convinces Carrie to come away with him to the even larger city, New York, where they live as husband and wife, though they are not. However, this man left Chicago under dubious circumstances (he was guilty of theft from his employer), and he is unable to secure adequate employment in New York.Over time, Carrie discovers that she does not like her limited life and begins to look for work opportunities in the theater. She gains employment, based on her appearance, and gradually becomes a better known actress. At the same time, her supposed husband becomes stuck in unemployment and idleness.Throughout, morality plays little role in what happens. Carrie is successful, despite living a less than honorable lifestyle. Her compatriot falls completely from grace, in apparent disproportion to his crimes. Such moral ambiguity (though it is still clear Dreiser affirms the contemporary view of the city as an inherently corrupt place) was radical and abrasive at the time "Sister Carrie" was published, and is by far the most notable part of the book.Read over a century later, the tale is not nearly so bracing as it must have originally been. Instead, some of the novels flaws (which would have been mostly overlooked because of its scandalous narrative) are more apparent. Dreiser has an ear for the language and lifestyle of the city, and his words are powerful. But sometimes his description becomes cumbersome and intrusive. Still, a classic American novel.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sister Carrie offers insights into the lives of working men and women in late 1800s Chicago and New York City.Unfortunately, it becomes a painfully dreary story, relived only by a streetcar strike and The Captain sponsoring rooms forpoor men for 12 cents a night. Throughout, the main character, Carrie, remains tiresome, boring, superficial and self-centered.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was not familiar with this author, who lived around the late 19th, early 20th century, but spotted this novel at Barnes & Noble. It's published in B&N's classics series that I like because they are very reasonably priced. They seem to be well edited- very rarely I find typos or other mistakes and they contain an introductory essay by written currently; typically by a college professor that is an expert in that author's works and life.Sister Carrie is an interesting novel that traces the life-paths of two individuals. Carrie, whose life progresses from a poverty background growing up in Wisconsin, and moves to Chicago searching for a better life, and eventually becomes a successful actress in New York City. And George Hurtswood who is the manager of a respectable bar in Chicago and whose life ends by killing himself after his last years spent in poverty and destitution in New York City. Although Carrie is presumably the central character in the novel, after all it's eponimously named, Hurtswood may be the more interesting person. His gradual descent into deprivation, while remembering his former wealthy station, is depressing reading some times. Reading this brings to mind the comment that Francesca da Rimini says to Dante, when he encounters her in the second circle of hell:"Nessun maggior doloreche ricordarsi del tempo felicene la miseria; e cio` sa 'l tuo dottore"Longfellow's translation is: "There is no greater sorrow/ Than to be mindful of the happy time / In misery, and that thy Teacher knows"In any event, Francesca's statement fits very well the state that Hurtswood saw himself from time to time, as he descended into the hell of his own creation. I don't want to spell out the plot and its details, I let any person who wants to read the novel find it by him/herself. If you want to read an entertaining novel that carries (no pun intended) and keeps you interested for a couple of days, but has no overall redeeming value or no real discussion or consideration of ethical or moral issues, this is a good one for you. Also, I'm no prude but I find it refreshing to read a novel without overt sex and extreme use of foul language such as seems to be prevalent in most modern fiction. But, as one of our fellow LT readers puts it: "... people use foul language because their vocabulary is not extensive enough to express their feelings in any other way. I feel the same way about an author's gratuitous use of it."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although Theodore Dreiser finished Sister Carrie in 1900, years of stutter steps on the part of various publishing companies delayed its full American publication until 1908. Even then, as Dreiser describes, “the outraged protests far outnumbered the plaudits.” Dreiser’s new “realism” was shocking to readers. While Sister Carrie may not pack the same punch 100 years later, the story is sprightly and still relevant. It moves right along, with plenty of dialog and even some exciting adventures. The period details of Carrie’s life may be particular to fin de siècle New York, but the story of Carrie’s efforts to rise above her situation, in contrast to the pathos of Hurstwood’s decline, is still compelling. The only off-note was the last minute “moral of the story” message that seemed tacked on in the last two pages. That money can’t buy happiness is a common message, but a little hard to buy into when compared to the alternative presented by Hurstwood’s fate. Compared to the pages and pages of sermonizing that wrap up Dreiser’s American Tragedy, however, the final homily is blessedly short.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Terrific! Begins as yuppie madness ends with exploration of homeless life in New York
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow! My favorite book since I was 14 has been Gone With the Wind, and now, it is Sister Carrie. This book was mesmerizing because of its cleaverly crafted prose, vivid imagery and historical detail about turn of the century Chicago. I wasn't sure how I would like it at first because a large portion of the book is told from a male perspective, but once I started reading it, I could not put it down for 3 days straight. The last line in the book really affected me, and the sense of self-reflection that this book brought about was intense. This was the first book I read by Dreiser and is now the most cherished in my collection. I hope they turn it into a movie someday, because I think Hollywood has overlooked an amazing gem in the "period-piece" genre!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sister Carrie is a great representation of the struggles and excitement of the early 20th century. The story revolves around Carrie a young girl going to the "Big City" to live with her sister and her family while she looks for work. Carrie's advantage is she is quite pretty. And as a result of this she falls into the hands of a handsome young man with money who is willing to "take care of her". The story doesn't end there though because Carrie becomes the prize in a very tragic game. Dreiser's writing style is contemporary and easy to read, although at times he can get a little wordy. He has created his characters so life like that they feel as though they will step out from the pages and continue there lives right before you. Their thoughts are realistic and their actions are believable. The work houses, the bread lines and the boarding houses create a scary image and you can't help feeling a bit of relief that we live in a different time. But to describe in more detail would give the story away , so believe me when I say if you like a good story you will enjoy this tale. I might call this early 20th century chick lit.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Carrie is a country girl in the late 1800's who decides to move to Chicago. From the beginning Carrie is unhappy with the realization of how hard she will have to work just to get by, so she decides to let herself become a kept woman, all of the while dreaming of having nice things and pretty clothes. When she tires of one man she ends up taking off with his best friend. We are able to see the decline of the second man, both in stature and mentally, as we see Carrie rise to prominence and fame. At the end the only person to remain unscathed was the person who Carrie left.This book was a bit stiff at times, and the characters weren't developed as fully as they could have been, but it was a pretty ok read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Theodore Dreiser's tale of rags to riches and at the same time riches to rags is definitely a worthy tale to be told, but it is saddled with some considerable drawbacks keeping it from perfection. The male protagonists talk similarly with little to distinguish them from each other, the prose is riddled with cliches, and there's enough passages that go cloud-gazing that things may appear to be more tightly handled than they otherwise would be. The piling up of details is a fun little thing, though, and the writing despite being published at the turn of the century (the 20th century) is thoroughly modern.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Read by my main character, Gracie Antes in my novel, Crestmont.Carrie turned out not to be the role model Gracie had hoped for.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Far easier to absorb than "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", but still a maddeningly slow read. Not to mention that Carrie was the first FICTIONAL character to make me SHOUT at the book since Phillip in "Of Human Bondage", and that's saying something. If they were real, Carrie and Phillip should have married each other. They both had precisely the same amount of brains and moral stamina...oh wait! They didn't have any brains and moral stamina! They were both pretty pitiful.