Staff Pick
At the turn of the century, a country girl leaves home for the big city. At a time when the only option 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. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The novel is followed by "A Note on the Text," which discusses the relationship between this edition"s text and that of the Pennsylvania Edition (1981), and a "Textual Appendix," which provides a generous sampling of the cuts Dreiser and his friend Arthur Henry made in the typescript version of Sister Carrie. "Backgrounds and Sources" reprints generous excerpts from Dreiser"s autobiographies and other writings that help establish his personal connection to the novel. Coverage of the supposed "suppression" of Sister Carrieby its first publisher is drawn from Dreiser"s correspondence with Frank Norris, Arthur Henry, Walter H. Page, and F. N. Doubleday. "Criticism" collects thirteen essays, six of them new to the Third Edition, that discuss Dreiser"s distinctive literary naturalism and narrative technique, the novel"s relationship to American culture, and issues of gender and class in the novel, among other topics. Contributors include Ellen Moers, Robert Penn Warren, Amy Kaplan, Alan Trachtenberg, and Donald Pizer, among others. A Chronology of Sister Carrieand a Selected Bibliography are also included.
Synopsis
The novel is followed by "A Note on the Text," which discusses the relationship between this edition's text and that of the Pennsylvania Edition (1981), and a "Textual Appendix," which provides a generous sampling of the cuts Dreiser and his friend Arthur Henry made in the typescript version of . "Backgrounds and Sources" reprints generous excerpts from Dreiser's autobiographies and other writings that help establish his personal connection to the novel. Coverage of the supposed "suppression" of by its first publisher is drawn from Dreiser's correspondence with Frank Norris, Arthur Henry, Walter H. Page, and F. N. Doubleday. "Criticism" collects thirteen essays, six of them new to the Third Edition, that discuss Dreiser's distinctive literary naturalism and narrative technique, the novel's relationship to American culture, and issues of gender and class in the novel, among other topics. Contributors include Ellen Moers, Robert Penn Warren, Amy Kaplan, Alan Trachtenberg, and Donald Pizer, among others. A Chronology of and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
Synopsis
The text of the Third Edition is based on the 1900 Doubleday Page edition, with detailed annotations that reveal the author's use of real people and places in Chicago and New York.
About the Author
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is one of the most controversial figures in American literary history. His novels shared with the man a capacity to affront. Sister Carrie is universally recognized as a major American novel.Donald Pizer is Pierce Butler Professor of English Emeritus at Tulane University. He is the author of The Novels of Theodore Dreiser, Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism, and The Novels of Frank Norris, among others.