Sister Carrie

Young woman is taken advantage of by an older married man of means who falls madly in love with her. His good fortune turns into tragedy while her fortune turns into success due to her beauty and ability to act on the stage. This was quite controversial when first published in 1900. The author provides a narrative along with the plot, providing philosophical and psychological input into the actions of the characters. Interesting.

Technically adept, skillful, beautiful writing. Excellent exploration of human nature and consequences of individual choices and behavior. Mr. Drieser certainly deserves his reputation as one of America's great writers.

While this edition is awful, the store has a new edition that's corrected, published in 2011.

Sister Carrie: a Novel

Link above will take you right there, but it's ASIN B004UJJ8XC if you have trouble. Found it while updating my free kindle classics list today and read the first few chapters - error free.

Morris

The numerous mistakes and typos in common words were most disconcerting in this edition. It was hard to ignore them.
Please explain.
Sister Carrie has great character descriptions in an important slice of American history .

Theodore Dreiser captures the wealth and class gaps of the early 1900's. Poverty drives Carrie into dysfunctional relationships. Survival and unveiled ambition propel her from one man to the next. Lusting after this young and naive young woman, men responded to her beauty. She also needs to be taken care by each lover. Once each has elevated her to the next level, Carrie casts her lovers aside. Along the way, she gains knowledge and cunning. Perhaps the saddest figure is Hurstwood, a well off Chicago "resort" manager who has married into money. His passion to be with Carrie draws him from his status of being well off into the most desperate depths of early 1900's poverty. Carrie and Hurstwood change positions in terms of class, wealth, and fame.

Dreiser paints scenes of poverty in a time before Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He describes in wrenching detail the plight of the poor. He shows how closely the rich and poor are in terms of proximity. Just as it is today, the afflictions of poverty are practically invisible to the successful, secure upper-class. The author captures the erosion of hope in Hurstwood. In his despair, he slowly becomes I invisible to himself.

The reader can easily extrapolate the story of Carrie and her lovers in to the present age. With many people living from paycheck to paycheck and having minimal savings to retire, Dreiser's book is a cautionary tale of the consequences anyone does or might face in a world where the gap between the 1% and the 99% is ever-widening, endangering individuals as well as American democracy.

Theodore Dreiser captures the wealth and class gaps of the early 1900's. Poverty drives Carrie into dysfunctional relationships. Survival and unveiled ambition propel her from one man to the next. Lusting after this young and naive young woman, men responded to her beauty. She also needs to be taken care by each lover. Once each has elevated her to the next level, Carrie casts her lovers aside. Along the way, she gains knowledge and cunning. Perhaps the saddest figure is Hurstwood, a well off Chicago "resort" manager who has married into money. His passion to be with Carrie draws him from his status of being well off into the most desperate depths of early 1900's poverty. Carrie and Hurstwood change positions in terms of class, wealth, and fame.

Dreiser paints scenes of poverty in a time before Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He describes in wrenching detail the plight of the poor. He shows how closely the rich and poor are in terms of proximity. Just as it is today, the afflictions of poverty are practically invisible to the successful, secure upper-class. The author captures the erosion of hope in Hurstwood. In his despair, he slowly becomes I invisible to himself.

The reader can easily extrapolate the story of Carrie and her lovers in to the present age. With many people living from paycheck to paycheck and having minimal savings to retire, Dreiser's book is a cautionary tale of the consequences anyone does or might face in a world where the gap between the 1% and the 99% is ever-widening, endangering individuals as well as American democracy.

When I was in college, and too young to appreciate it, I was required to read this book. I enjoyed it but didn't understand the complexities. Now that I am much much older, I have re-read it and realize that it is as pertinent today as it ever was. Take away the period clothing, the out-dated wordiness, and you have a picture of life as we know it even today. That makes this book a classic to me.

I enjoyed this novel. She certainly was ahead of her time as far as relationships go. She was not the victim of this book but I did not perceive her as the heroine, either. She certainly knew how to use men.

The Kindle version is full of incorrect words, transposed words, mispellings. It's poorly formatted. During much of the reading I found myself having to guess which word was intended. Get the Random House digital version for $1.99 instead.

To me Sister Carrie is a cautionary tale. George Hurstwood has it made: the house on the hill, the job, family, money, prestige, you name it. Then young, innocent (sexy) Carrie comes along to spoil the whole thing; in the end, Hurstwood, left with the rags on his sick body, kills himself; while Carrie lives on to enjoy the success of a big-time theatre Star; albeit, alone. The moral of the tale: be satisfied with your position in life and don't use people as pleasure toys.

As many other people have said, this edition is riddled with typos. Words are also omitted. It's just a mess, and I quit in disgust after two or three pages--tiny pages on an iPod Touch! Don't bother.

One needs to read Dreiser. Having read An American Tragedy, Sister Carrie is a next one on the list. Readers need to be prepared for polemics and political insights. Dreiser carries his politics on his sleeve and into his novels.

I liked the literature aspect of this book and the picutre it presented from that period of time in US. On negative note, I found the story long and kind of boring. Furthermore, although I am a big fan of stories that reflect realistic life situations and characters, I felt that this story was sad and disturbing beyond what you may expect from similar situations. From the the store point of view, I found the kindle version flawless and easy to read.

Dreiser (and Sister Carrie) as expected. However, I am SO disappointed with the book itself. The format is large; each page is far too wide for rapid reading and far wider than the standard paperback and hardback book page. And this classic of American Naturalism has been presented with some in-text punctuation errors (some incorrectly used quotation marks not found in a much older edition) and most inexcusably, a back-cover blurb that inanely claims the novel takes us "to the staggering HEISTS of fame and stardom." The word wanted is of course "heights." A petty yet sad example of the disrespect in which the publication of the written word is held today.

I ordered the paperback version thinking that it would be a normal paperback size book. When it arrived, it turned out to be almost twice as wide as a normal paperback book. The downside is that it is not very portable. I like to read while on a bus or train. Having this book open is like reading a textbook, not very practical in many situations in which I like to read.

So, before you buy, be sure you know the dimensions of the book. The one I received is about 8 inches wide, 10 inches high and about .7 inches thick.

I ordered the paperback version thinking that it would be a normal paperback size book. When it arrived, it turned out to be almost twice as wide as a normal paperback book. The downside is that it is not very portable. I like to read while on a bus or train. Having this book open is like reading a textbook, not very practical in many situations in which I like to read.

So, before you buy, be sure you know the dimensions of the book. The one I received is about 8 inches wide, 10 inches high and about .7 inches thick.

I have read two other Dreiser books that I thought were exceptional, but this one is simply a downer. You continue reading, even though the going is slow, thinking that the story will move toward a better place (for the main characters), but it spirals down and down. Maybe I just wasn't ready for a bleak story in the gray mid-winter, but I would skip this one. This is more an emotional review than a literary one.

There are several other novels written in this era that are critiques of capitalism and are actually fun to read. Intrusive narration and next to no plot progression. I don't understand the hype over this one.