| Main Street Contributor(s): Lewis, Sinclair (Author), Killough, George (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0451530985 ISBN-13: 9780451530981 Publisher: Signet Book OUR PRICE: $7.16 Product Type: Mass Market Paperbound - Other Formats Published: June 2008 Annotation: Harry Sinclair Lewis was a novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He was awarded (and rejected) a Pulitzer prize for "Arrowsmith," and in 1930 became the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. His books "Elmer Gantry," "Main Street," "Babbitt," "Kingsblood Royal," and "Cass Timberlane" were all banned in various places and times in the United States. "Main Street"'s protagonist, Carol Milford from Minneapolis, must adjust to small town life after marrying country doctor Will Kennecott and moving to his home town of Gopher Prairie. She finds the town backward, ugly, and conservative, and sets out to change it. She says "I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful as it should be! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women!" Her efforts meet with resistance, but a retreat to Washington, D.C. reveals that big city life presents its own problems, and she must learn to accept and appreciate Gopher Prairie for what it is. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2009290194 |
| Lexile Measure: 1010 |
| Series: Signet Classics |
| Physical Information: 1.03" H x 4.29" W x 6.87" (0.52 lbs) 475 pages |
| Themes: - Demographic Orientation - Small Town |
| Accelerated Reader Info |
| Quiz #: 5991 Reading Level: 8.6 Interest Level: Upper Grades Point Value: 30.0 |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The first of Sinclair Lewis's great successes, Main Street shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire of narrow-minded provincialism. Reflecting his own unhappy childhood in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis's sixth novel attacked the conformity and dullness he saw in midwestern village life. Young college graduate Carol Milford moves from the city to tiny Gopher Prairie after marrying the local doctor, and tries to bring culture to the small town. But her efforts to reform the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, conventionality, pitifully unambitious cultural endeavors, and--worst of all--the pettiness and bigotry of small-town minds. Lewis's portrayal of a marriage torn by disillusionment and a woman forced into compromises is at once devastating social satire and persuasive realism. His subtle characterizations and intimate details of small-town America make Main Street a complex and compelling work and established Lewis as an important figure in twentieth-century American literature. |