Sinclair Lewis
1) Main street
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Satirizes the manners of the American Middle West. The story of Carol Kennicott who, to be accepted, must adapt to the ways of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. This novel attacks conformism, commercialism, moneygrubbing and the decline in what the author saw as the American ideals of freedom and respect for individuality.
2) Arrowsmith
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One of the most highly regarded novels of this century, Arrowsmith has as its heart an age old dilemma: should a doctor withhold experimental treatment from a patient and continue research, thus assuring the patient's death, or should a risky, untested procedure be carried out ? Young Martin Arrowsmith, a doctoe and researcher, faces this dilemma when he is sent to a Caribbean island besieged by humanitarianism and his scientific training and curiosity,...
3) Babbitt
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"Zenith is the finest example of American life and prosperity to be found anywhere." Zenith is the Midwestern city where George F. Babbitt lives and works. A successful real estate agent, his business provides all the material trappings and comfort he thinks he ought to have. He is a member of all the right clubs, and unquestioningly shares the same aspirations and ideas as his friends and fellow Boosters. Yet even complacent, conformist Babbitt dreams...
4) Elmer Gantry
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A brazen ex-football player who enters the ministry and, through his half-plagiarized sermons, his physical attractiveness, and his unerring instinct for promotion, becomes a successful evangelist and later the leader of a large Middle Western church.
Elmer Gantry is one of the Sinclair Lewis's most famous novels. Considered scandalous in its day, it is a vicious satire of preachers and those they fool. Gantry has no redeeming features but is seen...
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A New England newspaper editor fights to destroy the fascist dictatorship established by President Berzelius Windrip in this classic work by the author of Babbit, Arrowsmith, and Main Street that prophesizes the coming of totalitarianism in the United States.
"It Can't Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an...
6) Free air
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Bored of the parties and luxuries that come with her socialite lifestyle, Claire Boltwood longs for something more authentic in her life. Desperate for adventure, Claire and her father decide to travel from New York City to the Pacific Northwest in their automobile, a new privilege enjoyed by the rich. Though he is a clever businessman, Claire's father knows nothing about cars, so he encourages Claire to drive, challenging the gender stereotypes of...
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After a family member tragically falls ill, Una Golden was forced to move from Pennsylvania to New York in order to get a job to help support her family. Set in the early 1900s, going to the big city as a single woman was daunting and unconventional, but Una is dedicated to helping her family. After diligently job searching and excelling in additional training and education, Una discovers that she has the skills to be a talented commercial real estate...
8) Dodsworth
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A middle-aged American retires and he and his wife go to Europe where they find a new set of values and relationships.
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Born into the first generation of an immigrant family from Norway, Carl Ericson was always bound to have differing philosophies than his parents. However, when these new, freethinking ideas result in an expulsion from college, Carl must find a way to fit in with the society's culture and values without stifling his independence. However, Carl has a difficult time achieving this in the rigid workplace standards of the 20th-century. He becomes a vagabond...
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This early work by Sinclair Lewis was originally published in 1917 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, USA in 1885. A lonely and socially awkward child, Lewis tried unsuccessfully to run away from home, before entering Yale University in 1903. It was here that, in the Yale Courant and the Yale Literary Magazine, Lewis had his first works – mostly romantic poetry...
12) Mantrap
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A burned-out New York lawyer's vacation in the Canadian wilderness takes a troubled detour in this novel by the Nobel Prize—winning author of Main Street.
Lawyer Frank Prescott is exhausted. The forty-year-old bachelor works late into the night, poring over documents. When he sleeps, he wakes up in a panic. Not even a round of golf at his country club or a Broadway show helps calm him down. He just wants to escape the city and feel as though he...
13) The Innocents
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The Appleby's are happy couple. Often referring to the other as "father" or "mother", the couple have remained as affectionate and passionate as newlyweds, and both are energetic despite their old age. Though they feel young and full of life, their adult daughter, with whom they share a difficult relationship with, and the rest of society, hardly agrees. It is suggested that the couple consider retiring and moving to an assisted living facility. Disenfranchised...
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The Job is an early work by American novelist Sinclair Lewis. It is considered an early declaration of the rights of working women. The focus is on the main character, Una Golden, and her desire to establish herself in a legitimate occupation while balancing the eventual need for marriage. The story takes place in the early 1900-1920s and takes Una from a small Pennsylvania town to New York. Forced to work due to family illness, Una shows a talent...
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A blockbuster success when it was first released in 1927, Sinclair Lewis' "Elmer Gantry" tells the story of a self-absorbed, narcissistic young drifter who - seeking easy money - is drawn into the world of Evangelism and manages to become a successful minister despite his serial sexual indiscretions.
Upon its publication, this satire of religious hypocrisy in America was denounced in pulpits from coast-to-coast and the book was banned and vilified...
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"Eso no puede pasar aquí" es una sátira política en la que se describe la América rural y provinciana que surge tras el crac bursátil de 1929. Los personajes y los hechos que se relatan en la novela son como juegos de espejos de los reales en una América en la que Roosevelt pierde las elecciones presidenciales, y un partido totalitario toma el poder en un momento decisivo de la historia del siglo xx, con el auge de los totalitarismos en Europa...
17) Our Mr. Wrenn
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This charming 1914 novel-the author's first-tells the tale of Mr. William Wrenn, a meek bachelor who works at a tedious job and dreams of traveling to exotic lands. His only escape entails frequent visits to the moving picture shows, but after a small inheritance comes his way, Wrenn is able to actualize his dream of going abroad. He travels-and returns to New York City a changed man. In fact, this new perspective leads to positive changes in all...
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Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 - January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." He is best known for his novels Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith...
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In the beginning of the story we meet our "Mr. Wrenn" a very mild, very ordinary American clerk. Mr. Wrenn was the sales-entry clerk of the Souvenir Company. He is described as "a meek little bachelor-a person of inconspicuous blue ready-made suits, and a small unsuccessful mustache, who was always bending over bills and columns of figures at a desk behind the stock room."Mr. Wrenn is not happy with his life; he does not want to work for the Souvenir...