sister carrie

Each volume provides discussions of the literary and historical background of novels from various cultures and time periods. Includes concise synopses of plot, characters and themes, a brief author biography, discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance, and excerpted criticism.

Provides in-depth analysis of the literary work Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser's Sociological Tragedy, as well as its importance and critical reception. Includes a chronology of the life and works of the author.

Story of a young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream, first as a mistress to men that she perceives as superior, and later becoming a famous actress.

Literary Masterpieces is one series of the trio that makes up the Gale Study Guides to Great Literature (the others are Literary Topics and Literary Masters). Each Literary Masterpieces volume chooses a book by one of the authors covered in Literary Masters and offers a discussion of themes, characters, comparisons with social events of the era when the book was written and a critical analysis. Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, written in 1900, broke with the tradition of the time of sentimental romance in favor of a realistic approach. The novel shocked its publisher, the critics and the public with its themes of the rejected family, the struggle against poverty, the desire for wealth, the illusion of limitless opportunity and the conflict between personal desire and conventional restraint. In many ways, Carrie's story anticipates the radical change in social values that took place in twentieth-century America.