Main StreetMain Street (1920), Lewis's first triumph, was a phenomenal event in American publishing and cultural history. Lewis's idealistic, imaginative heroine, Carol Kennicott, longs "to get [her] hands on one of these prairie towns and make it beautiful," but when her doctor husband brings her to Gopher Prairie, she finds that the romance of the American frontier has dwindled to the drab reality of the American Middle West. Carol first struggles against and then flees the social tyrannies and cultural emptiness of Gopher Prairie, only to submit at last to the conventions of village life. The great romantic satire of its decade, Main Street is a wry, sad, funny account of a woman who attempts to challenge the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of her community. |
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afraid ain't Aunt Bessie baby Bon Ton Bresnahan Carol Cass chair Champ Perry church Clark Cy Bogart dance darn Dave Dyer Dawson dear doctor door Erik everything eyes farmers fellow felt Fern flumped folks girl Gopher Prairie gray guess Guy Pollock hand Harry Haydock hate heard Howland Hugh husband Jack Elder Jolly Seventeen Juanita Haydock Kennicott knew lake laughed Leonard Warren listen live living-room looked Main Street Maud Dyer McGanum Minneapolis motor Mullins Myrtle Nat Hicks never nice night phonograph play porch pretty Raymie Rita Simons Sam Clark smiled stared Stowbody supper suppose sure talk tell Thanatopsis there's things thought town trying Valborg Vida Sherwin village waiting walked Westlake wife window woman women wonder Wutherspoon young