Main StreetThe 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. |
Contents
II | 17 |
III | 27 |
IV | 35 |
V | 46 |
VI | 69 |
VII | 84 |
VIII | 97 |
IX | 110 |
XXII | 269 |
XXIII | 281 |
XXIV | 293 |
XXV | 306 |
XXVI | 325 |
XXVII | 334 |
XXVIII | 342 |
XXIX | 345 |
X | 116 |
XI | 126 |
XII | 140 |
XIII | 162 |
XIV | 171 |
XV | 178 |
XVI | 194 |
XVII | 213 |
XVIII | 223 |
XIX | 235 |
XX | 249 |
XXI | 259 |
XXX | 360 |
XXXI | 375 |
XXXII | 387 |
XXXIII | 396 |
XXXIV | 409 |
XXXV | 423 |
XXXVI | 431 |
XXXVII | 438 |
XXXVIII | 445 |
XXXIX | 451 |
XL | 464 |
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Common terms and phrases
ain't Aunt Bessie baby Bon Ton Bresnahan Carol chair Champ Perry church Clark coat Cy Bogart dance darn Dave Dyer Dawson dear doctor door Erik eyes farmers fellow felt Fern folks girl Gopher Prairie gray guess Guy Pollock hand Harry Haydock hate heard Hugh husband Jack Elder Jolly Seventeen Juanita Haydock Kennicott kitchen knew lake laughed Leonard Warren Lewis live looked Main Street Maud Dyer McGa McGanum Miles Bjornstam Minneapolis motor Nat Hicks never nice play porch pretty Raymie Rita Simons Sam Clark Sauk Centre Sinclair Lewis smiled stared story Stowbody supper sure talk tell Thanatopsis there's things thought town trying Valborg Vida Sherwin village waiting walk Westlake wife window woman women wonder young