Review: SISTER CARRIE - Theodore Dreiser

 

• Original Publication Date: 1900
• Genre: American, classic, Victorian
• Topics: Domestic, gender roles, industry, realism

 

Review by : Liz Inskip-Paulk (www.ravingreader.wordpress.com)

Called “the greatest of all American urban novels”, Dreiser’s Sister Carrie was a good read and I really enjoyed it. It’s not a “happy” read or a “feel good” read, but the narrative arc is strong and the writing was fine. (Dreiser has been criticized by some as having writing that is not sophisticated enough, but I thought this was fine. After having read some drivel lately, Dreiser was a pleasure to read. This was very character-driven as a story, and this was perfect for what was happening throughout the book.)

Sister Carrie is basically the story of Carrie Meeber, a young girl raised in a small rural town who moves to Chicago to chase big-city dreams. You’d think that as it was written during Victorian times, that it might be a heavy-handed morality tale, but it’s not. People do iffy things, but there is no come-uppance for them or even redemption for them to change their “evil” ways. Life continues just fine and in fact, Carrie (she who didn’t fit the Victorian moral code of the time) even thrives despite her unconventional choices in life. (Probably made some of the audience get vapors!)

It is this immorality, if you’d like to call it that, which really irked people when this novel was published. Dreiser has been called one of the first American writers of the Naturalist/Realist school which shocked the socks off of the turn-of-the-century American readers and publishers when it came out.

 

 

His storyline was one of the first published U.S. novels that described a woman being supported by a man to whom she wasn’t married (and was living with), and then when she leaves that partner, she hooks up with another man who’s already married and starts to be supported by him – all with little consequence. When the second partner (who’s already married) commits an impulsive crime, they both end up on the run and yet, when they land up in New York for a new life, there is little punishment for Carrie’s actions. (And you know how the Victorians loved their characters to have punishment for poor choices/rewarded for good ones idea, especially for the weaker sex.)

Trying to get Sister Carrie published at first was tough. A wife of a potential publisher read the draft and called it “too sordid” for them to work with, and only 450 or so copies were sold when it was later published. Years after the book was published, Sinclair Lewis said that the novel “came to housebound and airless America like a great free Western wind, and to our stuffy domesticity gave us the first air since Mark Twain and Whitman” (1930 speech.)

And it was a change on many levels and quite shocking to readers. Nothing bad happens to the woman for her life choices, AND she doesn’t learn to change her ways (no redemption) AND she works in the shockingly free world of theater. She’s not that happy, but she’s not punished. Goodness me.

 

This sounds like a bit of a depressing novel, and it’s not a happy story by any means, but it is a good read. I loved how Dreiser portrayed Carrie without stereotyping her with a Cruella Deville personality. She’s young, ambitious with little useful work training – what other options were there, really, apart from working to death in a poorly paid factory job? Who wouldn’t want to improve their situation if they were in that and didn’t have that many choices open to them? I, for one, am not going to judge her for that.

However, a lot of the audience did judge her for that. His two male characters received a different reception: Drouet (first fake husband that Carrie lived with) and Hurstwood (second already married lover) don’t seem to suffer much at first when they invite Carrie into their lives, but in the long term, the latter certainly does.

His downfall from successful businessman to homeless vagrant is a useful foil for Dreiser to compare Carrie’s rising theatrical success (slightly clumsy but works ok), so perhaps the audience was ok with this man receiving punishment for his immoral ways. Drouet, the first partner, just peels off gradually with no negative consequences. Interesting how the different genders are portrayed – Carrie probably made the female readers very nervous when they read about her…

So – overall, a good read, and as most of it was on-line, it wasn’t too scary length-wise. I think on-line is the way to read scarily long books from now on.) I’ll definitely be reading Dreiser’s other classic (An American Tragedy – pub 1925) at some point.

Download Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|

 

 

 

 

Review: PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw

 

Original Publication Date: 1912 -- Genre:  Play, drama -- Topics: Coming of age, bildgunsroman Review by : Liz Inskip-Paulk (www.ravingreader.wordpress.com)

 

Although having been vaguely familiar with this story, I’d never actually sat down and read the actual play or researched its background, so decided to do that this week. I’m quite new to reading plays and it’s rather a different experience than reading a novel, but it’s enjoyable all the same. This one, based on Greek myth, is a familiar story structure based on taking someone (sort of Noble Savage/Frankenstein idea) and then transforming them into a higher class of creature (a la Cinderella tale).  And as a sign of the times and the national culture, this play’s characters are extremely class-ridden. (There’s also a trace of the ongoing science versus art debate as well.)

In this case, the characters of Dr. Higgins and Colonel Pickering, two self-taught scholars in linguistics, pull flower seller Eliza Doolittle off the streets and teach her how to become a Duchess. There are, of course, unforeseen events that occur and it’s actually much more serious that the adaptation “My Fair Lady” would have you believe. There’s definitely an element of Higgins/Pickering (both men) being Superior Gods of a type, and Eliza (the female character) being molded/taught and in the position of a child or less being.

 (It’s also argued that Pinocchio is an adaptation of this Greek myth as well, and the narrative was well known before this play and now afterwards, Magnum PI and Star Trek: Voyager, for instance, both have versions, and then there are numerous Hollywood versions including Pretty Woman and with an interesting twist backwards, the Stepford Wives.)

According to Greek myth (and Ovid, although I haven’t read Ovid), Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he carved. (The statue’s name was Galatea, FYI, and quite frequently the two names are paired together. (Doesn’t come up too often in my social circles though.)  The story finishes with a happy ending in most versions (as there was a popular demand for that), but Shaw plainly didn’t want that to happen (even though it did in some of the more commercial stage productions – which he hated.) In 1916, four years after the play had first been staged, Shaw was cross enough to add an afternote to the play in which he explains why he thought the ending had to be the way he wrote it. (It’s not a predictable ending, for the most part. The narrative is also quite feminist for the times, although that decision is supported by Shaw’s background and philosophy.)

 “I sold flowers. I didn’t sell myself. Now you’ve made a lady of me, I’m not fit to sell anything else.”

Shaw was an Irish playwright and worked to establish the London School of Economics (although it’s not clear to me what the connection would be between these two areas.) His mum was a professional singer, one of his sisters was a professional singer, so there was stage in his bones and childhood experiences.  He was an ardent socialist (clear in this play) and, curiously enough, is the only person who has ever been awarded both the Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1935) for his work on Pygmalion. Having no want for public honor, Shaw wanted to refuse the Nobel but accepted it at his wife’s bequest. The financial prize was personally rejected and he asked that it be used to finance translation of a Swedish playwright’s work.

Interesting note: Shaw joined the British Interplanetary Society, a group focused on space travel and exploration, when he was 91. I love that he was always learning something new throughout his life.

 

Download Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|