Sinclair Lewis

Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

First published in English in 1927, "Elmer Gantry" is Sinclair Lewis' novel which satirizes the Christian fundamentalist and evangelistic movements of the early part of the 20th century. From the 17th century onward there have been a number of efforts to reassert the influence of Christianity on social, cultural, and political life. In America, Christian Revivalism, as it is often referred to, has come in four waves, or "Great Awakenings" starting...

Babbitt turns the spotlight on middle America and strips bare the hypocrisy of business practice, social mores, politics, and religious institutions. In his introduction and notes Gordon Hutner explores the novel's historical and literary contexts, and highlights its rich cultural and social references. --from publisher description.

“The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s authoritarian appeal.”—Salon
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 alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.
Written during the Great Depression,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In early 20th century California, two teenage boys help an eccentric inventor get backing and approval for his innovative aircraft.

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...