The Jungle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [Paperback]

Upton Sinclair (Author), Charles Burns (Illustrator), Eric Schlosser (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: March 28, 2006

Upton Sinclair's dramatic and deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century and brought into sharp moral focus the apalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, the book was championed by more progressive thinkers, including then president Theodore Roosevelt, and was a major catalyst to the passing of the Pure Food and Meat Inspection act, which has tremendous impact to this day.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) was born in Baltimore. At age fifteen, he began writing a series of dime novels in order to pay for his education at the City College of New York. He was later accepted to do graduate work at Columbia, and while there he published a number of novels, including The Journal of Arthur Stirling (1903) and Manassas (1904). Sinclair’s breakthrough came in 1906 with the publication of The Jungle, a scathing indictment of the Chicago meat-packing industry. His later works include World’s End (1940), Dragon’s Teeth (1942), which won him a Pulitzer Prize, O Shepherd, Speak! (1949) and Another Pamela (1950).

Charles Burns, a former contributor to Art Spiegelman’s Raw magazine, is an illustrator whose work has included the covers of major magazines and CDs. His most well- known comics are Black Hole, Big Baby, and Skin Deep.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014303958X
• ISBN-13: 978-0143039587
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Labor & Industrial Relations
  • #73 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Emigration & Immigration

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening, except the ending December 19, 2006

By Jody

Format:Paperback

I have been meaning to read this book for years as it's always been heralded as a monumental book that changed the meat packing industry and workers' rights in the early 20th century. Upon finally reading it this year (2006) I was stunned - mainly because I had read Fast Food Nation a few years ago and many things described in The Jungle had similarily been described in Fast Food Nation, which was written in 2005. The workers have simply shifted - instead of coming from Europe they are now from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

No doubt this book is eye opening - to the struggle of immigrants looking for a better place, to workers' rights (and lack thereof), to regulations of the food industry, to bribery and general disregard of the law due to greed. The ordeals and struggles Jurgis deals with are unbelieveable and when reading you'll keep thinking "Well, it can't get any worse" and yet somehow it does.

I did have a few difficulties in reading the book. First, for some reason I had (wrongly) assumed this was a non-fiction book ever since I read about it in Jr. High History class. This is a fiction novel, however it is based on Sinclair's studies of the meat packing industry and the tenements. Second, the characters are mostly of Lithuanian descent with extremely complex names. I had a bit of trouble keeping up with who everyone was in the beginning and kept getting everyone confused for the first 50 or so pages.

A general dislike from many readers is the ending. Throughout the book, Jurgis is depicted a simple country man, just wanting to earn a decent living and support his family. You do see his evolution in learning how to "work the system" to his advantage as he becomes more and more disenchanted with his new surroundings. Towards the end of the book, he finds Socialism. However, it's almost as if Sinclair forgets who his character is. While Jurgis might have found Socialism on his own and become extremely passionate, he would not have spoke in such educated and expressive words that Sinclair portrays. The end comes across as feeling "tacked on" by Sinclair himself and seem as if you are reading the end of a completely different novel. Still, this book is worth the read for the first several hundred pages anyway.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An Eye Opener March 15, 2006

By K. Jarvis

Format:Paperback

For me this book was a real eye opener in relation three areas. 1.Immigrant life in the 1800s. It is a sad commentary on the US governement, and how they allowed people to be treated as nothing more than animals. It makes one appreciate the struggles our ancestors went through to make a life for themselves and their future families. 2. The roots of Unions for the US workers. 3. The method used to process meat. Hopefully it has significantly improved since that time period...it's amazing more people didn't die from the food they ate. It has been more than a year since I read the book and still look hesitantly at the meat counter. The story is a good reason to consider becoming a vegetarian.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Edition of a Classic Novel April 28, 2011

By Lauren

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The most common comment about The Jungle is that it was a primary factor in the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. That was all the information I had when I first read it about twenty years ago. It turned out to be a powerful novel about immigrants and their treatment at the hands of businesses, especially in the Chicago meatpacking industry. This is a book well worth reading. I recommend it for any book club because it IS going to engender a lively and perhaps controversial discussion.

I already owned the book in a second edition, but when I saw this new edition from Penguin Classics I bought it. PC editions of classics, especially these Deluxe ones with thick paper covers, rich paper, French flaps, and exquisite designs are among the most beautiful books being issued today--especially when one considers that they are paperbacks. They are worth owning if you appreciate the work and beauty of cover design. What makes this one exceptional is the back cover (which Amazon allows you to see); I recommend checking it out . . . but probably not while eating.

Eric Schlosser wrote the foreword, and it is an excellent essay. He tackles the human interest aspect of the story which is, after all, why Sinclair originally wrote it. To see that things from both a human perspective as well as a food one, have pretty much returned to, just over 100 years after the book's publication, is devastating. Equally compelling is the Introduction by Ronald Gottesman, who shares Sinclair's history as well as that of the book's coming of age and its impact. These two essays add a rich complexity to this particular edition, making it, in its own way, even better than my original edition.

Also included after the Introdiuction, are two-and-a-half pages of "Suggestions for Further Reading" that are well worth considering. It's a shame, really, that The Jungle has been pretty much forgotten as a novel because its dual components--how we treat not just immigrants but our fellow human beings, and how we sacrificing our food quality and cleanliness to cheapness--is very much a part of the twenty-first century. Do we really not want to understand our past? Or do we just prefer to repeat it?