Theodore Dreiser : Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men (Library of America) [Hardcover]

Theodore Dreiser (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of America | Publication Date: June 15, 1987

A master of naturalism, Theodore Dreiser brought the American novel into the twentieth century. Fascinated by the city street, its parade of fashion and its threat of poverty and degradation, his journalistic eye lets us see as they were first seen the now familiar realities of modern living. "Sister Carrie" traces the fate of a small-town girl drawn into the brutal metropolitan worlds of Chicago and New York, and Sinclair Lewis called it "the first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman." "Jennie Gerhardt"'s vital but naive heroine emerges superior to the succession of men who exploit her. With honest emotion and respect for unvarnished truth, "Twelve Men" muses on the exemplary lives of ordinary men in search of lasting values with which to face the new century. Together, these three works exemplify the energy, originality, and genius of one of the great modern American writers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jennie Gerhardt" is the best American novel I have ever read, with the lonesome but Himalayan exception of "Huckleberry Finn." -- H.L. Mencken

From the Publisher

The Library of America is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project is the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic).

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1168 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (June 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940450410
• ISBN-13: 978-0940450417
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #719,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unclear, February 28, 2009

By 

A. Apter "caro fan" (springfield n.j.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Theodore Dreiser : Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men (Library of America) (Hardcover)

These novels of course represent the best in literature, but LOA has left it unclear whether their version of Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt are the unexpurgated or heavily edited, tamed-dowm versions, the former recently released by Penguin Books. If not, this volume would be of little interest.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Introduction to Theodore Dreiser, January 31, 2011

By 

H.D. - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Theodore Dreiser : Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men (Library of America) (Hardcover)

I have enjoyed "Sister Carrie" and "Jennie Gerhardt" very much. The lives led by ordinary and extraordinary people before the turn of century is enlightening and makes for compelling reading. Both novels are well paced and realistic and for me, praise from Sinclair Lewis and H.L. Mencken is enough reason to discover Theodore Dreiser.
I have not read Twelve Men yet but will in the near future.
I also would like to recommend the publisher "The Library of America", a non-profit publisher dedicated to preserving the works of America's greatest writers. These volumes are hardbound with cloth coverings, acid free paper, and ribbon markers, a chronology and notes on the text is usually included. In edition to this book I recently read this publisher's tribute to Dawn Powell, an outstanding book and author.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A highwayscribery "Book Report", August 28, 2009

By 

Stephen Siciliano "the highway scribe" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Theodore Dreiser : Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men (Library of America) (Hardcover)

Theodore Dreiser's works hold up well as storytelling while offering the added advantage of being timepieces.

"Sister Carrie" and "Jennie Gerhardt" are similar tales of young girls whose youthful sexuality aid their flight from poverty.

Carrie and Jennie are sympathetic, nonetheless, because their climbs up the social latter are propelled, not by their own guile, but by that of the wealthy men who would deign to enjoy their youthful bounty.

Both attain fates that are only satisfactory and we will leave it at that so as not to spoil either novel's end point.

Dreiser wrote in a smooth style with more than a touch of density to it. He often erred on the side of expository writing, describing events and also telling you what they meant, rather than hitching them to action.

Nonetheless, the tales can hook you and make for engrossing reading because of the writer's thoroughness and the extreme polish he gave the prose.

The "Twelve Men" portion of the book is lengthy as either novel, without the advantage of narrative continuity, but still offers much. The characters are colorful, but unique mostly as products of a time that has passed and therefore impossible to duplicate or find in contemporary types.

Althought he lived well into the 1940s, these works are essentially post-Civil War works rendered by a younger man of German family reared in Indiana. His America is that of the Industrial Revolution. It is that bygone America where the beehive of industry is clustered along the shores of the Great Lakes.

Its gritty capitals are Chicago, Columbus and Cleveland. Their supporting casts are the smaller towns of his home state, Illinois, and Ohio. Railroads are king and the poor loiter around tracks looking for spare bits of coal that drop from hopper cars to warm their homes.

His New York is the New York of Broadway when Broadway was alone and uncontested by the film business for supremacy in the world of spectacle. It is the New York of the horse-drawn carriage and mule-driven dray, of the great Gilded Age fortunes.

This Library of America collection offers a view of these bygone eras and the people who strove in them through the skilled writing hand and practiced journalist's eye of an American literary stalwart.