Sister Carrie (Barnes & Noble Classics S - Theodore Dreiser [233]
—from Homage to Theodore Dreiser (1971)
Question
1. Does Dreiser imply or describe an underlying cause for the economic disparities described in Sister Carrie— something beyond individual fear and desire, something systematic? Does Dreiser imply or advocate a cure for these economic problems? If he offers no solution, does that diminish the power of his description or his criticism?
2. If you were a good friend of Carrie’s, someone who could speak to her frankly, what advice would you give her?
3. Is Dreiser a good psychologist? Do his characters’ motives, their responses to their situations, their thoughts, seem plausible or insightful?
For Further Reading
Biographies
Dreiser, Theodore. Dawn: An Autobiography of Early Youth. 1931. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1998.
———. Theodore Dreiser: Interviews. Edited by Frederic E. Rusch and Donald Pizer. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
Eastman, Yvette Szekely. Dearest Wilding: A Memoir, with Love Letters from Theodore Dreiser. Edited by Thomas P. Riggio. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
Lingeman, Richard. Theodore Dreiser: At the Gates of the City (1871-1907). New York: Putnam, 1986.
Loving, Jerome. The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Matthiessen, F. O. Theodore Dreiser. New York: Sloane, 1951.
Swanberg, W. A. Dreiser. New York: Scribner, 1965.
Criticisms
Fisher, Philip. Hard Facts: Setting and Form in the American Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Kazin, Alfred. On Native Grounds: An Interpretation of Modern American Prose Literature. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Kazin, Alfred, and Charles Shapiro, eds. The Stature of Theodore Dreiser. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958.
Moers, Ellen. Two Dreisers: The Man and the Novelist as Revealed in His Two Most Important Books: Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. New York: Viking, 1969.
Pizer, Donald. The Novels of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Study. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976.
Warren, Robert Penn. Homage to Theodore Dreiser. New York: Random House, 1971.
Books About the Times
Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House. 1910. New York: Signet Classics, 1961.
Beer, Thomas. The Mauve Decade. 1926. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1997.
Carnegie, Andrew. 1900. The Gospel of Wealth, and Other Timely Essays. Edited by Edward C. Kirkland. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.
Veblen, Thorstein. 1899. Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Penguin, 1994.
Ziff, Larzer. The American 1890s: Life and Times of a Lost Generation. New York: Viking, 1966.
a
City north of Chicago noted for its opulent resorts and healing spring waters.
b
Working-class street on Chicago’s near West Side.
c
By 1890 Chicago’s population had soared to more than 1 million; in 1880 it had been 503,000.
d
Theater on Halstead and Madison Streets on Chicago’s West Side.
e
Dreiser situates Fitzgerald and Moy in the bustling center of downtown Chicago.
f
Joseph Jefferson was a star actor admired for his portrayal of Rip Van Winkle in a play Hurstwood disparages (see p. 102).
g
Popular 1887 farce by Charles H. Hoyt.
h
An elegant restaurant Drouet liked to frequent.
i
Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1885 operetta, a smash hit in its first New York run, was wildly popular throughout the entire country.
j
Card game in which each player gets five cards, and the player who trumps must win three tricks to win a hand. The verb “euchre” means to deceive or trick somebody.
k
The term sec designates a dry white wine or champagne.
l
Resort northwest of Chicago.
m
A patent medicine.
n
The leading theater in Chicago during the 1880s and 1890s.
o
Kinsley’s was a restaurant on Adams Street, and the Tremont was a venerable