Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser

Description

A country girl moves to the big city and lives her own version of the American Dream by becoming mistress to the men of her choice and so working her way to fame as an actress. Sinclair Lewis said of the novel in 1930, "Dreiser's great first novel, Sister Carrie, which he dared to publish thirty long years ago and which I read twenty-five years ago, came to housebound and airless America like a great free Western wind, and to our stuffy domesticity gave us the first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman."

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775415916
• Langue: English

Extrait

SISTER CARRIE
A NOVEL
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THEODORE DREISER
 
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Sister Carrie A Novel First published in 1900.
ISBN 978-1-775415-91-6
© 2009 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
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Contents
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Chapter I - The Magnet Attracting—A Waif Amid Forces Chapter II - What Poverty Threatened—Of Granite and Brass Chapter III - Wee Question of Fortune—Four-Fifty a Week Chapter IV - The Spendings of Fancy—Facts Answer with Sneers Chapter V - A Glittering Night Flower—The Use of a Name Chapter VI - The Machine and the Maiden—A Knight of to-Day Chapter VII - The Lure of the Material—Beauty Speaks for Itself Chapter VIII - Intimations by Winter—An Ambassador Summoned Chapter IX - Convention's Own Tinder-Box—The Eye that is Green Chapter X - The Counsel of Winter—Fortune's Ambassador Calls Chapter XI - The Persuasion of Fashion—Feeling Guards O'Er Its Own Chapter XII - Of the Lamps of the Mansions—The Ambassador Plea Chapter XIII - His Credentials Accepted—A Babel of Tongues Chapter XIV - With Eyes and not Seeing—One Influence Wanes Chapter XV - The Irk of the Old Ties—The Magic of Youth Chapter XVI - A Witless Aladdin—The Gate to the World Chapter XVII - A Glimpse Through the Gateway—Hope Lightens the Eye Chapter XVIII - Just Over the Border—A Hail and Farewell Chapter XIX - An Hour in Elfland—A Clamour Half Heard Chapter XX - The Lure of the Spirit—The Flesh in Pursuit Chapter XXI - The Lure of the Spirit—The Flesh in Pursuit Chapter XXII - The Blaze of the Tinder—Flesh Wars with the Flesh Chapter XXIII - A Spirit in Travail—One Rung Put Behind Chapter XXIV - Ashes of Tinder—A Face at the Window Chapter XXV - Ashes of Tinder—The Loosing of Stays Chapter XXVI - The Ambassador Fallen—A Search for the Gate Chapter XXVII - When Waters Engulf Us We Reach for a Star Chapter XXVIII - A Pilgrim, an Outlaw—The Spirit Detained Chapter XXIX - The Solace of Travel—The Boats of the Sea Chapter XXX - The Kingdom of Greatness—The Pilgrim a Dream Chapter XXXI - A Pet of Good Fortune—Broadway Flaunts Its Joys Chapter XXXII - The Feast of Belshazzar—A Seer to Translate Chapter XXXIII - Without the Walled City—The Slope of the Years Chapter XXXIV - The Grind of the Millstones—A Sample of Chaff Chapter XXXV - The Passing of Effort—The Visage of Care Chapter XXXVI - A Grim Retrogression—The Phantom of Chance Chapter XXXVII - The Spirit Awakens—New Search for the Gate Chapter XXXVIII - In Elf Land Disporting—The Grim World Without Chapter XXXIX - Of Lights and of Shadows—The Parting of Worlds Chapter XL - A Public Dissension—A Final Appeal Chapter XLI - The Strike Chapter XLII - A Touch of Spring—The Empty Shell Chapter XLIII - The World Turns Flatterer—An Eye in the Dark Chapter XLIV - And this is not Elf Land—What Gold Will not Buy Chapter XLV - Curious Shifts of the Poor Chapter XLVI - Stirring Troubled Waters Chapter XLVII - The Way of the Beaten—A Harp in the Wind
Chapter I - The Magnet Attracting—A Waif Amid Forces
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When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, hertotal outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitationalligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and ayellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap ofpaper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and fourdollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteenyears of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions ofignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at partingcharacterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantagesnow being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewellkiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flourmill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as thefamiliar green environs of the village passed in review, and thethreads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home wereirretrievably broken.
To be sure there was always the next station, where one mightdescend and return. There was the great city, bound more closelyby these very trains which came up daily. Columbia City was notso very far away, even once she was in Chicago. What, pray, is afew hours—a few hundred miles? She looked at the little slipbearing her sister's address and wondered. She gazed at thegreen landscape, now passing in swift review, until her swifterthoughts replaced its impression with vague conjectures of whatChicago might be.
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of twothings. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better,or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue andbecomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under thecircumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunningwiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more humantempter. There are large forces which allure with all thesoulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human.The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as thepersuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half theundoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplishedby forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, avast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses inequivocal terms. Without a counsellor at hand to whispercautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these thingsbreathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognised for what they are,their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, thenperverts the simpler human perceptions.
Caroline, or Sister Carrie, as she had been half affectionatelytermed by the family, was possessed of a mind rudimentary in itspower of observation and analysis. Self-interest with her washigh, but not strong. It was, nevertheless, her guidingcharacteristic. Warm with the fancies of youth, pretty with theinsipid prettiness of the formative period, possessed of a figurepromising eventual shapeliness and an eye alight with certainnative intelligence, she was a fair example of the middleAmerican class—two generations removed from the emigrant. Bookswere beyond her interest—knowledge a sealed book. In theintuitive graces she was still crude. She could scarcely tossher head gracefully. Her hands were almost ineffectual. Thefeet, though small, were set flatly. And yet she was interestedin her charms, quick to understand the keener pleasures of life,ambitious to gain in material things. A half-equipped littleknight she was, venturing to reconnoitre the mysterious city anddreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, whichshould make it prey and subject—the proper penitent, grovellingat a woman's slipper.
"That," said a voice in her ear, "is one of the prettiest littleresorts in Wisconsin."
"Is it?" she answered nervously.
The train was just pulling out of Waukesha. For some time shehad been conscious of a man behind. She felt him observing hermass of hair. He had been fidgetting, and with natural intuitionshe felt a certain interest growing in that quarter. Hermaidenly reserve, and a certain sense of what was conventionalunder the circumstances, called her to forestall and deny thisfamiliarity, but the daring and magnetism of the individual, bornof past experiences and triumphs, prevailed. She answered.
He leaned forward to put his elbows upon the back of her seat andproceeded to make himself volubly agreeable.
"Yes, that is a great resort for Chicago people. The hotels areswell. You are not familiar with this part of the country, areyou?"
"Oh, yes, I am," answered Carrie. "That is, I live at ColumbiaCity. I have never been through here, though."
"And so this is your first visit to Chicago," he observed.
All the time she was conscious of certain features out of theside of her eye. Flush, colourful cheeks, a light moustache, agrey fedora hat. She now turned and looked upon him in full, theinstincts of self-protection and coquetry mingling confusedly inher brain.
"I didn't say that," she said.
"Oh," he answered, in a very pleasing way and with an assumed airof mistake, "I thought you did."
Here was a type of the travelling canvasser for a manufacturinghouse—a class which at that time was first being dubbed by theslang of the day "drummers." He came within the meaning of astill newer term, which had sprung into general use amongAmericans in 1880, and which concisely expressed the thought ofone whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit theadmiration of susceptible young women—a "masher." His suit wasof a striped and crossed pattern of brown wool, new at that time,but since become familiar as a business suit. The low crotch ofthe vest revealed a stiff shirt bosom of white and pink stripes.From his coat sleeves protruded a pair of linen cuffs of the samepattern, fastened with large, gold plate buttons, set with thecommon yellow agates known as "cat's-eyes." His fingers boreseveral rings—one, the ever-enduring heavy seal—and from hisvest dangled a neat gold watch chain, from which was suspendedthe secret insignia of the Order of Elks. The whole suit wasrather tight-fitting, and was finished off with heavy-soled tanshoes, highly polished, and the grey fedora hat. He was, for theorder of intellect represented, attractive, and whatever he hadto recommend him, you may be sure was not lost upon Carrie, inthis, her first glance.
Lest this order of individual should permanently pass, let me putdown some of the most striking characteristics of his mostsuccessful manner and method. Good clothes, of course, were thefirst essential, the things without which he was nothing. Astrong physical nature, actuated by a keen d