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Sinclair Lewis
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Main Street Paperback – February 13, 2021

by Sinclair Lewis (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 430 ratings
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Main Street by Sinclair Lewis is a classic novel that follows the life of Carol Milford, a young woman from the Midwest who moves to a small town in the hopes of bringing progressive change to the conservative community. Throughout the book, Carol struggles with the townspeople's resistance to her progressive ideas, as well as her own feelings of alienation and loneliness. Written with wit and pathos, Main Street is a timeless look at small-town life and the individual's struggle to make a difference. The book is a must-read for lovers of classic literature, offering an insightful look at human nature and the challenges of living in a conformist society. Its themes of progress versus tradition and individualism versus conformity remain relevant to this day, making Main Street an essential read for anyone interested in American literature.

Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, making him the first American to receive the award. He was known for his satiric works, which often depicted the social and economic conditions of the early 20th century. His most famous works include Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Dodsworth. Lewis was a prolific writer and his works are still widely read today. He was a leader in the development of the modern American novel, and his novels set the standard for subsequent generations of American authors. Lewis's work is often credited with helping to bring about social change in the United States, and he was a vocal critic of American society's hypocrisy and materialism. He remains one of the most influential authors in American literature and his works continue to inspire new generations of readers.
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  1. Print length
    296 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    February 13, 2021
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.74 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-13
    979-8709076167
  6. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08WJY83JS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (February 13, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8709076167
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.13 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.74 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 430 ratings

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Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis

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Sinclair Lewis was born in 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and graduated from Yale University in 1908. His college career was interrupted by various part-time occupations, including a period working at the Helicon Home Colony, Upton Sinclair's socialist experiment in New Jersey. He worked for some years as a free lance editor and journalist, during which time he published several minor novels. But with the publication of Main Street (1920), which sold half a million copies, he achieved wide recognition. This was followed by the two novels considered by many to be his finest, Babbitt (1922) and Arrowsmith (1925), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1926, but declined by Lewis. In 1930, following Elmer Gantry (1927) and Dodsworth (1929), Sinclair Lewis became the first American author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for distinction in world literature. This was the apogee of his literary career, and in the period from Ann Vickers (1933) to the posthumously published World So Wide (1951) Lewis wrote ten novels that reveal the progressive decline of his creative powers. From Main Street to Stockholm, a collection of his letters, was published in 1952, and The Man from Main Street, a collection of essays, in 1953. During his last years Sinclair Lewis wandered extensively in Europe, and after his death in Rome in 1951 his ashes were returned to his birthplace.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
430 global ratings
A Beautiful Clodhopper
5 Stars
A Beautiful Clodhopper
The Heritage Press edition of Main Street is notable, not simply because of the fame of the illustrator, because of its unified design elements.The illustrator, Grant Wood, produced 8 full page illustrations, styled as "portraits," realistic, solemn, yet sharp in their satire.The book's designer, William Kittredge of Chicago's Lakeside Press, wanted a homey and unassuming feel for the book. What he assembled is certainly one of the more interesting of the Heritage books: an almost square book in a dusty blue slipcase, bound in a blue cloth reminiscent of denim with a muddy tan spine. The text and illustrations are on modest flat, tan paper. I find it an utterly inelegant yet beautiful piece of work.The edition, originally released by LEC in 1937, was honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for Outstanding Design.With an introduction by Lewis written for the 1937 edition, 367 pp, with a sewn binding.
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Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2014
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Totally brilliant. About a woman wanting it all. Written in the 20s about the first decade of the 20th century in small town America. Not an completely easy to read because of the use of now forgotten slang, but Lewis is a clear and evocative writer.
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Ronnie Tyler
4.0 out of 5 stars An absorbing but depressing look at the Any-town, USA ethos.
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2018
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I enjoyed this one. Well-written, capturing the mindset of a barely-town that doesn’t think much of them thar newfangled ideas from those hoity-toity Big City know-it-all folks. Carol is thwarted in each attempt to improve the fictional dump named Gopher Prairie - from the condescending gossipy church ladies, to the town’s “movers and shakers,” no one takes her suggestions well. The only sympathetic ear belongs to the a local handyman (a socialist! <gasp>) named Miles, known as the “Red Swede,” and he’s probably the most disliked man in town. A realistic novel, illustrating the small town hypocrisy that is everywhere: puritanical, snoopy busybodies backstabbing their “friends,” and feeling morally superior while doing it. So really, Gopher Prairie is much like countless other American burgs. Published in 1920, not much has changed as far as the small town mentality seen in Main Street. Good book.
12 people found this helpful
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Charles Holst
5.0 out of 5 stars Things haven't really changed all that much
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2016
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Main Street is an American classic that I somehow missed until now, despite growing up in Minnesota. (I'm now reading Babbit!) I know there was a lot of antagonism against Lewis for his portrayal of life in small town Minnesota, and maybe that's why I don't recall any discussion of him or his fiction in high school in the early 60's despite the fact that he was Minnesota's and the USA's first Nobel laureate for literature (Bob Dylan is the latest). Given this controversy, I was surprised to find that the novel is as much or more about the main protagonist, Carol Kennecott, as about the narrowness of small town life. Raised in the Universalist Church in Saint Paul, Minn., college-trained daughter of a judge, she is very much a fish out of water when she marries a country doctor and moves with him to his home town of Gopher Prairie sometime around 1912. Most of the book is about her struggles to both fit into and to reform the social life and amenities of the town. Ultimately, after working with the women's movement in Washington, DC, she returns to Gopher Prairie and her husband, who is really a very decent man, having learned her limitations without conceding defeat.

One of the fascinating things about reading this book is seeing continuities between then and now. Small business men are still (mostly) anti-union Republicans; socialism is still seen as a menace by many, immigrants (Swedes then, Somalis now) are still derided or treated with suspicion by many in the area, and poverty is still seen by many as due solely to laziness. A hundred years later, things haven't really changed all that much.
53 people found this helpful
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pat noles
3.0 out of 5 stars OLD AS TIME CONFLICT IN RELATIONSHIP
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2014
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The continual conflict between Will and Carol was the difference in their outlook on life. She was a liberal and he a conservative, their outlook on life so far apart that it was a miracle they could live under the same roof. I liked the story but grew weary of and felt sorry about the dissatisfaction in Carol's life. Looking at her life from another point of view, one that many women of the time would have envied, she had a husband who adored her who provided well for her and was very tolerant of her, even putting up with her continual crusade to change Gopher Prairie and her wish that Will could change to become a man much like her father.

I enjoyed the author's style of writing, the vocabulary of the day, his insight into relationships.
8 people found this helpful
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Max Herbert
5.0 out of 5 stars Trump should be forced to read this...
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019
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My rating is based on how relevant this book still is. I live in small Alberta town, Grande Prairie, and to no surprise, everyone calls it "GP"! It's much like Lewis's GP, without the 'murican Boosting. Considering the world he was forced to live in, no wonder Mr. Lewis drank himself to death...
7 people found this helpful
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Denius
4.0 out of 5 stars Main Street Rumbles on
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2014
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People took fiction more seriously back then, I think. Hard to think of a novel stirring so much outrage today. The specific preoccupations of small-town America have changed a bit, but I do not think the overall attitudes and the small mindedness have. There would definitely be the same inferiority complex as regards 'the East'. Today's equivalent book might be something like "Deerhunting with Jesus". Although not hugely exciting, I read this book through to the end, so it held my attention; that and the fact that it is a "classic" and tells something of social history, gets it the four stars. It is polemical, the plot is the setup or the synopsis as given in the description, the various plot twists do not make for an exciting story but rather are pieces that back up the intention. In a way we get to know the main protagonist, Carol, intimately. in another way she is a cipher to be cast aside once the point has been made, and this becomes particularly evident at the end, where the culminating events are dealt with briefly (she tries out independence by moving to Washington DC with her young son) in comparison to what has gone before, as if the author, once he had made his points, did not have to bother much more with his heroine. So in a way we feel we hardly know her although we have spent so many pages in her company.
21 people found this helpful
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Terry Reznicek
5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written, of course. Very insightful into ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2017
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Very well written, of course. Very insightful into the world of the conservative small town. Issues raised here are still relevant today.
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Cat Lover
4.0 out of 5 stars misc
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2023
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The believability of story was good as were the developing of the various characters. The early part of the book was a bit slow.
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Top reviews from other countries

Andre Pelletier
5.0 out of 5 stars An fascinating insight into the mind and the customs of Hawthorne's era
Reviewed in Canada on February 22, 2024
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Very useful in my studies on XIXth Century American literature
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mrs c m chambers
5.0 out of 5 stars Very thoughtful book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2022
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This book made me pause quite often during reading it to question how far our society has come ( or has it?). I also talked to women of different generations to ask their opinion on some of the themes raised in the book. I recommend it thoroughly.
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Amazon Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2022
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An interesting novel about the social history of America transitioning into the modern era. The protagonist is interesting rather than engaging.
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Christopher prost
5.0 out of 5 stars a classic which everyone should read!
Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2021
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There is nothing like a small town! and nobody has brought one to life like Sinclair Lewis! all the characters with their petty faults and good qualities too...the sameness of each day, how the main character (Carol Kennicot) learned to live with them all....it's a great read...and I have read it more than once!
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Badly scanned. not very readable
Reviewed in Canada on April 5, 2020
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Only problem is with the reading experience. Badly scanned/re-produced.
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