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Eighteen-year-old Carrie Meeber leaves rural Wisconsin in 1889 to live with her sister in Chicago

Sister Carrie

by Theodore Dreiser

1900557 pagesModerate readSteady pace
★ Modern Library 100 Best Novels (editors' list, 1998), No. 33

A young woman from Wisconsin moves to Chicago and into a more public life

Caroline "Carrie" Meeber is an eighteen-year-old from rural Wisconsin who moves to Chicago in 1889 to live with her sister, Minnie Hanson. Her relationships with Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman, and George Hurstwood, a bar manager, shape her move into a more materialistic and public life. The story runs from 1889 to 1893 and moves from Chicago to New York City and Montreal. Doubleday, Page published it in 1900.

More about this book

Who

Carrie Meeber, Charles Drouet and George Hurstwood.

World

Chicago, New York City and Montreal, 1889 to 1893.

What makes it different

Publishers printed 1,008 copies in November 1900, and only 456 sold. From 1900 to 1980 all editions used an altered text, and Dreiser's original version first appeared in 1981.

Feel

Realistic and unhurried.

See it on Amazon

Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition

Further reading

About the author

Theodore Dreiser2 books on Tori Books