DOCSLIB.ORG

Helen Marjorie Norman, B. A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

3 1 t 9 SATIRE ON AMERICAN LIFE AS PORTRAYED I TItE NOVELS OF SINCIAIR LETIS THESIS p resented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State Teachers College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTERR OF ARTS By Helen Marjorie Norman, B. A. Blum, Texas August, 1940 k8837t TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . f- . - - . .- . Criticisms of Lewis's Novels as a Whole Criticism of the Individual Novels II. SATIRECTLIFE IN SMALL A TOE . , . , 17 Summary of Main Street A DescriptionofSmall Towns The Citizens The Educational Facilities Economic Conditions Social Background Religious Background The Discontent of the People III. SATIRE ON THE LIFE OF A BUIST TI AN *f . 34 The Business Man's Lack of Integrity The Hypocrisy of the Business Man Educational Background Social Background Political Background Religious Background Summary of Babbitt, Mantrap, Dodsworth and Work of A rt IV. CRITICISM OF TIT MEDICAL PROFESSION . 60 Summary of Arrowsmith Professors of Medica Institutions Fraternities of Medical Schools Students of Medical Universities Commercialism of Medical Institutions Trials of an Honest Physician V. SATIRE ON CERTAIN PHASES OF RELIGION . .76 Faults of the Church and Sunday School The Modern Gospel Social-service Organizations 111 " - ,. ._ T__,-'M .. ..... u v7. ... .. ,+. dt 7;e4y8t6b «k r. s _wr- w ,- : 6:n=N- _ _.... Chapter Impostures in the Church Hypocrisy of Evangelists Insincerity of the Ministers Differences of Religious Sects Summary of Elmer Gant VI. CRITICISM OF POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND SOCIAL REFOR1T . , . * * . * * . , * , * * 93 Summary of The Man Who Knew CoolieAnn Vickers, It Can'tTappen Here, and TET Lr2tgal Parer Ignorance ofPoliticians Ignorance of People Who Vote Faults in the Democratic Government Criticism of the president Criticism of the courts Unions and organized labor Failure of Social Organizations Deplorable conditions of society Deplorable conditions of prisons Capital punishment Hardships of the social workers VII. CONCLUSION * * - * * . 121 - . 125 IBLIO R [ . iv w CHAPTER I -INTRODUCTION Sinclair Lewis has not been content to paint idealistic pictures of America wherein the people are romantic, cultured, and unusually interested in ordinary life. He has seen through close observation and experience that there are weaknesses in certain phases of American life, and he has criticized most severely the politics, government, social organizations, busi- ness, medical professions, religion, and small town society of our country. In comparison with the civilization found in the old world, American people are sadly lacking. Their attitudes toward education, religion, society, and politics are deplor-- able. Since 1920, Lewis has written only novels in which he has ridiculed the leading phases of American life. He has given an exact picture; he has left no faults uncovered. He loves America and he hates to see her in a state of degenera-- tion. He has tried to appeal to the human side of his public in order to open the eyes of America to her own defects. He has been cynical, satirical, and humorous in his attempt to picture America as she really is. I have chosen the novels that Lewis has written since the year 1920 to show that he has satirized America in her 1 2" various phases of life. I have not explored the fields of poetry and drama nor the earlier novels; for beginning with Main Street in 1920 and ending with the Pr PigIarents in 1938, Lewis has depicted the faults of a nation struggling for peace and security in a world of materialistic ideals. He has become a classic figure in American fiction, and his leading novels, which I shall discuss, promise to be read by a long posterity. From my survey of these novels and the criticisms which I have found in various books and periodi- cals published since the appearance of Min Street, I wish to show how Sinclair Lewis has satirized certain phases of American life. Since the last war, the business world, re- ligion, the medical associations, the social organizations, the small towns, and the politics and government of America have been open to candid criticism; and Lewis has painted a realistic picture of these conditions in a manner that no other satirist has been able to achieve. In order to present both favorable and unfavorable criticisms concerned with the novels of Lewis, I have first chosen those critics who have Judged the novels as a whole; and then I have selected criticisms of the individual novels in the order in which the novels were written. In the Lv Age for April, 1930, Morand, a modern critic, has written a very commendable criticism concerning the works of Sinclair Lewis. Morand realizes that since 1920, the American public has clamored for more realistic writing than that which had been offered in previous years, and he sympathizes with Lewis as a lover of America who has tried to aid her in mending her faults. Morand writes as follows: It was high time for us to discover this writer who loves his native soil. Between two generations of cosmopolitan Americans so near, indeed too near, to ourselves, Lewis remains standing at the head of a group of men about forty-five years old, a member of what might be called the center party. * . 0 * . *. , , , * Post-war America is becoming more human. It is thirsty for religious tolerance, moral freedom, sexual frankness, diffusion of the arts, and respect other for the fellow. It no longer aspires to be the world's biggest, but the world's best. In an editorial in The Nation for November, 1930, there appears an article in defence of the satirical writings of Lewis. This editorial is in answer to the many bitter at- tacks upon Lewis as winner of the Nobel Prize in 1930: For the first time the Nobel Prize ... for literature has been awarded to an American citizen. is eminently just And it that the award should have been made, for this first time, to Sinclair Lewis. the three He is among or four best known and most widely read American writers, both in the United States His novels and abroad. attain a very high standard of literary cellence. And more a- than any other writer of equal or lesser eminence he has set down the spirit of America, It is interesting to note the attitude with which Europe looks at Sinclair Lewis. In the Bookman for January, 1931, I found the following comment concerning Lewis and the Swedish Academy Award: "Paul Morand Looks atSinclair Lewis," G(1930),253-254. 2 The Nation, CXXXI (1930), 544. 4 One cannot help wondering whether the Swedish Academy did not very largely base its award on is supposed the service Lewis to have rendered Europe in making better understood, America in giving Europeans a better chance cite chapter and to verse for their sneering at our culture. Of . all the living Americn authors, he is the most read and best known in Europe. In the Current Hi for January, 1931, there is a very high praise of the work of Lewis. Lewis Mumford, a mod- ern critic, thinks that Lewis has not been properly comended for his works. This critic defends Lewis in the following statement: He remains the most effective satirist our has produced. His country achievement is no small one; and it merits a closer examination. Carl Van Doren in his biographical sketch of Lewis de- scribed him as "a magic teller of stories." He thinks of Lewis as a sensitive man who loves his country but cannot help seeing its many faults. To Van Doren, Lewis is a spe- cial genius sent to the world of literature to describe a twentieth century America in a manner that may easily be un- derstood by all who read his novels. Van Doren speaks of Lewis in this manner: Sinclair Lewis is the quintessence States, set of the United off by a special genius but not transmuted from the general type. Those inquiring foreigners who in the eighteenth century would Franklin as have sought out Benaamin the essential American, or in Mark Twain, the nineteenth, would in the twentieth find what they looking for were in Sinclair Lewis. If the United States were rich enough, it might well endow him as a permanent H. L. Binsse and John J Sinclair Lewis," TheBookman,. oustie "Europe loks at - .. hII Sinclair Lewis,"(1931),r457r Lewis Mumford, "The America of Sinclair Lewis," Histom, XLXIII (1931), 529. Current 5 exhibit in whom ph losophical visitors could study the national epitome. I found another valuable criticism of Lewis in Hartwick's Foreground ofAmerican Fiction. Hartwick is a true sympa- thizer with Lewis's satire of an America that has grown stale in her culture and ideals. He defends Lewis in the following paragraph: He is representative of that uprising of intel- lectuals which followed the war and (until it to began wane about 1927) took up the cudgels against Methodists, defenders of censorship, hypocrites, pro- hibition, bourgeois foibles, evangelism in business and religion, Victorian standards of conduct, regimentation and of every kind. Lewis has led the fight against Boobus Americanus, that amazingly prevalent individual who feeds on platitudes, the supplies Mercury with material for its "Americana" section each montl, and thinks all foreigners are "radicals". 6 One critic has compared Lewis to 1ark Twain. Carl Van Doren in The American Novel writes this paragraph: The two men had much in common, though a better disciplined Lewis had mind than Mark Twain, and more outspoken courage. Both of them chose and treated large subjects them with high-spirited exuberance. Lewis's chief work carried on the kind of of the present examination which Mark Twain began in his Guilded Aae but did not continue.
Recommended publications
  • UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA Departamento De-Língua E Literatura Estrangeiras SINCLAIR! LEWIS: the NOBLE BARBARIAN A

    UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA Departamento De-Língua E Literatura Estrangeiras SINCLAIR! LEWIS: the NOBLE BARBARIAN A

    UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA Departamento de-Língua e Literatura Estrangeiras SINCLAIR! LEWIS: THE NOBLE BARBARIAN A Study of the Conflict of European and American Values in the Life and Fiction of Sinclair Lewis Tese submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina para a i obtençãoí do grau de Mestre em Letras Hein Leonard Bowles Novembro - 1978 Esta Tese foi julgada adequada para a obtenção do título de MESTRE EM LETRAS Especialidade Língua Inglesa e Literatura Correspondente e aprovada em sua forma final pelo Programa de PÓs-Graduação Pro John Bruce Derrick, PhD Orientador Z&L- Prof. Hilário^hacio Bohn, PhD Integrador do Curso Apresentada perante a Comissão Examinadora composta do; professores: Prof. John Bruce Derrick, PhD Para Dirce, Guilherme e Simone Agradecimentos À Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina À Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa À Fundação Faculdade Estadual de Filosofi de Guarapuava Ao Prof. Dr. John B. Derrick Ao Prof. Dr. Arnold Gordenstein ABSTRACT In Sauk Centre, a fairly new and raw midwestern American town in the first years of our century, a solitary youth reads Kipling, Scott, Tennyson and Dickens and becomes enchanted with Europe: its history, traditions and people. Seeing the monotonous and endless extensions of prairie land, the rustic farmer cottages and the haphazard design of his hometown, he imagines the superior graces of. a variegated European landscape; historical cities, old structures, castles and mansions that hint of aristocratic generations. And his people, engaged in the routine of their daily activities; their settled forms of behavior, conversation and clothing, become ; quite uninspiring for him as contrasted to his idealization of a romantic, exotic and stirring European world wherein cultured gentlemen and gracious ladies abound.
  • Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter VOLUME TWENTY, NUMBER ONE FALL 2011

    Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter VOLUME TWENTY, NUMBER ONE FALL 2011

    The SINCLAIR LEWIS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER VOLUME TWENTY, NUMBER ONE FALL 2011 LANCELOT TODD: A CASE FOR FICTIONAL INDEPENDENCE Samuel J. Rogal Illinois Valley Community College In a neat package of a single paragraph containing a summarization of Lewis’s Lancelot Todd, Mark Schorer de- termined that Lewis’s pre-1920s version of the present-day public relations agent run wild represented a relatively simple “ANOTHER PERFECT DAY”: WEATHER, instrument of his creator’s satire and farce. Schorer labeled MOOD, AND LANDSCAPE IN SINCLAIR Todd “a suave immoralist” and “swindler” who threads his LEWIS’S MINNESOTA DIARY way through a series of short stories with plots that hold no “real interest” and whose principal fictional function focuses Frederick Betz upon Lewis’s preparations for the larger worlds of George Southern Illinois University–Carbondale Babbitt and Elmer Gantry (Schorer 239). Although few critical commentators of twenty-first-century American fiction seem- Sinclair Lewis’s Minnesota Diary, 1942–46, superbly ingly have possessed the stamina or willingness to challenge introduced and edited by George Killough, “offers an inside Schorer’s generalized characterization of Todd, there lies suf- view of a very public person,” a “strangely quiet and factual” ficient evidence in the stories themselves to allow for at least diarist, who “keeps meticulous notes on weather, writes ap- a defense of Todd as a character who might somehow stand preciative descriptions of scenery, mentions hundreds of people independent of the likes of Babbitt and Gantry. he is meeting, and chronicles exploratory trips around Min- Lancelot Todd appears in seven Lewis stories published nesota” (15).
  • GUARDIANS of AMERICAN LETTERS Roster As of February 2021

    GUARDIANS of AMERICAN LETTERS Roster As of February 2021

    GUARDIANS OF AMERICAN LETTERS roster as of February 2021 An Anonymous Gift in honor of those who have been inspired by the impassioned writings of James Baldwin James Baldwin: Collected Essays In honor of Daniel Aaron Ralph Waldo Emerson: Collected Poems & Translations Charles Ackerman Richard Wright: Early Novels Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation Reporting World War II, Part II, in memory of Pfc. Paul Cauley Clark, U.S.M.C. The Civil War: The Third Year Told By Those Who Lived It, in memory of William B. Warren J. Aron Charitable Foundation Richard Henry Dana, Jr.: Two Years Before the Mast & Other Voyages, in memory of Jack Aron Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1975, Parts I & II, in honor of the men and women who served in the War in Vietnam Vincent Astor Foundation, in honor of Brooke Astor Henry Adams: Novels: Mont Saint Michel, The Education Matthew Bacho H. P. Lovecraft: Tales Bay Foundation and Paul Foundation, in memory of Daniel A. Demarest Henry James: Novels 1881–1886 Frederick and Candace Beinecke Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry & Tales Edgar Allan Poe: Essays & Reviews Frank A. Bennack Jr. and Mary Lake Polan James Baldwin: Early Novels & Stories The Berkley Family Foundation American Speeches: Political Oratory from the Revolution to the Civil War American Speeches: Political Oratory from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Clinton The Civil War: The First Year Told By Those Who Lived It The Civil War: The Second Year Told By Those Who Lived It The Civil War: The Final Year Told By Those Who Lived It Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected
  • SINCLAIR LEWIS' Fiction

    SINCLAIR LEWIS' Fiction

    MR, FLANAGAN, who is professoT of American literature in. the University of Illinois, here brings to a total of fifteen his mafor contributions to this magazine. The article's appearance appropriately coincides with the seventy-fifth anniversary of Lewis' birth and the fortieth of the publication of Main Street. The MINNESOTA Backgrounds of SINCLAIR LEWIS' Fiction JOHN T. FLANAGAN SINCLAIR. LEWIS 'was once questioned his picture of Gopher Prairie and Minne­ about the autobiographical elements in sota and the entire Middle W^est became Main Street by a friend 'whose apartment both durable and to a large extent accurate. he 'was temporarily sharing. The novelist A satirist is of course prone to exaggeration. remarked to Charles Breasted that Dr. 'Will Over-emphasis and distortion are his stock Kennicott, the appealing country physician in trade. But despite this tilting of the in his first best seller, 'was a portrait of his balance, his understanding of places and father; and he admitted that Carol, the doc­ events and people must be reliable, other­ tor's 'wife, 'was in many respects indistin­ wise he risks losing touch with reality com­ guishable from himself. Both "Red" Lewis pletely, Lewis was born in Minnesota, he and Carol Kennicott were always groping spent the first seventeen years of his life in for something beyond attainment, always the state, and he returned on frequent visits, dissatisfied, always restless, and although which sometimes involved extensive stays both were frequently scornful of their im­ in Minneapolis, St, Paul, or Duluth, A num­ mediate surroundings they nevertheless ber of his early short stories and six of his lacked any clear vision of what could or twenty-two novels are localized wholly or should be done.
  • Shail, Robert, British Film Directors

    Shail, Robert, British Film Directors

    BRITISH FILM DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL FILM DIRECTOrs Series Editor: Robert Shail This series of reference guides covers the key film directors of a particular nation or continent. Each volume introduces the work of 100 contemporary and historically important figures, with entries arranged in alphabetical order as an A–Z. The Introduction to each volume sets out the existing context in relation to the study of the national cinema in question, and the place of the film director within the given production/cultural context. Each entry includes both a select bibliography and a complete filmography, and an index of film titles is provided for easy cross-referencing. BRITISH FILM DIRECTORS A CRITI Robert Shail British national cinema has produced an exceptional track record of innovative, ca creative and internationally recognised filmmakers, amongst them Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and David Lean. This tradition continues today with L GUIDE the work of directors as diverse as Neil Jordan, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. This concise, authoritative volume analyses critically the work of 100 British directors, from the innovators of the silent period to contemporary auteurs. An introduction places the individual entries in context and examines the role and status of the director within British film production. Balancing academic rigour ROBE with accessibility, British Film Directors provides an indispensable reference source for film students at all levels, as well as for the general cinema enthusiast. R Key Features T SHAIL • A complete list of each director’s British feature films • Suggested further reading on each filmmaker • A comprehensive career overview, including biographical information and an assessment of the director’s current critical standing Robert Shail is a Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Wales Lampeter.
  • Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist

    Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist

    Fort Hays State University FHSU Scholars Repository Master's Theses Graduate School Spring 1951 Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist Milldred L. Bryant-Parsons Fort Hays Kansas State College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bryant-Parsons, Milldred L., "Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist" (1951). Master's Theses. 468. https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses/468 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at FHSU Scholars Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of FHSU Scholars Repository. SINCLAIR LEWIS: SOCIAL SAT I RI ST being A thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Fort Hays Kansas State College in partial fulfillment of the r equirements f or the De gree of Master of Scien ce by ' \, Mrs . Mildred L. Bryant_!arsons , A. B. Kansas We sleyan University Date ~ /ff/f'J{ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express her sincere appreciation to Dr. Ralph V. Coder, under whose direction this thesis was prepared, for his eneour- agement and constructive criticism. Dr. F. B. Streeter has been very helpful in showing the mechanics of thesis writing. Miss Roberta Stout has ' offered many excellent suggestions. The writer also wishes to thank the library staff: Mrs. Pauline Lindner, Miss Helen Mcilrath, and Mrs. Nina McIntosh who have helped in gathering materials. c-1> TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION I • SATIRE ON PSEUDO-CULTURE Mains treet. • • 6 Dodsworth •• . 12 The Prodigal Parents .• 13 II. SATIRE ON RACE PREJUDICE Mantrap • • • • • 15 Kingsblood Royal .
  • Portrayal of Society in the Novels of Sinclair Lewi

    Portrayal of Society in the Novels of Sinclair Lewi

    International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research ISSN: 2455-2070 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.22 www.socialsciencejournal.in Volume 4; Issue 6; November 2018; Page No. 58-61 Portrayal of society in the novels of Sinclair Lewi Neha Garg Research Scholar, Sighania University, Rajasthan, India Abstract Lewis is a critic of his times. He depicts life and society as he sees them. Lewis does not believe in false idealisation of things. Instead, he expresses the sickness and misery of the American Society Lewis has been often called the “Dickens of America”. The peculiar mixture of radicalism and orthodoxy in dickens’ political and social views was much like Lewis’s. Not unlike Dickens, Lewis was always highly critical of American prolities. Keywords: Sinclair Lewi, radicalism and orthodoxy, political and social Introduction condition in American life. Influenced by William James, he Most modern writers portray the tragic experience of the is essentially a pragmatist. According to James, a pragmatist American machine-age. They are disillusioned and sad. The ‘turns away from abstraction and insufficiency, from verbal modern generation, they maintain, is a lost generation devoid solution, from fixed principles, closed systems, and pretended of human values. It is uprooted and betrayed. In such horrible absolutes and origins. He turns towards facts, towards action conditions, the camera eye is a great necessity to make the and towards power [5]. The secret of Lewis’ art is his living the people realize their bad ways of life and save themselves from life of his characters. His emphasis is on creating living dehumanization.
  • The City and the Country in the 1920S: Collected Commentary

    The City and the Country in the 1920S: Collected Commentary

    BECOMING MODERN: AMERICA IN THE 1920S PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION ONTEMPORAR Y IN OMMENTARY THE T WENTIES C Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1922 Ripley, Maine, ca. 1920 — CITY & COUNTRY — * The fact is now an icon of American pivotal moments: the 1920 census revealed that, for the first time in U.S. history, more people lived in urban than in rural areas. The percentages were close—51.2% urban to 48.8% rural, but the significance was astounding. Everyone understood that the trajectory would not change course. The nation of yeoman farmers and stalwart pioneers was passing into history; America was an urban nation. Here we view the city-country divide in the U.S. as perceived in the critical Twenties. After completing a lecture tour of the United States, the English journalist Philip Gibbs Philip Gibbs published his impressions of America and Americans. “Things I Like in the United States” Harper’s, October 1919 I am bound to say that during my visit to the United States I found much more to admire than to criticize, and, perhaps because I was on the lookout for things to like rather than to dislike, I had one of the best times of my life—in some ways the very best—and came away with respect, admiration, and gratitude for the American people. There are so many things I like in their character and way of life that I should be guilty of gushing if I put them all down, but although I have no doubt they have many faults, like most people in this world, I prefer to remember the pleasant, rather than the unpleasant, qualities they possess, especially as they left the most dominant impression on my mind.
  • Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter VOLUME TWENTY-ONE, NUMBER ONE FALL 2012

    Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter VOLUME TWENTY-ONE, NUMBER ONE FALL 2012

    The SINCLAIR LEWIS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER VOLUME TWENTY-ONE, NUMBER ONE FALL 2012 MAIN STREET TO EIGHTH STREET: LEWIS HOUSE AND ST. CLOUD’S SOUTH SIDE NEIGHBORHOOD Alex L. Ames St. Cloud State University Foundation St. Cloud State University has renamed a historic home located on the university campus and received funds for its restora- tion. To celebrate, Stearns History Museum and partners have joined to honor the home’s original owners, Dr. Claude and Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally Parry portray Wilhelmina Mary Lewis. Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson in the 2012 Sinclair Lewis Days parade in Sauk Centre. What’s in a name? When it comes to honoring the legacy THEATER, COMMUNITY, WAR, of an important Minnesota family, the name of a historic build- ing can mean everything. St. Cloud State University’s decision AND MR. LEWIS to rename one of its buildings “Lewis House” has sparked inter- Robert L. McLaughlin est in the relationship between a famous Minnesota author and Illinois State University his brother who lived in St. Cloud. The new name also sheds light on the history of St. Cloud’s South Side, a residential area In 1935 Sinclair Lewis became one of the first American next to St. Cloud State University that many college professors artists to sound the alarm about fascism. In his novel It Can’t and wealthy Protestants once called home. Happen Here he painted the dangers European-style fascism Dr. Claude B. Lewis (1878–1957) of St. Cloud and his presented to liberty, human dignity, and the free, inquiring, brother, author Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951), shared a close yet critical spirit, and showed, controversially, the ways in which complex bond.
  • Sinclair Lewis

    Sinclair Lewis

    SATIRE OF CHARACTERIZATION IN THE FICTION OF SINCLAIR LEWIS by SUE SIMPSON PARK, B.A. , M.A. A DISSERTATION IN ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Technological College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Chairman of the Committee &l^ 1? }n^ci./A^.Q^ Accepted <^ Dean of the Gradu^e SiChool May, 196( (\^ '.-O'p go I 9U I am deeply indebted to Professor Everett A. Gillis for his direction of this dissertation and to the other members of my committee, Professors J. T. McCullen, Jr., and William E. Oden, for their helpful criticism. I would like to express my gratitude, too, to my husband and my daughter, without whose help and encouragement this work would never have been completed. LL CONTENTS I. SINCLAIR LEWIS AND DRAMATIC SATIRE 1 II. THE WORLD OF THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY 33 III. THE PHYSICIAN AND HIS TASK 68 IV. THE ARTIST IN THE AMERICAN MILIEU 99 V. THE DOMESTIC SCENE: WIVES AND MARRIAGE ... 117 VI. THE AMERICAN PRIEST 152 NOTES ^76 BIBLIOGRAPHY 131 ILL CHAPTER I SINCLAIR LEWIS AND DRAMATIC SATIRE In 1930 Sinclair Lewis was probably the most famous American novelist of the time; and that fame without doubt rested, as much as on anything else, on the devastating satire of the American scene contained in his fictional portrayal of the inhabitants of the Gopher Prairies and the Zeniths of the United States. As a satirist, Lewis perhaps ranks with the best--somewhere not far below the great masters of satire, such as Swift and Voltaire.
  • Custom Book List

    Custom Book List

    Custom Book List MANAGEMENT READING WORD BOOK AUTHOR LEXILE® LEVEL GRL POINTS COUNT 10 Fat Turkeys Johnston, Tony 320 1.7 K 1 159 10-Step Guide...Monster Numeroff, Laura 450 1.5 F 1 263 100 Days Of School Harris, Trudy 320 2.2 H 1 271 100th Day Of School Schiller, Melissa 420 2.4 N/A 1 248 100th Day Of School, The Medearis, Angela Shelf 340 1.5 H 1 190 100th Day Worries Cuyler, Margery 360 2.1 L 2 937 100th Day, The Krulik, Nancy 350 2.2 L 4 3,436 101 Hopelessly Hilarious Jokes Eisenberg, Lisa 370 3.1 NR 3 1,873 18 Penny Goose, The Walker, Sally M. 370 2.8 N 2 1,066 20,000 Baseball Cards Under... Buller, Jon 330 2.7 K 2 1,129 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Bowen, Carl 470 2.5 L 3 2,232 23 Ways To Mess Up Valentine's Wesley, Valerie Wilson 490 2.6 N/A 4 8,085 4 Pups And A Worm Seltzer, Eric 350 1.5 H 1 413 763 M.P.H. Fuerst, Jeffrey B. 410 2 NR 3 760 88 Pounds Of Tomatoes Neuschwander, Cindy 400 2.9 L 3 1,687 98, 99, 100! Ready Or Not... Slater, Teddy 310 1.7 J 1 432 A. My Name Is Alice Bayer, Jane 370 2.4 NR 2 700 ABC Mystery Cushman, Doug 410 1.9 N/A 1 218 ABCs Of My School, The Campoy, F. Isabel 430 2.2 K 1 275 Abe Lincoln And The Muddy Pig Krensky, Stephen 480 2.6 K 2 987 Abe Lincoln At Last! Osborne, Mary Pope 470 2.5 N/A 5 12,553 Abe Lincoln's Hat Brenner, Martha 330 2.9 M 2 1,159 Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Winters, Kay 480 3.5 K 2 1,052 Abigail Spells Alter, Anna 480 2.6 N/A 1 610 Abigail Takes The Wheel Avi 390 3.5 N 3 1,958 Abominable Snowman Of Pas- Stine, R.
  • During His Lifeti

    During His Lifeti

    UDK 821.111(73)–31.09 Lewis S.:82.09(497.4) SLOVENE CRITICS ON SINCLAIR LEWIS’S NOVELS Vanja Avsenak Abstract The purpose of this article is to present the reception of Sinclair Lewis’s novels by Slovene critics. Initially, the article focuses on the life and work of Sinclair Lewis, giving special emphasis to social influences that made the author a representative figure in the literary and social world. Thus his works are nowadays to be understood primarily as fiction, but on the other hand also as sociological documents of a social and political situation of the period between the two world wars. Generally, the effect they produce is one of a critical discussion of the nation of the United States. When speak- ing of the social relevance that Lewis’s novels have, it is obvious that his works are the portrayals of Americans and their deficiencies. At the time of their publication Lewis’s novels received unfavour- able criticism on account of his overly open pro-European attitude and Slovene critics of the period before World War II emphasise this in much detail. It was precisely this anti-American propaganda in the novels themselves and sincerity on the part of the novelist that won the European critics as well as the readers when it came to appreciating his works. However, Lewis’s view of the Americans, as presented throughout his works, only enhanced his literary credibility as a modern writer. That is why the articles by Slovene critics that appeared after the Second World War, and even more significantly after Lewis’s death, almost minutely reflect a more favourable attitude to Sinclair Lewis, which was also the case with foreign literary criticism of the post-war period.