Arrowsmith

Sinclair Lewis traces the career of Martin Arrowsmith, a Midwestern doctor pulled between the lure of easy success and a stubborn devotion to pure research. From medical school through country practice, public health work, and a prestigious research institute, Martin keeps colliding with the vanity, commercialism, and politics of the professions meant to serve science. The climax sends him to a Caribbean island swept by bubonic plague, where a controlled experiment forces an agonizing choice between scientific rigor and simple human mercy. Written with help from the science writer Paul de Kruif, the 1925 novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which Lewis refused. It stands as one of the first serious American novels to take medicine and research as its true subject. Free to download as a PDF and EPUB.