Sister Carrie

When eighteen-year-old Caroline Meeber steps off the train in Chicago, she carries little more than nerve and a wish for a better life. Theodore Dreiser’s first novel follows her through factory drudgery, a comfortable arrangement with a traveling salesman, and a fateful bond with Hurstwood, a married bar manager whose own fortunes collapse as hers rise. Carrie drifts upward almost by accident, discovering a gift for the stage, while the man who risked everything for her sinks into ruin. Blunt about money, sex, and the indifference of the city, the book scandalized readers in 1900 and helped open American fiction to hard realism. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.