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Sister Carrie

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Sister Carrie

by Dreiser, Theodore

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Near Fine
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Garrison, New York, United States
Item Price
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About This Item

New York: Limited Editions Club. Near Fine +. With a New Introduction by Burton Rasoce. Illustrated from Crayon Drawings by Reginald Marsh. Very slight wear to spine sunned. Top page edges gilt, foredges uncut. 387pp. Number 634 of 1500. Signed by illustrator. . Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1939.

Synopsis

Journalist-turned-author Theodore Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie, which some consider to be the “greatest of all American urban novels,” is the quintessential country-mouse-in-the-city story, only more… risqué. The novel tells the story of Caroline “Sister Carrie” Meeber, a young girl from rural Wisconsin who moves to Chicago with hopes of becoming a star. Carrie first stays with her older sister and her husband, but she soon becomes involved with a married man and a series of other morally questionable decisions follow. While Carrie may sound obviously blinded by her dreams of a glamorous future — and some may argue that’s because she is — Dreiser chose to present her character and others with a focus on human instinct as opposed to judgment, making it an early work of the naturalist movement. As one might expect, Dreiser had a difficult time finding and securing a publisher for Sister Carrie. After the manuscript had already been rejected twice, Doubleday, Page’s Frank Norris, author of the naturalistic novel McTeague, offered Dreiser a contract for the publication. This resulted in some upset within the publishing house — primarily due to book’s “lack of morality” — and Doubleday, Page tried to back out of the deal. Dreiser demanded that the contract be fulfilled and Doubleday published 1,008 copies in November 1900. However, the novel was perhaps not as thoroughly publicized as it could have been. Just 465 copies actually sold (not including the 129 that were sent out for reviews). The remaining 423 copies were later turned over to a remainder house. Unsurprisingly, Sister Carrie received negative response shortly after publication. Beyond the novel’s general sexual content and overall pessimistic tone, critics of the time took issue with the idea of Carrie engaging in illicit sexual relationships without suffering any consequences. Also unsurprisingly, Sister Carrie is another example of a masterpiece that could only be appreciated with time. In his 1930 Nobel Prize lecture, Sinclair Lewis compared the impact of Dreiser’s Sister Carrie to the work of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Carrie, a film adaptation directed by William Wyler and starring Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones, premiered in 1952. Sister Carrie is ranked 33rd on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century.

Read More: Identifying first editions of Sister Carrie

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Details

Bookseller
J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
000248
Title
Sister Carrie
Author
Dreiser, Theodore
Illustrator
Reginald Marsh
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Near Fine
Quantity Available
1
Edition
1st Edition
Publisher
Limited Editions Club
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1939

Terms of Sale

J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints

Payment can be made by credit card, checks made out to J Mercurio Books, or PayPal. Shipment usually occurs within two business days, unless customer requests that we hold or ship on a different day. If a book or set is oversized, we may contact the customer for additional shipping to ensure proper transport.

About the Seller

J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2019
Garrison, New York

About J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints

We are a 50 year old, third generation antiquarian bookshop nestled in the bucolic Hudson Highlands of New York's historic Hudson Valley, less than a mile from a transverse of the Appalachian Trail. While we have strong first edition literature and poetry collections, we specialize in New York, history, and Americana. We are a proud member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA).

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Sunned
Damage done to a book cover or dust jacket caused by exposure to direct sunlight. Very strong fluorescent light can cause slight...
Gilt
The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Edges
The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...

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