Seller Charles Agvent Published Condition Rubbed spots at the head and heel of the spine with a scrape at the bottom below the author's name. Seller J. Seller Jeffrey H. Marks Rare Books Published Condition Usual browning to endsheets; corners a little bumped; but a fresh, bright copy with almost none of the usual effacement of the l Edition First issue of the Doubleday edition.
Marks Rare Books Published []. I was disappointed in the way the book ended in his political diatribe. The last half wasn't really worth plowing through, especially today, given the historical example of how the Russian's economy worked out under a similar system. He sees unions as ineffectual, doomed to failure due to the corruption throughout the entire system. I'm glad I read this after the book.
I don't much care for fanaticism. Once you feel the book is descending into the depths, cut your losses. As the animals are driven up the ramp into the slaughter house, killed, butchered and processed down to the last scraps of bone and hoof so too an immigrant family will be cozened, cheated, see their dreams shattered and families broken up.
It is one of a number of novels in which the slaughter house is both a metaphor for modern society and foreshadows the fate of the characters, which I suppose is appropriate in that the Chicago slaughterhouse, in which the incoming beasts were de-constructed As the animals are driven up the ramp into the slaughter house, killed, butchered and processed down to the last scraps of bone and hoof so too an immigrant family will be cozened, cheated, see their dreams shattered and families broken up.
It is one of a number of novels in which the slaughter house is both a metaphor for modern society and foreshadows the fate of the characters, which I suppose is appropriate in that the Chicago slaughterhouse, in which the incoming beasts were de-constructed into as many component or marketable parts as possible was one of the inspirations for the Detroit assembly line along which components were once upon a time built up into four wheeled motor cars.
Mirror image processes which might from a certain point of view be taken as epitomising the twentieth century experience. Either way one finds oneself sent along a pre ordained line whether to destruction or to be released into the community on parole, perhaps not as a model-T, until the bell toils for you. If we take Sinclair's somewhat Weberian view of the culmination of the process of rationalisation and glance on to or even Brave New World , one might wonder why bother going to the trouble of erecting political structures to channel people first along the assembly line and then the dis-assembly line with such involved and complex mechanisms when one can achieve equal destruction simply through the apparently normal and acceptable operation of efficiency and rational economics.
It is only the bleat for which no economic use can be found. View all 13 comments. It is impossible for me to review this without appearing to be pissy. The work itself is barely literary. The Jungle explores and illustrates the conditions of the meatpacking industry. Its presence stirred outcry which led to much needed reforms. Despite the heroics of tackling the Beef Trust, Upton Sinclair saw little need in the actual artful. The protagonist exists only to conjoin the various pieces of reportage.
There isn't much emotional depth afforded, the characters' motivations often ap It is impossible for me to review this without appearing to be pissy. There isn't much emotional depth afforded, the characters' motivations often appear skeptical. I was left shaking my head on many a turn, especially towards the end where entire speeches from the American Socialist party compete with esoteric findings of left-leaning social scientists from the era around Despite these shortcomings as a novel, the opening half is often harrowing.
Graphic descriptions of hellish work conditions, poor food quality and lack of social safety net reached towards a very personal conclusion: I am EVER so grateful that I didn't live years ago and was forced to compete economically under those conditions. Oct 07, Jonathan Ashleigh rated it liked it. This was a graphic look into the world of meat and it may have been the original Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal , but that just isn't what I am looking for in a book.
Jun 07, P. The story of Jurgis and his family who came from Lithuania to work in the slaughterhouses of Chicago in the early 20th century. Doing some preparatory research for his novel, writer Upton Sinclair has spent some time as a worker in Packingtown, Chicago.
This novel exposes the appalling living conditions migrants faced once they settled : exploited like cattle by a full-blown cartel that brings together industrialists, real estate developers, bar owners, transport companies, state officials, poli The story of Jurgis and his family who came from Lithuania to work in the slaughterhouses of Chicago in the early 20th century.
This novel exposes the appalling living conditions migrants faced once they settled : exploited like cattle by a full-blown cartel that brings together industrialists, real estate developers, bar owners, transport companies, state officials, police officers and magistrates.
Though its scope and ambition are much wider, the book is mainly acclaimed for having pushed the US Congress to enact laws in favour of a strengthened sanitary control in the food processing industry. View all 9 comments.
As the book portrays these harsh conditions and exploited lives it also describes nauseating health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meat packing industry. It is this aspect of the novel that resulted in historic legislation that eventually led to the formation of the U. Food and Drug Administration. At this point the book's narrative is barely two thirds complete.
The story's protagonist is devastated by the death of his wife and son and tries to escape his sorrowful and miserable life by escaping to the life of a hobo.
After awhile he returned to Chicago and lived through a variety of activities through which he learns about the workings of power in Chicago that contribute to making life difficult for working people like him. Through the descriptions of his activities the book demonstrates the corrupt relationship of crime, politics, and business in Chicago at that time. The following excerpt describes the situation. It's a lengthy excerpt because there's a lot to describe. The city, which was owned by an oligarchy of business men, being nominally ruled by the people, a huge army of graft was necessary for the purpose of effecting the transfer of power.
Twice a year, in the spring and fall elections, millions of dollars were furnished by the business men and expended by this army; meetings were held and clever speakers were hired, bands played and rockets sizzled, tons of documents and reservoirs of drinks were distributed, and tens of thousands of votes were bought for cash.
And this army of graft had, of course, to be maintained the year round. The leaders and organizers were maintained by the business men directly—aldermen and legislators by means of bribes, party officials out of the campaign funds, lobbyists and corporation lawyers in the form of salaries, contractors by means of jobs, labor union leaders by subsidies, and newspaper proprietors and editors by advertisements.
The rank and file, however, were either foisted upon the city, or else lived off the population directly. There was the police department, and the fire and water departments, and the whole balance of the civil list, from the meanest office boy to the head of a city department; and for the horde who could find no room in these, there was the world of vice and crime, there was license to seduce, to swindle and plunder and prey.
The law forbade Sunday drinking; and this had delivered the saloon-keepers into the hands of the police, and made an alliance between them necessary. The law forbade prostitution; and this had brought the "madames" into the combination.
All of these agencies of corruption were banded together, and leagued in blood brotherhood with the politician and the police; more often than not they were one and the same person,—the police captain would own the brothel he pretended to raid, the politician would open his headquarters in his saloon. On election day all these powers of vice and crime were one power; they could tell within one per cent what the vote of their district would be, and they could change it at an hour's notice.
The story told by this book is so depressing that I couldn't help but wonder how the author was going the end the story. Surely he would find a way of adding a bit of optimism. Sure enough the author provides a vision for the future.
It's called Socialism. One evening the story's protagonist happens to attend a speech promoting the socialist cause. The text for the equivalent of about a half hour speech is included in the book.
It's clear that this is the message that the author wants to convey. Below I have included the beginning of this speech because I think it summarizes perfectly the life of our protagonist up to this point.
And so you return to your daily round of toil, you go back to be ground up for profits in the world-wide mill of economic might! To toil long hours for another's advantage; to live in mean and squalid homes, to work in dangerous and unhealthful places; to wrestle with the specters of hunger and privation, to take your chances of accident, disease, and death. And each day the struggle becomes fiercer, the pace more cruel; each day you have to toil a little harder, and feel the iron hand of circumstance close upon you a little tighter.
Months pass, years maybe—and then you come again; and again I am here to plead with you, to know if want and misery have yet done their work with you, if injustice and oppression have yet opened your eyes! So the book ends with a variety of conversations that defend the cause of socialism. The book suggests that support for it is trending up and that eventually will win nationwide popular support.
So that's how things looked in when this book was published. View 2 comments. Feb 01, Owlseyes rated it really liked it Shelves: socialist-author , us-lit. The main scene being the marriage of year-old, blue-eyed Ona, running into tears often, …with Jurgis, a much older man. Special attention has been given to the description of the characters dancing or just chatting over the table; but center-stage remains the trio-band moving, sometimes, over the room!
The band tunes make the minds and hearts of those attending to recall Lithuania. The author, from the very beginning, points to the work aspects of these people. The book had an impact on the denunciation of bad work conditions and the promulgation of appropriate laws to correct these situations in America, in the beginning of the 20th century.
Things not to do: -tug on Superman's cape -spit in the wind -discuss The Jungle extensively in your junior year literature class directly before lunchtime on hot dog day -mess around with Jim I still don't eat hot dogs.
And I ate hot dogs up until then, despite having uncles who worked at the hot dog factory that weren't the most finger-rich of individuals. Re-read in for Gapers Block book club. Oct 05, J. This is an incredible story of the workers and families of the Chicago stockyards in the early 20th century. With the way working conditions were for average Americans at this time, is it any wonder that authors like Sinclair and Jack London looked toward Socialism as a means to an end? I'm not a Socialist, but these were pretty terrible times in our country when men and women were injured or killed on the job, and wages were a mere pittance.
I still think about this book 14 years after I read it. View all 5 comments. What a disservice that this book is mostly read and remembered as a mere historical reference and expose on socialism and the meat-packing industry! The final four chapters which lapse into doctrine, preaching, and recruitment don't help any in casting off the label, but otherwise the book goes well beyond the Socialist politics which motivated Sinclair to write it.
The first three hundred pages focus on hardened descriptions of the physical and emotional tragedy of working class immigrants losi What a disservice that this book is mostly read and remembered as a mere historical reference and expose on socialism and the meat-packing industry! The first three hundred pages focus on hardened descriptions of the physical and emotional tragedy of working class immigrants losing everything in the face of overwhelming economic adversity.
While the book can also be criticized for its somewhat higgeldy-piggeldy and hodgepodge organization, as well as forgetting that readers and characters need to breathe non-toxic air on occasion or eat a pickle not tainted with formaldehyde once in a fortnight without frostbite , the heavy force of constant tragedy never lets up and who can dispute its power or basis in reality?
To read Sinclair's lucid, almost poetic, description of the slaughterhouses in Chapter 3, or the lard-producing toxic creek, hush money for tubucular steers, and embalmed beef productions of Chapter 9, makes Dickens' melodramatic bugger tales and Zola's impecunious driftwood seem like lullabyes. There is no consumption without blood, but ironically those who feign the greatest fear of blood often consume the most. Who wants to get their diamond ring dirty or imagine where it came from?
As such, The Jungle would be particularly excellent reading when stuck between the cell phone calls of mall shoppers on their way to get their Zoloft prescription filled. At least they won't be eating vienna sausages or potted ham.
Feb 16, Jason Pettus rated it it was ok Shelves: classic , politics , immigrants , early-modernism. Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally. The CCLaP In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label Essay The Jungle , by Upton Sinclair The story in a nutshell: Much of today's plot recap was cribbed from Wikipedia, for reasons that will become clearer be Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.
The CCLaP In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label Essay The Jungle , by Upton Sinclair The story in a nutshell: Much of today's plot recap was cribbed from Wikipedia, for reasons that will become clearer below. Originally published in , Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a sprawling look at the typical immigrant experience in America back then, before most of the laws regarding things like workplace safety, minimum wage and city zoning had been created; following a family of twelve who have recently arrived in Chicago from their troubled home of Lithuania, Sinclair's main point is to show that, unlike the rose-tinted tales of gold-paved streets and self-determination that were the common narrative among capitalists back then, in fact an unregulated free-market system is designed from its very core to exploit the poor and uneducated, that in fact such a system wouldn't even work if it wasn't for the ease in which such people can be manipulated and taken advantage of.
And so do we watch in growing horror as our hapless English-challenged hero Jurgis Rudkus first gets swindled out of all his money, then gets evicted from a slum, then faces a living nightmare in his job at the infamous Chicago Stockyards, then has his wife die during childbirth because they can't afford a doctor, then has his son die by literally drowning in mud in the middle of a public street, then becomes a bitter drifter and hobo, before finally having his soul saved by almost accidentally falling in with a group of socialist agitators, the book ending on a bright note as our author stand-in envisions out loud a future world that is fair and equal to all.
That's an astounding reaction to a simple, small melodrama by a semi-obscure writer, the equivalent perhaps of a random tech-blogger in North Dakota singlehandedly convincing Congress to declare the internet a public utility and ban all private cable companies; and the reason the book managed to accomplish this, they say, is because of being so powerful and heartbreaking, one of the best examples you'll ever find of the then-new "Social Realist" literary style which would go on to inspire pretty much an entire generation of politically motivated authors in the s and '30s.
A book that does exactly what it aims to do -- that is, make its readers angry and disgusted at the appalling way blue-collar workers were treated in an age before social-welfare laws -- The Jungle is a prime example of the novel format's ability to do things besides just tell an entertaining tale, an ability that was only being seriously explored in this format for the very first time in these years, yet another reason this groundbreaker should be considered an undeniable classic that every person should read before they die.
The argument against: To understand the problem in general with The Jungle , say its critics, simply look at that specific tale its fans tell about it inspiring the formation of the FDA, and how that's not really all of the story when you stop and examine it; how as even Sinclair himself lamented many times in his later years, the whole point of his book was supposed to be to show off the inherent evil of a capitalist middle class and to inspire a violent socialist revolution to overcome them, while the reaction from the actual capitalist middle class was to be horrified at the condition of the food they were putting into their mouths, while continuing to not give a toss about the people who actually worked at these factories, or about any of the other 75 percent of this novel that doesn't have to directly do with the subject of workplace cleanliness.
And so while it's admirable that the book had the kind of real-world influence that it did, its critics claim, that's really something more for history class than the world of the arts; and that the novel taken just on its own is actually pretty terrible, an overly serious doom-n-gloomer that never just makes its points when it can instead write those points down on a wooden two-by-four and then beat you in the back of the head repeatedly with it as hard as humanly possible.
And sheesh, the less we talk about the twenty-page literal sermon on socialism that Sinclair uses to end the book, the better. A writer who these days would be just as unknown as the hundreds of other hacky schlockmeisters churning out "poor lil' immigrant" stories in those same years, if it hadn't been for its accidental success in exposing the meatpacking industry at the exact moment in history when it needed to be, The Jungle is certainly a book to be admired but not necessarily to be read anymore, say its critics, and it's the perpetual assigning of this badly-written book in high-school lit classes that's partly to blame for so many Americans despising literature by the time they're done with school.
My verdict: So leaving aside today the question of their actual politics which to be clear, I'm also not a fan of , I've discovered over the years a big common problem with most of the artistic projects made by radical liberals, an issue that came up yet again while I was reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath for this essay series last year; namely, that radical liberals tend to lack even the slightest understanding of subtlety or humor, which makes nearly every artistic project ever made by a radical liberal from Great Depression novels to Michael Moore documentaries a joyless, patronizing chore, not enjoyable on its own but something we're usually literally forced to endure, because it's supposedly important and good for us and beneficial to society.
Although to be fair, most artistic projects by radical conservatives suffer from the exact same problems; it's not the left or right I have a particular problem with, but rather those who claim that a political purpose excuses an artistic project from needing to have any artistic merit. And so it is with The Jungle as well, which I plainly confess is one of the handful of books in this essay series I eventually gave up on long before actually finishing, after first spending an entire month reading it and still not being able to choke down even fifty pages of the dreck.
And to make it clear that I'm not the only one who feels this way, let's remember that no less than TIME magazine once called Sinclair "a man with every gift except humor and silence;" because that in a nutshell is what reading The Jungle is like, a ponderous accidental self-parody that is just so unrelenting and overly obvious in portraying the inner sweetness and outer misery of its main characters, you can't help sometimes but to laugh at inappropriate moments at its sheer sense of outrageousness.
Like I said, there used to be literally thousands of such writers, and hundreds of them once nationally famous, back when the entire "Social Realism" movement reached its height in the s through '30s, and now with all but a handful of them completely forgotten by society and history at large; and that's for the same reason that only a handful of poetry slammers from the s and early s will be remembered a hundred years from now, the same reason that we humans compile these kinds of "classics" lists in the first place, because ultimately what entertains a crowd of contemporaries in the heat of the original moment is far from the same thing that makes a piece of writing stay relevant for years and decades afterwards.
The simple fact is that The Jungle is not even an ounce better than any of those other hundreds of forgotten melodramas that were cranked out in those same years, and that it really is only remembered at all anymore because of the effect it had on the real topic of workplace hygiene; and I agree with its critics that this isn't nearly enough of a reason to consider a book a timeless classic, which is why I firmly come down in the negative on the subject today.
Definitely check it out if it sounds up your alley, but feel more than free to skip if you don't and still consider yourself a decent human being. Is it a classic? No And don't forget that the first 33 essays in this series are now available in book form!
View all 7 comments. Shelves: modern-classic , audiobook , sociology , american-literature , s , books-to-read-before-you-die , chicago , american-history. With a hundred years of hindsight, we've learned so little.
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is famous for disgusting America with its tales of meat packing workers falling into vats and rendered into lard, and all the things that went into sausages and tinned beef. Cigar butts and poisoned rats not even being the most disgusting ingredients But as Sinclair said about his most famous book, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.
It's about the crushing brutality of capitalism, and the problems of unregulated accumulation of wealth. No wonder that Americans prefer the less political vegetarian version.
Although Sinclair was a muckraking socialist with an obvious agenda, The Jungle is still a compelling novel in its own right. Jurgis Rudkus is a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to America with his young wife Ona and his extended family of in-laws. Initially believing they have found the promised land of opportunity and plenty, they are quickly taken in by various schemes meant to impoverish, indebt, and enslave immigrants like them.
At first only Jurgis has to work in Chicago's meatpacking district. He is young and strong and believes hard work will be rewarded, and those who warn him of how the meatpackers will use him up and dispose of him are lazy whiners. Of course, he soon discovers otherwise. The family undergoes one mishap after another, until within a year, even the children are reduced to selling newspapers on the street and still they are all barely staying alive.
Then things get worse, and worse, and worse. Jurgis is a modern-day Job, with no God to blame his troubles on, only capitalism.
He has several ups and downs, but every time he catches a break, it's quickly followed by yet another brutal smackdown. Sinclair was trying to make the reader feel sorry for Jurgis and his poor family view spoiler [all of whom end up dead, prostituted, or beggars by the end of the book hide spoiler ] , and you will.
The poor man just cannot win, and if he makes mistakes and chooses the less noble path when given a choice, it's pretty hard to judge him if you've never been homeless on the streets of Chicago in the wintertime. The Jungle is a grimly detailed look at early 20th century America. Sinclair was muckraking, so obviously he's showing the ugliest bits of America he can, but history proved that most of what he was alleging was true, even if his conclusions were questionable.
Even if you are strongly anti-socialist, The Jungle is an eye-opening story, and still relevant after all these years. If you think that the horrors depicted in this book are relics of a previous era, just remember that to the extent that the very worst of these abuses are now curbed somewhat by government regulations, those government regulations are exactly what "free market" advocates hate and want to abolish.
Knocking one star off because while Sinclair mostly kept his didacticism in check throughout the book, using gripping drama and only a little bit of exposition to arouse the horror he intended, the last chapter was nothing but socialist sermonizing, making it less a climax than the author climbing onto a soapbox to deliver his moral. I found the first half of the book better than the last half. It turns into a tract proselytizing socialism. Upton Sinclair has a message to deliver. The message is loud and clear.
The first half focuses upon an immigrant family from Lithuania. Twelve people - six kids and six adults, two of whom get married. These two are Jurgis and Ona. The central protagonist is Jurgis. We follow him from the beginning of the book to the end. We watch Jurgis and Ona and the other six adults in their struggle I found the first half of the book better than the last half.
We watch Jurgis and Ona and the other six adults in their struggle to survive. They have little education, no money and cannot speak English. Working in the meat-packing industry is the most dangerous job in America. The Jungle tells the story of a young Lithuanian couple, Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite, who move to Chicago's Packingtown at the turn of the century, where Jurgis finds work in the stockyards. At the outset Jurgis, full of youthful vitality and the optimism of a recent immigrant, goes to the gates of the stockyards and compares himself favourably to others waiting for work.
Inside he sees how the rigours of the production line put those muscles to work. He "watched the men on their killing beds, marvelling at their speed and power as though they had been wonderful machines The pace they set here, it was one that called for every faculty of a man, from the instant the first steer fell to the sounding of the noon whistle. Cheated by swindlers and overwhelmed by bleak living and working conditions, low pay and poverty, he soon begins to resemble the "broken-down tramps" he saw on his first day at the gates.
Sinclair's descriptions of conditions in the meat-packing industry are particularly shocking. Filthy meat is scraped off the floor and thrown into mixers and rendered into sausages.
Bad luck, corruption and ill health gradually wear the family away. Death and abandonment finish them. Jurgis becomes a tramp only to return to the slums, where he overhears a socialist orator while he finds shelter in a doorway. Eager to hear more, Jurgis becomes a convert to socialism. Sinclair was an unlikely candidate to write a bestseller, and The Jungle was an unlikely work to become one.
His previous books had produced little in the way of either fame or money, and he declared himself ready to make "a definite attempt to write something popular". According to his biographer, Leon Harris, access to down-at-heel workers was not a problem for Sinclair because he fitted right in. With its documentary prose style and polemical tone, the original manuscript was rejected by several publishers.
A reader for Macmillan described it as "Gloom and horror unrelieved As to the possibilities of a large sale, I should think them not very good.
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