Q: A brief introduction to Sister Carrie.

The glass will break. Hello, my friend. Sister Carrie mentioned in your question is one of the representative works of American writer Dreiser.

This work is about Carrie visiting relatives in Chicago and meeting Drouet, a salesman, on the train. She couldn't stand the hard life in the factory and lived with Drouet, so she met the hotel manager Hurstwood. Hurstwood was so fascinated by her beauty that he embezzled public funds and fled to live with her in new york. By chance, she appeared on the stage and gradually succeeded. Hurstwood was getting down and out. The two broke up. Hurstwood finally committed suicide.

I have seen Sister Carrie by Dreiser before. This is my previous reading notes, and the excerpts are as follows:

I think Sister Carrie seems to be a kind of retro in more sense. In some ways, Dreiser's statement is just like Lawrence, who was later than him. Even in the 20th century, he is still telling stories in an ancient way, fighting tirelessly against all the evils it opposes-society, vulgar customs and institutions.

Before that, I also read his masterpiece "American Tragedy", which was fleeting and didn't study it carefully. Impression will disappear with time. But the strong impact of reading Dreiser's Sister Carrie made me form my first impression of Dreiser's works:

"A 18-year-old girl has two experiences when she leaves home, and it will be one of them. Or, get better with the help of good people, or, get into the bad habits of metropolis and fall rapidly. In such an environment, there is no difference between good and bad. This metropolis is full of cunning, tricks and more subtle but attractive temptations. ……"

This statement reminds me of someone who once said, "Balzac's greatest secret lies in sentence pattern+generalization+insight." So I feel that Dreiser's novels are hidden in the huge shadow of Balzac.

Subsequent reading confirmed some of my conjectures, but overturned some understandings of Dreiser's works. There are many other things in the dialogue and narration between the continuation of the "human comedy" style. Different from Balzac's omniscient and omnipotent way of looking down on all beings, Dreiser's angle is flatter. Yes, he occasionally becomes conceited and shows his foresight and indignant criticism as the creator, writer and interpreter of the story, but most of the time, he is absorbed in telling a story and trying to make it perfect and reasonable. I like his statement because of his attention to detail. Although that kind of attention is full of bookishness.

I remember Hemingway once publicly declared that he liked Flaubert's simplicity and hated Conrad and Dreiser's epics. That's true. The ultimate exposition, the great Hugo, his early passionate epic of generate showed some repeated moral preaching, which made the text lose its appreciation value in the later period. Dreiser shows conservative characteristics, with the shadow of19th century, so this appreciation of the old style constitutes his interest. However, more than forty years after The Scarlet Letter was published, an American should make progress. Dreiser wrapped himself in some Balzac decorations and crawled through the narrative. Those narratives swam out of the vast sacred coat like snakes. On the one hand, he is in macro control of his own world, forging with Balzac enthusiasm? Perhaps-judging the phenomenon he created, on the other hand, he carved his own story meticulously and meticulously like a craftsman-compared with those before him, it would not appear too grand and pretentious and impose on others. This kind of consciousness is obviously more intimate and popular than Dostoevsky's neurotic way of talking about philosophy and morality and constantly intervening in the plot.

At the end of Sister Carrie, a man dies and a woman lives. Dreiser made a lyrical statement, which reminds people of Eugénie Grandet's famous indifferent hymn at the end. I can imagine that Dreiser himself came back to life. This man who hides in a room in Chicago and writes novels under the light will stop every few lines and carefully follow his master, but he is also an ingenious, well-decorated writer with his own style. He should have begun to sprout some inner consciousness, some of his own soul, but he described it calmly. As himself, he may not have a strong ability to use, but his system has reached a certain degree of recognition with the giants of the past, with a fresh and agile atmosphere. I have to say, this is a success. In America, this is a success that connects the past and the future.

The following is the relevant information of Dreiser:

Theodore dreiser (Mark Twainl871~1945) is an American novelist. 187 1 was born in Treehot, Indiana on August 27th. Born into a bankrupt small business owner's family. Long-term struggle at the bottom of society. My father is a German textile worker. 1846 evaded military service and went to the United States to run a textile factory. Dreiser has been working as a clerk and newsboy in woolen goods and satin shops since 12 years old. 17 years old, went to Chicago to make a living. He washes dishes in a small restaurant and works as a waiter in a blacksmith's shop. 18 years old. When I was a child, with the support of a female teacher, I entered Indiana University and came into contact with the works of Darwin, Huxley and Spencer. A year later, he returned to Chicago and worked as a salesman in a real estate company and a deliveryman in a laundry. Since I was 23. He worked as a reporter for newspapers in Chicago and St. Louis, and was the editor-in-chief of new york Monthly. I started writing Sister Carrie, which was completed and published the following year. Sister Carrie became a famous actress through the story of a rural girl who went to Chicago to make a living. It exposes unemployment, poverty and hunger under the appearance of capitalist social prosperity, and gives a profound description of the society in which the rich and the poor are opposed in the United States. Sister Carrie, written in Balzac's realistic style, opened up a new world for American literature. Although it was banned in the United States, it was later published in Britain. 1907 was finally published in America.

After Sister Carrie was banned, Dreiser was forced to stop writing 10 years. During the period of 10, he still worked as an editor. 1909 started writing the novel Jenny Girl, published in 19 1 1. Later, he wrote the first part of the famous trilogy of desire, financier (19 12), giant (19 14) and Stoic (1947). This trilogy describes the life of monopoly capitalist Cowperwood, from the "gilded age" after the end of the civil war to Cowperwood's death at the beginning of the 20th century, implying that capitalism is bound to die.

19 17, Dreiser lived in Greenwich Village, new york, and met William Heywood, who later became the leader of the American Producers' Party, and john reid, the author of Ten Days that Shocked the World. There are other socialists and anarchists among friends. During this period, Dreiser published the Collection of Natural and Supernatural Dramas (1916); Collection of short stories Freedom and Others (19 18) and Twelve People (1919); The Potter's Hand (1918); Prose collection "Knock, drum! "(1920) and" books about myself "(1922).

The masterpiece An American Tragedy (1925) made Dreiser gain world fame. The novel describes the unfortunate experience of a poor female worker and profoundly shows that the American social system is the root of the tragedy of the working people. 1927, a series of short stories was published. In the same year, 1 1 was invited to visit the Soviet Union. 1928 Impression of Dreiser's visit to the Soviet Union was published. 1929' s collection of short stories "Women's Group Images" created the image of party member Ainida. Tragic America, a collection of political essays published by 193 1, gives a sober and serious comprehensive anatomy of American capitalist society. This year, he published his autobiography Dawn. 194 1 published a collection of political essays "America is worth saving".

1944 won the honorary award of American Literature and Art Society. Married Helen Richardson in the same year. 1 July, 9451day, Dreiser applied to join the American Producers' Party. 1945 65438+ died in Hollywood, California on February 28th. His works include Fortress (1946) and Stoicism (1947).

Dreiser's works were introduced to China very early. Some of Dreiser's famous novels, such as An American Tragedy, The Trilogy of Desire and Sister Carrie, have been translated into Chinese.

Other works of Dreiser

American tragedy and genius are similar to Sister Carrie. It is not strict realism, but an objective perspective that we strive to maintain and a solemn moral stance. For the United States, this is the foreshadowing of Fitzgerald before he stepped onto the stage, and it is a bridge between Melville, Hawthorne and Hemingway. Dreiser can't be a Balzac master, because when he started writing, fifty years had passed. And he can't be Kafka because he always believes in the past.

Dreiser, who is not a pioneer by any means, may only have such an embarrassing position in the history of American literature. American literature in the 20th century is Patafa County in York written by Faulkner, and Spain and Cuba written by Hemingway, which are the times of Heller, Salinger and Saul Bellow. After these masters who constantly lead the limits of style and narrative, Dreiser's light is extremely embarrassing. Even as a moral critic, some of his rigid habits prevent him from reaching the height of a thinker like Saul Bellow. Like Mao Mu and Singh, he maintained the greatest respect and the strictest imitation of the old times-even the Tower of Babel, which strictly abides by the realistic narrative style, is not as puritanical, self-denying, rigorous and pure moral as they are-and when Flaubert and Conrad gradually disappeared, they became the slender tails of shooting stars with flames. It is well known that they have formed the backbone of the times, but they have not surfaced.

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