Classic Review - The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is a book written by Upton Sinclair in 1906.

It is an excellent book that I would recommend reading if you love classics! If you are not partial to really sad stories or political messages then you can pass it up for a different classic, however I feel like it is worth the read.

The Jungle was written originally in order to try to further the idea of Socialism in America but instead lead to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. I had wanted to read the book just on the basis that it helped create the FDA!

If you are interested in reading the effects that the Jungle had on this country, be sure to read the
Wikipedia entry.

Scott, if you are reading this, the spoiler is about to start. So even though I finished before you, keep reading!

To all other readers: if you are interested in reading The Jungle do not read the rest of the post. Please enjoy the novel first and then come back to this.

If you find yourself without a copy, feel free to download it for reading from Project Gutenberg.

**** SPOILER ****

The first part of this book is the saddest piece of fiction that I've ever read. In the beginning we meet Jurgis and Ona, a Lithuanian couple who have just immigrated from Lithuania with their family and a few close friends. They arrive in Chicago looking for jobs and head towards "Packingtown".

Why is the book so sad?

Well, to run down a quick list:

Antanas, a grandfather gets a job in a packing plant where he has to stand in blood up to his ankles. His foot gets an infection and he loses his job and gets sick. While he sick he only gets worse and eventually dies.

Ona has a baby and that is fine but when she has her 2nd baby, the 2nd baby tries to come at the end of her 2nd trimester and she ends up dying and so does the baby.

Jurgis' first child is out playing in front of his house on the sidewalk, when the wooden sidewalk gives way. The boy falls into water and drowns.

The family gets a house that they are told is new. It is not. They are also told one payment of $7 per month for rent however they do not understand this is only interest and doesn't include taxes or any other fees associated with the house. There is a constant struggle to keep jobs in order to pay for this after their agreement so that they do not loose the house. However even after sending out three children under 12 years old into Chicago to sell newspapers in order to contribute to the family fund they still loose the house.

How do they loose the house? Jurgis finds out that Ona is being "taken advantage of" by an Irish boss named Connor. He goes and finds Connor and attacks him in a Packingtown Plant. It looks as if he has attacked him unprovoked. As Connor has some ties with corrupt politicians and judges, Jurgis is sent to jail.

Jurgis goes to jail another time and is eventually swindled out of his entire savings.

All of those sad things happen not necessarilly in the order that I gave them, but they do all happen. There seems to be a stream of worsening conditions of sadness through the first part of the book.

The book though can ultimately be broken into three separate sections: family, solitude, and socialism.

The first third/half of the book is Ona, Jurgis, and family trying to make an honest living. They do make a great effort at it but the system is set against them based on their honesty.

The second part of the book is after Ona and both babies die. Jurgis becomes a tramp and also decides to become a criminal. He has lost all ties that would keep him an honest moral man. He abandons his former life in order to survive and with crimes to then thrive.

The final part of the book is about Socialism. He suffers the loss of all of his savings by being swindled by another crook. Jurgis had attacked Connor again in a drunken rage and although he could have avoided jail with a much lower amount than $300, he is in such a panic that he is lead to believe that this is the amount that will allow him to avoid jail.

Without money he finds a hall where there are speeches about Socialism and after a few nights he finally decides to listen. When he finally hears what the man on the stage is talking about he starts to buy into the "wage slavery" that the man is trying to fight. We find that Jurgis becomes a convert to Socialism and gets lucky in finding a job and board in a hotel.

**** End of SPOILER ****

I found 2/3 of the book to be very satisfying and the last 1/3 to be bland and more of a political statement (of which really was the reason that Upton Sinclair wrote the book). Overall I believe it was a really good novel, but longer than it needed to be.

There is an excellent article I encourage you to read on Slate by Karen Olsson titled Welcome to the Jungle. Does Upton Sinclair's Famous Novel Hold Up?.

If you have read it, what did you think?

If you have decided to skip it, why?

I'd like to hear your thoughts and comments about it.

The Barnes & Noble Classic Library

Oh Glorious Day!

I believe that I am about to release a lot of cliche phrases about the dearest subject in classics to me: Barnes & Noble Classics. I love B&N Classics more than anyone you've ever met - if you think you love them more then please tell me all about it (because I don't think you do!).

This past weeekend I got a Google Alert about classics and one item that made the news and hence the alert was the celebration of the 5th Anniversary since Barnes & Noble re-released their Classic Library. That press release can be found here.

Have I died and gone to heaven?
Did Hell freeze over?
Did the sky come crashing down?

(Feel free to help me with cliches or whatever the correct term is for these phrases)

Why would I rant like this? I never thought I'd see a full Barnes & Noble Classic Library collection being sold like my previous post last month involving the Penguin Classics.

But, it is now available - from Barnes & Noble - 200 of their paperback Classic collection for only $1,457.00 list price, an online price of $869.95, or a member discounted price of $782.95!!!! Feel free to purchase one HERE!

Could there be a better addition to a classics collection? I think NOT!

I must also mention that their press release also announced some additional specials besides offering the 200 volume library collection. Through July 7, 2008 a promotion of "Buy two get one free" will apply to online and store sales. Also through that date they are offering three limited edition collection sets available online only. The aforementioned 200 volume library collection, the "Barnes & Noble Classics: Great Novels" collection which includes Moby Dick, The Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace¸ Don Quixote, Great Expectations and Jane Eyre for $29.95, and "Barnes & Noble Classics: Tales of Adventure" collecton which includes Arabian Nights, The Call of the Wild and White Fang, The Jungle Books, King Solomon's Mines, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Tarzan of the Apes, The Four Feathers, and The Scarlet Pimpernel also for $29.95.

Please let me know what you think of this promotion! If I had the money and hadn't already significantly purchased a large portion of the classics collection already I would have already purchased the 200 volume set myself!

After you've left a comment head on over to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/classics/index.asp to order me- erm yourself any one of the sets that are on sale (or any other classic that will satiate your desire for a good book!).

Summer of Classics

I was looking through my Google Alert on Classic Literature and came across an awesome idea by "Pete Lit". He has an event planned where he reads classics all summer. What a great idea!! It is definitely an inspiration to me to see others embrace classics the way that I do.

Please read his post from last year here. It is an excellent summary about the books that he read including Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson and Knut Hamsun's Hunger both of which I have wanted to read for quite some time.

Are any of you up for the challenge of having a "Summer of Classics"? I know I am!

Classic Reader - Read Classics HTML style

I found a great site that has lots of HTML editions of classics, that site is http://www.classicreader.com/. This differs from sites like Project Gutenberg because the site doesn't require you to go through a series of links to get to the HTML, it is pretty much 1 click to start reading.

If you create a login which is free and contains as little personal information as possible, the site has a wonderful header and footer allowing you to find other stories very easily. It is the best site that I've seen to read classics online.

It doesn't look like the site is still updated but it is a great site with lots of stories to choose from.

What are your thoughts? How would you compare it to other sites such as Project Gutenberg?

Anton Chekhov

I hope in the future to have much longer pieces on individual writers, however for now I will produce at least a few words about the classic writer Anton Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov is a Russian writer that I hope that I find time (and make a priority) to read in the future (hopefully at some point this year). I first heard of Chekhov from his one edition, The Best Stories of Anton Chekhov included in the Black Dustjacket Barnes & Noble classics.

I have found some excellent resources on Chekhov providing not only the text to 201 stories. That link is here.

Also those interested should see the main page provided by the same site. It states that the site has "tried to gather all Chekhov related info on the internet" and I would agree that it does an excellent job. Please visit that site here.

His Wikipedia post is an excellent read as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov

Anton Chekhov's work was translated by Constance Garnett (see previous post).

If you have read Chekhov, what is your favorite piece by him?

What storie(s) by him are "must" reads? What should I read first by him?

I'm looking forward to hearing your comments!