The JungleIntroduction by Ronald Gottesman
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Note on the Text
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) was born in Baltimore. At age fifteen,
he began writing a series of dime novels in order to pay for his
education at the City College of New York. He was later accepted to
do graduate work at Columbia, and while there he published a number
of novels, including The Journal of Arthur Stirling (1903) and
Manassas (1904). Sinclair's breakthrough came in 1906 with the
publication of The Jungle, a scathing indictment of the Chicago
meat-packing industry. His later works include World's End (1940),
Dragon's Teeth (1942), which won him a Pulitzer Prize, O Shepherd,
Speak! (1949) and Another Pamela (1950).
Ronald Gottesman was born in Boston and earned degrees from the
University of Massachusetts and from Colgate and Indiana
universities. He has taught literature, film studies, and
humanities courses at Northwestern, Indiana, and Rutgers
universities, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of
Southern California, where for nine years he directed the Center
for the Humanities. Founding editor of the Quarterly Review of Film
Studies and Humanities in Society, Professor Gottesman was editor
and author of many articles and books on literature and film,
including three on Upton Sinclair.
“When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to [Sinclair’s] novels.” —George Bernard Shaw
This angry novel created a furor when it was originally published in 1906. The author painfully details the sorrows of a Lithuanian immigrant family working in Chicago's meat-packing plants during the bad old days before worker's compensation and disability, unemployment insurance, social security, fair labor practices, and court-appointed lawyers. In addition to losing their home, the family endure the deaths of a grandfather, an uncle, a child, a mother and her second child (in childbirth), the older children (to the streets), and finally the cherished firstborn son. By exposing the horribly unsanitary practices in the plants, this novel prompted federal legislators to protect the public from unsafe meat. While this story is emotionally draining to listen to, the audio version provides an excellent production of a classic novel. Reader George Guidall turns in another fine performance. Recommended.-Luana Ellis, Jamestown Community Coll. Lib., Olean, N.Y.
"When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to [Sinclair's] novels." -George Bernard Shaw
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