Publisher Description

Upton Sinclair's dramatic and deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century and brought into sharp moral focus the apalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, the book was championed by more progressive thinkers, including then president Theodore Roosevelt, and was a major catalyst to the passing of the Pure Food and Meat Inspection act, which has tremendous impact to this day.

Notes

2006 marks the one hundredth anniversary of this powerful, provocative, and most enduring proletarian novel that has ever been published in the US.

Author Biography

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The Jungle helped in the passage of the pure-food laws during the Progressive Era. Eric Schlosser is a journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of Fast Food Nation. He began his journalism career at the Atlantic Monthly. Charles Burns, a former contributor to Art Spiegelman's Raw magazine, is an illustrator whose work has included the covers of major magazines and CDs. His most well- known comics are Black Hole, Big Baby, and Skin Deep.

Review

"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

Review Quote

"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

Excerpt from Book

Chapter I It was four o''clock when the ceremony was over and the carriages began to arrive. There had been a crowd following all the way, owing to the exuberance of Marija Berczynskas. The occasion rested heavily upon Marija''s broad shoulders--it was her task to see that all things went in due form, and after the best home traditions; and, flying wildly hither and thither, bowling every one out of the way, and scolding and exhorting all day with her tremendous voice, Marija was too eager to see that others conformed to the proprieties to consider them herself. She had left the church last of all, and, desiring to arrive first at the hall, had issued orders to the coachman to drive faster. When that personage had developed a will of his own in the matter, Marija had flung up the window of the carriage, and, leaning out, proceeded to tell him her opinion of him, first in Lithuanian, which he did not understand, and then in Polish, which he did. Having the advantage of her in altitude, the driver had stood his ground and even ventured to attempt to speak; and the result had been a furious altercation, which, continuing all the way down Ashland Avenue, had added a new swarm of urchins to the cort

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