Cliffs notes
3 total works
A large book of much variety, it combines romance and realism and resembles more than one fictional genre. The story is partly an adolescent's initiation into the adult world, partly a romance, and partly a murder mystery. It is also a novel of social criticism and the inhumanity of the law.
This classic by Sinclair Lewis shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire. "Main Street" attacks the conformity and dullness of early 20th Century midwestern village life in the story of Carol Milford, the city girl who marries the town doctor. Her efforts to bring culture to the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, and petty small-minded bigotry. Lewis's complex and compelling work established him as an important character in American literature.
The Pulitzer Prize winning "Arrowsmith" (an award Lewis refused to accept) recounts the story of a doctor who is forced to give up his trade for reasons ranging from public ignorance to the publicity-mindedness of a great foundation, and becomes an isolated seeker of scientific truth.