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Synopsis
A vulgar and licentious college football captain becomes a messenger of God as a suave evangelist preacher.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The story begins in the rural Mid-West at the start of the 20th century. Elmer Gantry has been destined from birth, by the choice of his devout widowed mother, for the ministry, and is about to enter a Baptist seminary.
At a few points in the story Gantry is, momentarily and inexplicably, seized by genuine religious fervour, and even remorse for his misdeeds, but the rest of the time he is obsessed with using a religious career to gain money, fame and power, while he has a bit on the side - well several bits, actually. He is a bully, both physically and psychologically, and cleverly calculating when not ruled by his hormones. However, he is empty culturally as well as morally - as a listener to Gantry's radio programme observes, he "was blown out of a saxophone", i.e. he ends up as just another ephemeral feature of the Jazz Age. He often deceives even himself, rewriting his memory of an incident to portray his actions in a much better light than they deserve.
There are several characters in the novel with varying degrees and types of integrity, but the pessimistic message is that only the strong survive, whether bad or good. Repeatedly Lewis suggests that it is better to be an honest atheist than a hypocritical Christian.
One of the strengths of the book is the analysis of how Gantry's relationship with each of the major characters relates to his career, and how it affects each of them - in many cases, disastrously for them. Gantry is, essentially, a friendless user, and there are only two men with whom he ever feels real kinship; they are every bit as cynical as him, though they have somewhat more respect for mankind.
The love of his life, his infatuation with fellow-evangelist Sharon Falconer, is really a story within the story. One could argue that it doesn't fit with the rest of his personality, but Sharon is the only person for whom he is prepared to give up all else. This is because she is truly irrestible to him, and is an even shrewder manipulator of people than he is (though she has a strong, and ultimately fatal, streak of insanity).
As well as attacking the fire-and-brimstone brand of Christianity, the novel has little good to say about the more sedate denominations, and not surprisingly it met considerable hostility on its publication. Lewis clearly suggests that a major weakness of religion is the hypocrisy and self-interest of many church leaders and members.
So far this may sound like a really depressing read, but the reader is constantly buoyed up by Lewis' biting humour and the hilarity of the misadventures which Gantry brings on himself by his indiscretions.
I haven't yet seen the film adaptation (starring Burt Lancaster), but I gather that it ends at the novel's halfway point, so the book will take you much further through Gantry's career.
In providing the context for the events of the novel, Lewis gives an evocative picture of America's transition in twenty years from the horse-and-buggy Mid-West to the cities of the Roaring Twenties.
At a few points in the story Gantry is, momentarily and inexplicably, seized by genuine religious fervour, and even remorse for his misdeeds, but the rest of the time he is obsessed with using a religious career to gain money, fame and power, while he has a bit on the side - well several bits, actually. He is a bully, both physically and psychologically, and cleverly calculating when not ruled by his hormones. However, he is empty culturally as well as morally - as a listener to Gantry's radio programme observes, he "was blown out of a saxophone", i.e. he ends up as just another ephemeral feature of the Jazz Age. He often deceives even himself, rewriting his memory of an incident to portray his actions in a much better light than they deserve.
There are several characters in the novel with varying degrees and types of integrity, but the pessimistic message is that only the strong survive, whether bad or good. Repeatedly Lewis suggests that it is better to be an honest atheist than a hypocritical Christian.
One of the strengths of the book is the analysis of how Gantry's relationship with each of the major characters relates to his career, and how it affects each of them - in many cases, disastrously for them. Gantry is, essentially, a friendless user, and there are only two men with whom he ever feels real kinship; they are every bit as cynical as him, though they have somewhat more respect for mankind.
The love of his life, his infatuation with fellow-evangelist Sharon Falconer, is really a story within the story. One could argue that it doesn't fit with the rest of his personality, but Sharon is the only person for whom he is prepared to give up all else. This is because she is truly irrestible to him, and is an even shrewder manipulator of people than he is (though she has a strong, and ultimately fatal, streak of insanity).
As well as attacking the fire-and-brimstone brand of Christianity, the novel has little good to say about the more sedate denominations, and not surprisingly it met considerable hostility on its publication. Lewis clearly suggests that a major weakness of religion is the hypocrisy and self-interest of many church leaders and members.
So far this may sound like a really depressing read, but the reader is constantly buoyed up by Lewis' biting humour and the hilarity of the misadventures which Gantry brings on himself by his indiscretions.
I haven't yet seen the film adaptation (starring Burt Lancaster), but I gather that it ends at the novel's halfway point, so the book will take you much further through Gantry's career.
In providing the context for the events of the novel, Lewis gives an evocative picture of America's transition in twenty years from the horse-and-buggy Mid-West to the cities of the Roaring Twenties.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Elmer Gantry can be seen as a study in hypocrisy. But what, for me, made it interesting was the way Lewis added real complexity and subtlety to the character of Elmer. Most of the time I found his double standards, cruelty, philistinism and intolerance completely deplorable. But he does feel some genuine enthusiasm for his `calling', and he does sometimes seem to try to do the right thing, admittedly not to any very great effect. I loved one chapter describing his journey to his new parish. It begins with him selflessly and heroically, as he thinks, helping a woman carry her bags off the train, goes on to chart his feelings of irritation as his welcome turns out to be less respectful and delighted than he had hoped, and ends with him experiencing a twinge of lust for his landlady's fourteen year old daughter.
Elmer succeeds in deluding himself that he is a true servant of God, at least some of the time. Oddly that makes him less of a hypocrite than some of the novel's most attractive characters who profess Christianity but are secretly atheist or agnostic. But their behaviour is consistently far more `Christian' than that of Elmer, who uses the most ruthless means to achieve his ends. The satire of the evangelical movement is effectively biting, particularly the portrait of the preacher Sharon Falconer. She is another strange character, more than a match for Elmer, a shrewd businesswoman, whose precise attitude towards the message she preaches remains curiously difficult to fathom.
The loosely episodic structure of the novel made it just a little rambling and repetitive at times - it's not quite such an artistic success as `Babbitt'. But it offers a fascinating depiction of early c.20 America - and much of Lewis's satire still has relevance today.
Elmer succeeds in deluding himself that he is a true servant of God, at least some of the time. Oddly that makes him less of a hypocrite than some of the novel's most attractive characters who profess Christianity but are secretly atheist or agnostic. But their behaviour is consistently far more `Christian' than that of Elmer, who uses the most ruthless means to achieve his ends. The satire of the evangelical movement is effectively biting, particularly the portrait of the preacher Sharon Falconer. She is another strange character, more than a match for Elmer, a shrewd businesswoman, whose precise attitude towards the message she preaches remains curiously difficult to fathom.
The loosely episodic structure of the novel made it just a little rambling and repetitive at times - it's not quite such an artistic success as `Babbitt'. But it offers a fascinating depiction of early c.20 America - and much of Lewis's satire still has relevance today.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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46 reviews
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Talented scoundrel takes to the pulpit
24 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
Elmer Gantry begins this novel as a boozing, womanizing, college football player. Despite having a great speaking voice and dominating personality he has no interest in persuing a career as a minister. Peer pressure leads him to try, and he soon finds himself attending divinity school and headed to life as a man of the cloth.
Elmer's character can be summed up by once incident. After getting a doubt-ridden professor fired, someone leaves 30 dimes wrapped in a religious tract in Elmer's dorm room. He delightedly mines the tract for sermon ideas, and uses the 30 dimes to buy naughty postcards.
Besides following the rise, fall, and rise of hard working, talented, and utterly unprincipled Elmer, Sinclair Lewis's novel shows us the state of evangelical religion in the first decades of the 20th Century. We see back-country Baptist churches, traveling revival shows, "New Age" cults, and middle-of-the road Methodist congregations at work.
It's funny, and hair-raising, stuff. There's also a nice twist ending that puts it in the category of an Awful Warning novel.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Ageless portrayal of the rise of a hypocrite
21 Nov 1999
Format:Paperback
A lot of Sinclair Lewis can be read as social history in our days at the turn of the 21st century. Social mores and the whole tenor of society have changed dramatically since the days of his major works. But ELMER GANTRY still reads like a story of our times. Though it covers a period roughly stretching from 1902 to 1926, and America has been transformed since then, the basic idea of the novel---how a man, selfish, ignorant, bullying, and posing as a 'regular guy', can fool most of the people most of the time---is still very much relevant to us. Business was the heart of America in Lewis' day, and it still is. But a career model drawn from that sphere could be used in many other walks of life. ELMER GANTRY is about a man who uses religion and a Protestant church to rise socially, to get and abuse power for his own ends. From Elmer's evangelical college days with his drinking, womanizing, total lack of ability or interest in studies, and his lying and maneuvering to get what he wants, to the stunning but realistic conclusion to the book, Lewis paints a vibrant portrait of an unprincipled climber ; a man who will change any opinion, betray anybody, and do anything to get ahead. If we consider the sagas of TV evangelists in our days, the difference between their revealed hypocrisies and those written by Lewis is startlingly small. The sole difference was that in the 1920s, there was no television for Elmer Gantry to exploit.
Certain sections of the book read better than others--it is not of uniform quality---and sometimes you wonder why Lewis inserted a chapter here or there. I think particularly of the two chapters on the fate of Frank Shallard, Gantry's alter-ego. They seemed to be an afterthought, and the point was brutally taken, but for what purpose other than shock ? On the other hand, Lewis' use of the colloquial language of the times and inclusion of thousands of minor details of life in that era reveal a whole world which might, in the absence of ELMER GANTRY, have disappeared from our consciousness. On the whole, this is a powerful novel about an unscrupulous, offensive scoundrel which still resonates well in our day. The Gantrys of this world are endless. Unfortunately.
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
The Most Hated Novel in US History
30 Jan 2008
Format:Mass Market Paperback
When Elmer Gantry was published, author Sinclair Lewis received death threats, an ivitation to be lynched in Virginia, a warning to stay clear of New Hampshire or wind up in a prison cell. I wonder if he would still have the courage to write a similar book today, in the climate of religious fanaticism that prevails. Elmer Gantry is a portrayal of hypocrisy and opportunism among the Evangelical clergy of the early 20th Century. The title character is as hateful and fraudulent as the Bakkers, Swaggerts, and Blackguards of our era, with the same vices, most prominently sexual misbehavior and exploitation. In fact, Gantry is so thoroughly unappealing that the reader's only interest in him is waiting and hoping for his downfall. But the numerous other clergymen, deacons, and congregational leaders portrayed in the novel are none of them very appealing; they are all greedy hypocrites, timorous holders of sinecures, and/or weaklings unable to confront their own doubts about the sanctity of the clerical profession. I have to say that Sinclair Lewis seriously weakens his case by overstating the universality of corruption in the Christian leadership, and damages the literary interest of his book by making his principal character irredeemable. Yet as I survey the current fundamentalist eruption into politics, I also have to say that Lewis was remarkably prophetic. The anti-evolution, anti-science-in-general, anti-diversity rants that fill the pages of Elmer Gantry could be copied-and-pasted right here on our favorite web pages.
The chief woman character of the book, tent evangelist Sharon Falconer, is also portrayed as a power-hungry opportunist, half hypocrite and half delusional madwoman. That portrayal won Lewis no friends, particularly since most readers were certain that Falconer was a thinly disguised representation of Aimee Semple McPherson, one of the founders of modern millenialism, whose personal improprieties are well documented. Likewise, numerous critics supposed that the character of Gantry himself was at least partly a portrait of evangelist Billy Sunday.
We Minnesotans are proud of our Nobel Prize author, though we show our pride mostly by not reading him. Honestly, this is not an easy book to enjoy. The language is stiff and corny at times, the characters are too cartoon-like, and the first half of the book would be better if it were edited in half. Even so, it has intellectual integrity and profound historical relevance, and its unrelenting portrayal of moral shallowness builds enough momentum to make it a worthwhile classic.
The chief woman character of the book, tent evangelist Sharon Falconer, is also portrayed as a power-hungry opportunist, half hypocrite and half delusional madwoman. That portrayal won Lewis no friends, particularly since most readers were certain that Falconer was a thinly disguised representation of Aimee Semple McPherson, one of the founders of modern millenialism, whose personal improprieties are well documented. Likewise, numerous critics supposed that the character of Gantry himself was at least partly a portrait of evangelist Billy Sunday.
We Minnesotans are proud of our Nobel Prize author, though we show our pride mostly by not reading him. Honestly, this is not an easy book to enjoy. The language is stiff and corny at times, the characters are too cartoon-like, and the first half of the book would be better if it were edited in half. Even so, it has intellectual integrity and profound historical relevance, and its unrelenting portrayal of moral shallowness builds enough momentum to make it a worthwhile classic.
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