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Product 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.
About the Author
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.
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It was four o'clock when the ceremony was over and the carriages began to arrive. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was four o'clock when the ceremony was over and the carriages began to arrive. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had never heard of Upton Sinclair until I stumbled on this book in a charity shop. I found it rivettingly horrible with it's graphic descriptions of a slaughterhouse and the conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago around 1910. The book goes off the boil later but it's still a great read and like all great books it ushered in change when Theodore Roosevelt read it. I immediately bought another book called OIL! but I didn't find this in the same class as The Jungle. Sinclair seems to carefully research the industry he is writing about and this is what makes the Jungle a great book.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
While "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair is rightly regarded as a classic, the edition published by Doubleday Page was not the original text as published. The book first appeared in its original form, complete but serialised in the "Appeal To Reason" magazine. This is the version in this book, published first in 1905. This book contains the parts which were censored from the Doubleday text and also has the original, different ending.
"The Jungle" is an expose of the meat processing industry in Chicago by interweaving a novel around the salient facts of working conditions which were brought to light in the Packingtown workers' strike of 1904. Along with a group of politically motivated investigative reporters (who were later labelled "muckrakers") Sinclair brought into focus the way that the American industrial complex was unjust and corrupt.
Yet this book is also a warm, human tale of real human beings, beautifully written. You feel their anguish, happiness, and hope. It is truly one of the classics of twentieth century literature....and this version puts it into its correct context.
Get this and you won't be disappointed.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first idea of this book was to expose the gritty cities and the meat packing industury of the period, so reading the censored version is just not good enough. this full uncensored text may make the reader want to throw up every once in a while but thats the point. This has to be personally my favorite book from my degree study and usually this would not even happen, what with being forced to read it and all the text just becomes blank. But this is not the case with the jungle. Its beautifully written and takes the reader through the pools of blood on the cutting room floor to the smell of the house the poor immagrant family live in. If you want a read of a book with brains, timelessness and quality then read this version. Nothing else will do.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Effective muckraking...
Muckraking is a word which originates from an illusion to Pilgrim's Progress, made in a speech by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, at about the time this novel was first published. Read more
Published 15 months ago by John P. Jones III
Unrelenting misery alleviated with a socialist tract
When I was at school, we had a history teacher who said of the medieval peasantry,it was "rural, static, illiterate, poor - living a life of relentless toil". Read more
Published 18 months ago by Bacchus
Man's inhumanity
I already had a "censored" edition, and wanted to see what had been cut out. Brutal - really brutal. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Lazy Kipper
The Jungle
This book is a MUST read for anyone who is interested in what is wrong with food processing.
It charts the lives of an immigrant family, who start off healthy and have... Read more
It charts the lives of an immigrant family, who start off healthy and have... Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2010 by R. A. Woodfield
A gripping, horrifying novel
I bought this book on the recommendation of a colleague, having only vaguely heard of it before. I found the opening section of the book, the account of Jurgis' wedding, just a... Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2009 by Sarah A. Brown
Laissez-faire exposed.
There are without a doubt better novels than "The Jungle". A great novel was not Sinclair's aim however. Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2005 by Dennis Phillips
grim grim grim grim grim
This has got to be the most depressing book I've EVER read. Mind you, it is quite good.
Published on 15 Mar 2004 by J. E. Breen
THE JUNGLE
I thought of the jungle as one of the most disgustin and yet entertaining books that i've ever read. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2003
Passionate and heart breaking
After writing this book Sinclair himself remarked he had aimed for the public's hearts but instead hit their stomacks. This statement is still very relevent today. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2000 by scazzar@aol.com
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