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Main Street

English BooksWhale Edition by Sinclair Lewis

A sharp novel of small-town conformity, idealism, marriage, reform, and the limits placed on an ambitious woman.

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Main Street

Main Street follows Carol Kennicott as she brings reforming hopes to Gopher Prairie and collides with provincial taste, gossip, marriage expectations, and social inertia. Sinclair Lewis uses comedy and criticism to expose the pressures beneath ordinary American respectability.

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Public domain basis

Why this edition can be shared

Sinclair Lewis died in 1951, and Main Street was first published in 1920. These dates support the public-domain basis for the English source text used in this edition.

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Main Street

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CHAPTER I

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ON a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas camped two generations ago,

a girl stood in relief against the cornflower blue of Northern sky.

She saw no Indians now; she saw flour-mills and the blinking windows of

skyscrapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Nor was she thinking of squaws

and portages, and the Yankee fur-traders whose shadows were all about

her. She was meditating upon walnut fudge, the plays of Brieux, the

reasons why heels run over, and the fact that the chemistry instructor

had stared at the new coiffure which concealed her ears.

A breeze which had crossed a thousand miles of wheat-lands bellied her

taffeta skirt in a line so graceful, so full of animation and moving

beauty, that the heart of a chance watcher on the lower road tightened

to wistfulness over her quality of suspended freedom. She lifted her

arms, she leaned back against the wind, her skirt dipped and flared, a

lock blew wild. A girl on a hilltop; credulous, plastic, young; drinking

the air as she longed to drink life. The eternal aching comedy of

expectant youth.

It is Carol Milford, fleeing for an hour from Blodgett College.

The days of pioneering, of lassies in sunbonnets, and bears killed with

axes in piney clearings, are deader now than Camelot; and a rebellious

girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire called the American

Middlewest.

Table of contents

Inside this edition

  1. 01Full text
  2. 02CHAPTER I
  3. 03I
  4. 04II
  5. 05III
  6. 06IV
  7. 07V
  8. 08VI
  9. 09VII
  10. 10CHAPTER II
  11. 11II
  12. 12CHAPTER III
  13. 13II
  14. 14III
  15. 15IV
  16. 16CHAPTER IV
  17. 17I
  18. 18II
  19. 19III
  20. 20IV
  21. 21CHAPTER V
  22. 22I
  23. 23II
  24. 24III
  25. 25IV
  26. 26V
  27. 27CHAPTER VI
  28. 28I
  29. 29II
  30. 30III
  31. 31IV
  32. 32V
  33. 33VI
  34. 34CHAPTER VII
  35. 35I
  36. 36II
  37. 37III
  38. 38IV
  39. 39CHAPTER VIII
  40. 40II
  41. 41III
  42. 42CHAPTER IX
  43. 43I
  44. 44II
  45. 45III
  46. 46IV
  47. 47V
  48. 48VI
  49. 49CHAPTER X
  50. 50II
  51. 51III
  52. 52IV
  53. 53V
  54. 54VI
  55. 55CHAPTER XI
  56. 56I
  57. 57II
  58. 58III
  59. 59IV
  60. 60V
  61. 61VI
  62. 62VII
  63. 63VIII
  64. 64CHAPTER XII
  65. 65II
  66. 66III
  67. 67IV
  68. 68CHAPTER XIII
  69. 69CHAPTER XIV
  70. 70CHAPTER XV
  71. 71II
  72. 72III
  73. 73IV
  74. 74V
  75. 75VI
  76. 76VII
  77. 77VIII
  78. 78CAROL!”
  79. 79IX
  80. 80CHAPTER XVI
  81. 81II
  82. 82III
  83. 83IV
  84. 84V
  85. 85VI
  86. 86CHAPTER XVII
  87. 87I
  88. 88II
  89. 89III
  90. 90IV
  91. 91V
  92. 92CHAPTER XVIII
  93. 93I
  94. 94II
  95. 95III
  96. 96IV
  97. 97V
  98. 98VI
  99. 99VII
  100. 100CHAPTER XIX
  101. 101I
  102. 102II
  103. 103III
  104. 104IV
  105. 105V
  106. 106VI
  107. 107VII
  108. 108VIII
  109. 109CHAPTER XX
  110. 110I
  111. 111II
  112. 112III
  113. 113IV
  114. 114CHAPTER XXI
  115. 115I
  116. 116II
  117. 117III
  118. 118IV
  119. 119V
  120. 120CHAPTER XXII
  121. 121I
  122. 122II
  123. 123III
  124. 124IV
  125. 125V
  126. 126VI
  127. 127VII
  128. 128book of grammatical puzzles?”
  129. 129VIII
  130. 130CHAPTER XXIII
  131. 131I
  132. 132II
  133. 133III
  134. 134DEAR JACK:
  135. 135IV
  136. 136V
  137. 137CHAPTER XXIV
  138. 138I
  139. 139II
  140. 140III
  141. 141IV
  142. 142V
  143. 143BEAVERS
  144. 144U. F. O. B.
  145. 145CHAPTER XXV
  146. 146II
  147. 147CHAPTER XXVI
  148. 148book.
  149. 149II
  150. 150CHAPTER XXVII
  151. 151I
  152. 152II
  153. 153CHAPTER XXVIII
  154. 154II
  155. 155III
  156. 156IV
  157. 157V
  158. 158VI
  159. 159VII
  160. 160CHAPTER XXIX
  161. 161II
  162. 162III
  163. 163IV
  164. 164V
  165. 165VI
  166. 166CHAPTER XXX
  167. 167II
  168. 168III
  169. 169IV
  170. 170CHAPTER XXXI
  171. 171II
  172. 172III
  173. 173IV
  174. 174V
  175. 175CHAPTER XXXII
  176. 176I
  177. 177II
  178. 178III
  179. 179IV
  180. 180CHAPTER XXXIII
  181. 181II
  182. 182III
  183. 183IV
  184. 184VI
  185. 185CHAPTER XXXIV
  186. 186II
  187. 187CHAPTER XXXV
  188. 188II
  189. 189III
  190. 190CHAPTER XXXVI
  191. 191II
  192. 192III
  193. 193IV
  194. 194CHAPTER XXXVII
  195. 195I
  196. 196II
  197. 197III
  198. 198IV
  199. 199V
  200. 200CHAPTER XXXVIII
  201. 201II
  202. 202III
  203. 203IV
  204. 204V
  205. 205VI
  206. 206VII
  207. 207VIII
  208. 208IX
  209. 209CHAPTER XXXIX
  210. 210II
  211. 211III
  212. 212IV
  213. 213VI
  214. 214VII
  215. 215VIII

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