Carrie, far from being punished, involves herself compromisingly with two men and winds up in luxury, a successful actress, "with glory ringing in her ears" as she collects an enormous salary - a denouement that could be interpreted as advocating an unchaste life. In McTeague, the most daring novel of the times, lust and vice were punished in the end to furnish the reader with a moral lesson.
Judged by the stiff-necked moral and esthetic standards of 1900, Sister Carrie was a shocking book. Dreiser had finally triumphed over the genteel literary tradition. He bought the printing plates of his own novel and had it republished in successively larger editions in 1907, 1908, 1911, and 1932. Dreiser had much faith both in the book and the public. The book-purchasing public had no quarrel with the reviewers. Sister Carrie was labeled immoral and vulgar. Most reviewers were violently adverse and insulting. There is no foundation to Dreiser's charge that it was "suppressed" or "buried away in a cellar." Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the book, through Doubleday's influence, received the very minimum of publicity.įavorable reviews were very few. When orders came in they were promptly filled. Through Norris' intervention, over four hundred copies were sent out to reviewers. The book was displayed in the wholesale showroom and listed in the company's catalog. Dreiser insisted that the publisher abide by the contract, and so a thousand copies were run off and bound. He knew that any novel full of such vulgarity and moral laxity would not sell. It was not only Doubleday's dislike of the novel, but also his business acumen which prompted him to halt publication. Then, Frank Doubleday, the senior partner, upon returning from Europe, read the proof sheets and stopped publication. Walter Page, a partner in the firm, joined Norris in his praise of Sister Carrie and signed an agreement with Dreiser to publish it. The manuscript had already been refused by two publishers when Frank Norris, author of the powerful naturalistic novel McTeague, and also an editor for Doubleday, Page and Company, read the manuscript and proclaimed it to be one of the best novels he had ever read.
Sister Carrie, Dreiser's first novel, was presented to a reading public not yet ready for its stark realism and pessimistic view of life.
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