[IHB]∎ Download Arrowsmith Signet Classics Sinclair Lewis E L Doctorow 9780451526915 Books

Arrowsmith Signet Classics Sinclair Lewis E L Doctorow 9780451526915 Books

Download As PDF : Arrowsmith Signet Classics Sinclair Lewis E L Doctorow 9780451526915 Books

Arrowsmith Signet Classics Sinclair Lewis E L Doctorow 9780451526915 Books

Arrowsmith is possibly Sinclair Lewis's greatest accomplishment. That is no meager compliment; Lewis is one of the greatest of American twentieth century novelists. He was a contemporary of Upton Sinclair and Jack London. Like them, he was an unapologetic socialist. But, unlike Upton Sinclair, his socialism was cleanly understated. He wove his social conscience cleanly into the story line. Upton Sinclair preached it, beating the reader over the head with it.

In Arrowsmith, Lewis intricately details the path through life of a dedicated man of science, torn between pure science, healing, and money-making. Often, his choices are seemingly random, dictated mostly by chance. The writing is, as always, descriptive and compelling. As with almost all of his work, it is no easy, one-night's plaything. The characters are numerous, each with his or her's own substance and role. They come and go throughout his life, occupying distinct places in his journey. The plot is sometimes slow, but often with surprising, often cruel, twists of fate. Each can come as quite a jolt to the reader.

Lewis has a unique ear for dialogue; it is easy for the casual reader to miss the sarcasm and irony for which he is famous. But beneath the irony there is always his understated plea for the common man; decency and kindness are woven inextricably into the story.


Tags : Arrowsmith (Signet Classics) [Sinclair Lewis, E. L. Doctorow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Featuring a new introduction by novelist E. L. Doctorow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel recounts the story of a Midwestern physician who is forced to give up his profession due to the ignorance,Sinclair Lewis, E. L. Doctorow,Arrowsmith (Signet Classics),Signet Classics,0451526910,Classics,Fiction,Fiction Classics,Literature - Classics Criticism,Literature: Classics,Modern fiction

Arrowsmith Signet Classics Sinclair Lewis E L Doctorow 9780451526915 Books Reviews

Bottomm Line First Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith was something of a break through novel. It is considered the first novel to directly address science and medicine as a plot driver. It is also a character study but of a particular kind of person. Not just a scientist, or a medical practitioner, but a person with an avocation. Lewis allows us to mature with a very believable, flawed human as he acts as a common, everyman finding and facing his destiny. Martin Arrowsmith Is not an outsized hero. He is someone rather like us, but still not of us. Martin Arrowsmith is an everyman and the question is, is it in us, through him to be a hero? Arrowsmith is a recommended read for almost any audience. It can be irreverent toward religion, but there is a respect for the religious. There is no bad language and no violence. However this is perhaps too thoughtful for the young and the details of the plague can be unsettling. Do not let the medical vocabulary throw you off, Arrowsmith is something anyone can read and enjoy.

We meet Arrowsmith as a very young person, already fascinated by medicine. He is the friend of one of the local medical doctors, an otherwise broken drunkard who allows this young person to perform as a town medical man. More so than could happen in our time. Next we go with him to a remote and minimally established public college/medical school. Here his performance will vary based on the kinds of influence one could expect in a crowd of immature and unsophisticated college kids.

Among the things that make this extended introduction a superior example of writing is that the real theme is introduced and isolated in ways that will not be fully realized in any one place before the end. For example Arrowsmith spends a summer performing the hard physical labor of a lineman and enjoying this turn. That is, he is not to be criticized as too pampered to handle real work.

Arrowsmith is a modern version of Pilgrims Progress. Along the way he will find what may seem to the reader as paradise, only to have Lewis take us one step deeper where we may find we, the reader has accepted Vanity Fair over our hero’s real goal.
I was motivated to read this book because Sinclair Lewis is regarded as one of the best American naturalist writers and this novel won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for literature. Arrowsmith is regarded unique because it is a novel centered around scientific research. I was expecting to be swept away by a novel that integrated scientific research with ethical issues. I was hoping to find admirable but flawed characters, struggling to keep their souls while working in a complicated world of scientific research.I thought I would watch a young man in a culture where people had to reconcile adherence to scientific integrity with the desire for results, fame, and money. I was hoping that this book would leave me with the feeling I got watching “October Sky” as a child, but instead it felt more like an episode of Lena Dunhum’s “Girls.”

The story begins when Martin Arrowsmith is a young man, about 18 years old, living in Elk Mills in the fictional midwestern US state of Winnimac. He goes to a decent state school and begins to study medicine. At school he works under the German scientist Dr Gottlieb, a scientist of passionate integrity in the field of Bacteriology. Arrowsmith is Gottlieb’s protégé and we see that there is an exciting future for the two of them to work together. Unfortunately, the two have a falling out that I did not really understand, and they part ways. I think the falling out had something to do with Arrowsmith’s immaturity, which bored me to the point where I didn’t bother to really understand it. I would have been more interested if it had to do with differing opinions on scientific processes or ethics. While this was going on, Arrowsmith had become “accidentally” engaged to two women at the same time. He can’t even make up his mind about who he wants to marry, so he invites the two women out to dinner- and let’s them decide! This is a good example of how haphazardly Arrowsmith lives his life. Martin Arrowsmith’s actions throughout the novel were sometimes motivated by passion for one thing or another, and he never established a hieraracy for what would be the most important. He was always motivated by the feelings of the moment. If he was pursuing one value and things got tough, he would abandon it for another value.

I only made it 62% of the way through the book before giving up. I was so disappointed about the sloppy way this young man lives his life. Oddly, I left the book when Martin was the exact same age as me- 32 years old. I would not recommend reading this novel. It isn’t fun to read and doesn’t leave you feeling inspired. The only reason I would read this novel is you have an intellectual career, and need to read this novel as a part of a required education.
Arrowsmith is possibly Sinclair Lewis's greatest accomplishment. That is no meager compliment; Lewis is one of the greatest of American twentieth century novelists. He was a contemporary of Upton Sinclair and Jack London. Like them, he was an unapologetic socialist. But, unlike Upton Sinclair, his socialism was cleanly understated. He wove his social conscience cleanly into the story line. Upton Sinclair preached it, beating the reader over the head with it.

In Arrowsmith, Lewis intricately details the path through life of a dedicated man of science, torn between pure science, healing, and money-making. Often, his choices are seemingly random, dictated mostly by chance. The writing is, as always, descriptive and compelling. As with almost all of his work, it is no easy, one-night's plaything. The characters are numerous, each with his or her's own substance and role. They come and go throughout his life, occupying distinct places in his journey. The plot is sometimes slow, but often with surprising, often cruel, twists of fate. Each can come as quite a jolt to the reader.

Lewis has a unique ear for dialogue; it is easy for the casual reader to miss the sarcasm and irony for which he is famous. But beneath the irony there is always his understated plea for the common man; decency and kindness are woven inextricably into the story.