Sunday book pick: ‘Sister Carrie’, published in 1900, predicted the individualism of urban life

“She wondered at the magnitude of this life and at the importance of knowing much in order to do anything in it at all.”

Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel, Sister Carrie, joins the list of my favourite novels of all time.

Set in the 1880s, well before the First World War and during a time of general peace, Sister Carrie is a wondrous, humane epic about encountering a city, finding a place for yourself in it, and, if luck is on your side, making a fortune and a name for yourself.

The eponymous Sister Carrie arrives in Chicago from Columbia City, a small town by all definitions. Modestly educated and lacking any real skill, Carrie only has her determination to rely on to make a living in the city. She puts up with her sister and her husband in their tiny apartment and works poorly-paid, backbreaking jobs in dingy shops. Much of her earnings go toward paying her keep and the monotony of work, despite the city’s various excitements, causes her despair.

So Carrie is not entirely heartbroken when she loses her job after a brief spell of illness. On her way to the city, Carrie had caught travelling salesman Drouet’s fancy, who struck up a friendship with her. She moves out...

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