Main Street (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Sinclair Lewis |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace and Howe |
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Publication date
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1920 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback), and audiobook |
| Pages | 448 pages |
| ISBN | |
Main Street is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis, and published in 1920.
Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the state capital. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart.
When they marry, Will convinces her to live in his home-town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, a town modeled on Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the author's birthplace. Carol is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town's physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it.
She speaks with its members about progressive changes, joins women's clubs, distributes literature, and holds parties to liven up Gopher Prairie's inhabitants. Despite her friendly but ineffective efforts, she is constantly derided by the leading cliques.
She finds comfort and companionship outside her social class, but these companions are taken from her one by one.
In her unhappiness, Carol leaves her husband and moves for a time to Washington, D.C., but she eventually returns. Nevertheless, Carol does not feel defeated:
I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful as it should be! I do not admit that Gopher Prairie is greater or more generous than Europe! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women! I may not have fought the good fight, but I have kept the faith. (Chapter 39)
Some of Lewis's contemporaries said the novel was too bleak, even humorless, in its conveyance of ignorant small-town life and people. However, Main Street is generally considered to be Lewis's most significant and enduring work, along with its 1922 successor Babbitt.
Some small-town residents resented their portrayal and the book was banned by the public library of Alexandria, Minnesota.
Because of the popularity acquired by Lewis and his book, high-school teams from his hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, began to be called the Main Streeters as early as the 1925–26 school year. This name was essentially given to the town by the nearby towns at school events. The Sauk Centre High School still goes by the name in a tribute to Lewis.
The story is set in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, a fictionalized version of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis's hometown. The novel takes place in the 1910s, with references to the start of World War I, the United States' entry into the war, and the years following the end of the war, including the start of Prohibition.
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