Cari Mame

Author: Theodore Dreiser (USA)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Carrie goes to Chicago to visit relatives and meets salesman Drouet on the train. Unable to endure the hard life in the factory, she lives with Drouet and meets hotel manager Hurstwood. Hurstwood is obsessed with her beauty and embezzles public funds to escape with her to New York, starting a life of cohabitation. Carrie gets on stage by chance and gradually achieves success, while Hurstwood gradually falls into ruin. They separate, and Hurstwood eventually commits suicide. This book is one of the important works of American realist writer Theodore Dreiser and a sequel to Sister Carrie. Through Carrie's turbulent experiences, the book reflects the dark side of unemployment, poverty, and hunger beneath the surface prosperity of American capitalism in the late 19th century.
The most important plot in Carrie is Hurstwood stealing money from the hotel, tricking Carrie onto a train, and starting a life of elopement. The prototype of this plot was actually the life experience of Dreiser's sister Emma. Back then, a hotel cashier had embezzled $3,500 from the store and ran away with Emma to Montreal, then later moved to New York. Dreiser completed the first draft of Carrie in March 1900. Over a century later, despite some criticism, Carrie has remained a beloved classic for readers.