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Customer Reviews (4)

A shocking look into our country's past
Even though its labeled as fiction it still gives the reader insight as to what chicago must have been like during the industrial revolution.Reading about this familys hardships gives you a different perspective at how terrible conditions were.Even though the story is sad I would recommend it, it was a great read and I really learned a lot.

One of my favorites
I first read this book about 8 years ago in a High School history class. Since then I have read it twice and I did a college thesis on it; it is one of my favorite books. The first time I read the hardcover book; the next two times I listened to the unabridged audiobook and enjoyed it so much better.

At Least Charles Dickens Could Write
Cicero once wrote, 'It is an outrageous abuse both of time and literature for a man to commit his thoughts to writing without having the ability either to arrange them or manifest them, or attract readers by some charm of style."

This book is a naturalistic novel with poor prose. Melodramatic and sensationalistic. It is functionally aligned to what was characterized as 'dime-novels' during the era in which it was written. The prose is so heinous it made me think the writer Mr. Sinclair must have been mentally exiguous. I had difficulty affirming in my own mind as I read this book that it was actually written by an adult, and not a fourteen-year-old child; notwithstanding a supposed professional novelist at that. Charles Dickens worked in a garment factory when he was a teenager as well as had a far less well-off beginning to life than that of Mr. Sinclair, yet Mr. Dickens could express with the most refined art and effort such an ease of pen dazzling the reader in every line. Dickens had indubitably an eye for detail and perfection that Sinclair's intellectual apathy could never aspire to grasp.

For a more eminent literary personification of the naturalistic novel genre, I would suggest reading Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. The naturalistic novel was always a phantasm of reality, but there were well-written ones and poorly written ones; this one by Upton Sinclair is a literary peril to say the least.

This book is exceptional only its ridiculousness. The characters are passive, dull, cliché, and often utterly puerile in their own conceptualization of their circumstances (this reflects upon the limited thought process of the writer).

In respect to the vulgarity discussed by Sinclair regarding the food industry of this era it should be noted the industry had already been exposed by various NON-fiction writers of the period (preceding Sinclair), and much (the emphasis being much, not all) of the industry had consequently been reformed apropos to the processing of food by the time this book was published. Essentially the government mandated regulatory reforms that were instituted the following year as a result of the popularity of this book were unnecessary, most significantly postulated on aberrational phenomena, and were superficial in remonstrance (oh but they made the public feel good inside). Conversely had Sinclair decided to be objective in his critique of the meatpacking industry in contrast to producing 'muckracking' so-called journalism derived out of his own subjective views in support of socialist ideology he would have discovered the previously mentioned actuality, but since this is a work of fiction he could write anything he wished, and he did. Why Sinclair went down the road of sensationalism in this novel may be attributable to the failures of his first four books. However, because he decided to go down that road he cannot be taken seriously as a scholar in any regard.

It should be noted that Sinclair was not merely a metaphorical socialist, he was a literal one (he was an unsuccessful Socialist Party candidate in the U.S.). In historical context Sinclair's political persuasion was during an era when the progressive political faction was gaining in popularity in America, so as a socialist ideologue he [Sinclair] was even further to the left politically than the progressives (he could be paralleled with a Michael Moore type in the present-era).

This book is a literary work of fiction, and should not be taken earnestly as a non-fictional scholarly critique. With that noted it also falls short in regard to literary style, and because the characters are passively portrayed by Sinclair in contrast to being actively portrayed it is difficult for the reader to form any authentic connection with them (they exist more as abstractions).

An American Classic!
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair has become one of my favorite American books of all time. It is very well written, descriptive, and is no holds barred account of life in industrial Chicago. The book unfolds as Jurgins arrives to America from Lithuania and continues to pursue his life in the promised land making minimum wage, struggling to earn a living for him and his family, the harsh working conditions in packing town where the slaughter is not just the livestock but the human and physical toll on the working man with no union to protect them, and the only cost is the working man or woman where they struggle to stay afloat. It's the story of the ultimate American tragedy where the immigrants' dream is slowly deteriorated into an unfortunate reality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic Series
I have just completed the last volume in the Lanny Budd series, having read the entire series over several years. This is a fantastic work of historical fiction that is both informative and entertaining.It illuminates the famous precept that those who cannot remember (or never knew) the past are condemned to repeat it.There is much to be learned from Upton Sinclair and Lanny Budd applicable to problems facing the world today.It was certainly well worth the time.

a welcome addition
It is exhilarating to have available reprints of the entire Lanny Budd series of books by Upton Sinclair, although each of the eleven volumes has now been cut into two parts.

After a four year hiatus, the last of the series, alternatively known as the World's End series after the title of the initial volume published in 1940, Sinclair has his continuing character Lanny Budd return.

Sinclair intended to have the series end with 'O Shepherd, Speak!', published in 1949.This volume contained an index indicating in which of the ten original volumes each character, both fictional and historic, appeared.For example, FDR was introduced in Volume III, page 305.'The Return of Lanny Budd', although published in 1953, takes up the continuing story of the Budds and colleagues in October of 1946.This time, the Soviet Union is the enemy, not Imperial Germany and the Third Reich.The USSR (and Mao's Communist Chinese) were treated with, in the least, empathy in the original series.In 'The Return', these regimes are recognized as being as much a threat to world peace as the Nazis were before them.

Whether Sinclair wrote 'The Return' out of genuine contrition for the praise heaped upon the USSR in the earlier volumes, or whether thr writer was pressured to recant under the threat of McCarthyism, is open to conjecture.

But, regardless of motive, it is glorious to have Lanny, Laurel, Rick, Nina, Bernhardt Monck, and yes, even Kurt Meissner, return to my nightstand.The 'World's End' series is 20th century history in easy doses, albeit being the world according to Upton Sinclair. ... Read more

Product Description
Mass Market Paperback, 548 pgs. Stiff wraps. #11 in the Lanny Budd series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Historical Fiction
The Lanny Budd series is historical fiction about a young man who spies for the US while befriending Hitler under cover as an international art dealer. A wonderful read as well as educational.

Magnificent, sadly neglected
The concept of this series is simple enough, but the mind that carries it foreward is one that enriches its reader, especially as time goes on.The view of a crucial part of 20th century history that is at once personal and commanding.It is on a par with Churchill's history of World War II but has a wider span.The breadth and wisdom of these books is awesome.
Gregory T. Lombardo MD, PhD ... Read more

Product Description
Peter Kuper’s Classics Illustrated adaptation of Upton Sinclair`s whistle-blowing novel on the conditions at the Chicago slaughter houses in the early 20th century is brought back to press in a beautiful larger size hardcover. One of his best and most poignant works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Confused
I am a little amazed you are asking me for a review of a product I have never received. I have sent roughly 5 emails over the last 3 weeks to get no satisfactory answer on the location or whereabouts of a book supposedly shipped out 10-6-2009 from Miami. This was my first and probably only attempt at trying to buy something on Amazon.com. I realize it is thru a 3rd party agent you are selling the product. But your organization should be ashamed to allow vendors like this on your website. The book was for a college course, needless to say this purchase attempt was worthless. I can only hope the credit process will charge my account again so I can tell everyone I know this sad story. My review is you should tell everyone up front before actually ordering there is a chance you may have to wait 3 to 4 weeks for an item or it may never come at all. False advertising or lack of advertising this process would have sent me somewhere else to purchase the item. Sorry to say I am CONFUSED.

The adaptation versus the original
Peter Kuper's adaptation of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is not as intellectually stimualting as the original. However, it is an excellent version of the book that can be read by individuals at the middle and high school levels.To teach the lessons and history contained within Sinclair's 400+ page book would be too time-consuming for most school classrooms.With the stark, harsh illustrations and the narrative provided, the reader will still be able to understand the original story and appreciate the plot, no matter what format the book comes in.

Grossly Misleading
This not Upton Sinclear's novel. It is a comic book, although not described as such on the website. This is not for readers, it is for morons.

A graphic novel that turns "The Jungle" back into a call for socialism
When I read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in high school I had to keep reminding myself that that novel was written in 1906, otherwise I would never be able to eat another hot dog the rest of my life.Although muckraking is a term used to describe journalistic exposes, "The Jungle" functioned much the same way by bringing instant notoriety to the American meatpacking industry.In his story of the Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family, Sinclair revealed the unsanitary, dangerous, and inhumane conditions that existed in Chicago's stockyards and meat-packing houses.When the novel was published it became front-page news across the nation and President Theodore Roosevelt invited Sinclair to the White House to discuss his book.Because of this book the sales of pre-packed meat in the United States was cut in half and the public outrage would lead to the passage of both the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Beef Inspection Act.

Sinclair's story was first published serially in "The Appeal to Reason," a socialist weekly and was dedicated to "The Workingmen of America."Clearly, Sinclair intended "The Jungle" to be a clarion call to socialism and a plea for the end of wage slavery, and ultimately he was disappointed by the reaction to his novel, writing once, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach."In this graphic novel adaptation of "The Jungle," artist Peter Kuper and his co-writer Emily Russell (who I believe is his daughter) clearly make an effort to get back to the basics and refocus the story so that this time it hits the heart.

Originally published in 1991 as part of an attempt to revive the Classics Illustrated comic book line, Kuper uses a full-color stencil technique that suggests that particular period but anticipates, so to speak, the political art of the period before World War II.Jurgis Rudkus and the other characters are depicted with an almost doll-like quality, which eerily enhances the tragic story.Sometimes I think he looks like a clownish version of the Frankenstein monster, but I find that underscores the sense that Jurgis is up against a man-made monster in the unfettered capitalist economy that Sinclair depicts.To cut down the original novel to the 44-pages illustrated pages of this graphic novel, the mind numbing and health eroding work in the fertilizer plant is reduce to a couple of pages.This is why the focus in Kuper's version shifts from what Americans were eating to what is happening to Jurigs, as his personal tragedy becomes the heart of the story.

Consequently, I find that this graphic novel version of "The Jungle" is not so much a substitute for reading the original novel as it is an ancillary work.More than with most such adaptations, you really have to have read (and vividly remember) the original work to appreciate what Kuper and Russell have wrought here.Even if consider socialism to be outdated, unnecessary and/or offensive, you have to admit that Sinclair's novel speaks to the historic reality of what life was like for the working class at a time when that meant they were members of the lower class.At the very least, you can appreciate the grand irony that Sinclair's book did as much to forestall a socialist revolution in the United States but spurring the government to actually act on the issues he incorporated into "The Jungle."

Kuper currently illustrated "SPY vs. SPY" each month for "MAD" magazine, but his illustrations and comics have also appeared in "Time," "Newsweek," and "The New York Times." In addition to "The Jungle" he has also illustrated Sinclair's "The Jungle and Sticks and Stones," a wordless graphic novel about the rise and fall of empires, which was awarded the gold medal in the 2004 Society of Illustrators competition in the sequential arts category.He has also done a graphic novel version of "The Metamorphosis" as well as adapted several Franz Kafka short stories in "Give It Up!"So if you are looking for more literary works given the Kuper touch, then check those out as well.

Captures the essence but not the power of Sinclair
When reading this book, I don't know whether to be happy that more people will be exposed to the classic work by Upton Sinclair or sad that their only exposure will probably be through cartoons. "The Jungle" was a society-altering book when it exposed the graft, corruption and appalling conditions in the slaughterhouses and other work places.
The main character is Jurgis Rudkus, one member of a family that immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania. He is a powerfully built, illiterate man, so he is well suited to perform the backbreaking labor that was the lot of such men. He works hard, but is injured and beats up a factory boss after he forces Jurgis' wife to have sex with him. Things get progressively worse, he is blacklisted and forced to take the most menial of jobs in the fertilizer factory. His wife Ona dies and his son Antanas drowns in the street. He then flees and becomes a vagabond; eventually returning to learn that Ona's brother Stanislovas was accidentally locked in a factory and eaten by rats. Ona's sister Marija is now a prostitute and she tells Jurgis that Ona could have supported them all had she become one when they first arrived. At the end, Jurgis is attending a socialism rally, where he feels that the speaker is talking directly to him.
While this book captures the essence of "The Jungle", no cartoon synopsis can ever completely do justice to the power of Sinclair's words. My hope is that this book will be the catalyst for people to go on to read it and understand why unfettered, unregulated capitalism is a dangerous thing. It also shows why the threat of socialism was needed so that the workers could have a chance to live decent lives instead of wallowing in filth.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Upton Sinclair continued
I grew up with the Lanny Budd stories and hoped that I would "meet" him someday. Unfortunately he lives only in Mr. Sinclair's timeless stories. Volume 2 anyone?

The Lanny Budd saga continues
For those who follow the World's End series, this book needs little introduction. It begins the second novel of Sinclair's magnum opus (9000 pages, give or take), starting at the end of the Paris Peace Conference and following the hero through the next 4 yars. Lanny takes a lover, and Beauty stays with hers. We are witness to Europe's postwar economic woes, the rise of Italian fascism, and its conflict with the worker's movement, the book ending in the death of the liberal Matteotti, despite Lanny's attempt to save him. The hero becomes an art dealer, while his father trades the arms industry for oil. Although the prose will seem stilted to the modern reader, the characters are compelling and one who is lookikng for a historical novel of the 20th century can dono better. Romantic fluff for sure, but the dramatic backdrop of Europe in the 20's makes it worthwhile. Certainly start with the first in the series (World's End) if you are new to the work, as the author does not waste the reader's time with a synopsis of the previous plot. Upton Sinclair has endured as the author of The Jungle, but the Lanny Budd novels were enormously popular in their time, and earned him a Pulitzer. They are especially recommended for those who are addicted to series, and looking for a wordy challenge. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1922.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is a continuation of World's End I.A Collector's Edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Further Adventures of Lanny Budd
Upton Sinclair's World's End Series is a great work that is sadly almost out of print. They seem to be available as paperbacks, with each volume split in two. Because of the high price, I would recommend trying to find this series at the library. The first volume is "World's End". By reading this series, you will learn so much about 20th century history and politics. The story of Lanny as a character is interesting, but the main drama is the worldwide political scene around the World Wars--luckily, Lanny has a knack for being in the right place at the right time to watch history unfold.
In "Wide is the Gate" Lanny returns to Germany to aid the resistance movement against the Nazis, while acting as an art dealer and pretending to be sympathetic to the Nazi leaders. He has some exciting adventures rescuing a resistance worker from Germany, and later, a young friend from Spain. He also faces the desintegration of his marriage with the millionare Irma Barnes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Further Adventures of Lanny Budd(II)
(Note: this review is also posted under Wide is the Gate I, because I read the work as one volume.)
Upton Sinclair's World's End Series is a great work that is sadly almost out of print. They seem to be available as paperbacks, with each volume split in two. Because of the high price, I would recommend trying to find this series at the library. The first volume is "World's End". By reading this series, you will learn so much about 20th century history and politics. The story of Lanny as a character is interesting, but the main drama is the worldwide political scene around the World Wars--luckily, Lanny has a knack for being in the right place at the right time to watch history unfold.
In "Wide is the Gate" Lanny returns to Germany to aid the resistance movement against the Nazis, while acting as an art dealer and pretending to be sympathetic to the Nazi leaders. He has some exciting adventures rescuing a resistance worker from Germany, and later, a young friend from Spain. He also faces the desintegration of his marriage with the millionare Irma Barnes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the face of XX century
This very short century, that begins in 1918 and ends with of Berlin's wall, has its most formidable days pictured in this "saga" about the struggle between totalitarian and democratic states. Still very much mistaken about the former URSS and "socialist paradise" as the tactical alliance imposed at the time of WW2, the facts depicted in these books bring back times that should not be forgotten.The plot is good, although it takes, I believe, some kind of previous knowledge about those days to be followed. All in all, it is perhaps the best and more comprehensive novel, or sequence of novels, about an era that makes the main part of the last century, and will certainly be an important part of future appreciation of our time. ... Read more

Product Description
This novel describes the working class day-to-day struggle for economic justice.The book was written in 1937 to aid the formation of the 'United Auto Workers' (UAW).It is a continuation of Sinclair's famous novel "The Jungle".Again,this novel depicts how alienated work not only brings degradation to workers, but is the motivation for resistance and finally revolt. Great balls of fire - Brothers!The novel turns out to be a historical documewnt of the first four decades of the 20th Century.The story is told from two conflicting views: That of Henry Ford and one of his workers.As we begin the 21st Century it is as important as ever for the American working and middle class to understand the roots of the American Labor Movement, especially the UAW.A must read for members of the UAW!A Collector's Edition. ... Read more

Product Description
Over 20 from the American Realist period makes up this huge anthology with an active table of contents.

Authors and works include:
Horatio Alger:
Ragged Dick: Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks

Stephen Crane:
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War

Theodore Dreiser:
The Financier
Sister Carrie
The Titan

William Dean Howells:
Indian Summer
A Pair of Patient Lovers
Through the Eye of the Needle
A Traveler from Altruria

Henry James:
The Ambassadors
The Beast in the Jungle
Daisy Miller: A Study in Two Parts
The Turn of the Screw

Frank Norris:
McTeague
The Octopus: A Story of California
The Pit

Upton Sinclair:
The Jungle

Mark Twain:
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Tom Sawyer, Detective
... Read more