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Main Street
Main Street: A Satire of Conformity and the Enduring Weight of Provincialism
When Main Street first appeared in 1920, it shook America’s self-image to its core. Sinclair Lewis’s daring novel stripped away the sentimental myth of the small town as the heart of moral virtue and exposed instead a society stifled by gossip, mediocrity, and fear of difference.
At its center stands Carol Milford Kennicott, an educated young woman who dreams of reforming her husband’s hometown of Gopher Prairie. But every effort to beautify or enlighten the town—its pageants, civic clubs, and social projects—collides with suspicion and ridicule. Her frustration becomes a universal parable of the individual’s struggle against social pressure and provincial conformity.
This critical annotated edition provides rich context, thematic analysis, and reflective commentary, illuminating Lewis’s vision of early twentieth-century America and its enduring relevance today. Both a landmark of American realism and a timeless warning about the cost of belonging, Main Street remains one of literature’s most incisive explorations of community, conformity, and dissent.
Author Bio
Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951) was one of the most provocative and influential American writers of the twentieth century. Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota - the model for his fictional Gopher Prairie - Lewis grew up steeped in the rhythms of small-town life that he would later dissect with satire and precision. Education at Yale, he worked as a journalist and editor before turning to fiction, developing a sharp eye for the hypocrises, ambitions, and contradictions of modern American society.