Description: In this devastatingly satiric novel about the provincialism, rigidity, and cultural stagnation of small town life, Sinclair Lewis drew upon his boyhood knowledge of small-town America. His protagonist -- Carol Kennicot -- is an intelligent, ambitious, and determined young woman married to a kindly but unimaginative doctor. Attempting to transform her hometown of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, into a place of beauty and culture, she finds herself fighting ingrained bigotry and hypocrisy. Ultimately, she's defeated by the complacency and hostility of the town's inhabitants. The first popular bestseller to attack conventional ideas about marriage, gender roles, and small town life, Main Street established Lewis as a major American novelist and made him spokesman for a literary generation. He was also the first American novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature (1930). The present work is not only a staple of high school and college literature courses but has also proved enduringly popular over the years among general readers.

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