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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
Minimal; one character's decline has some violent implications
Language
Barely any
Mild language; turn-of-the-century literary prose
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships and implied sexual content; Carrie uses men for advancement, handled with literary realism rather than explicit description
Substance Use
Some
Moderate drinking and social alcohol use as part of Gilded Age life
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Strong psychological content: the novel's devastating portrait of Hurstwood's decline and the moral vacancy at the heart of ambition
What this book is about
Carrie Meeber arrives in Chicago in 1889 and rises from factory girl to Broadway actress through a series of relationships with men who mistake her for something she is not. Theodore Dreiser's controversial naturalist novel — so scandalous in 1900 that its original publisher refused to promote it — is a merciless portrait of desire, ambition, and the American dream's moral vacancy.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Hurstwood's psychological decline is deeply affecting and disturbing
Morally complex portrait of opportunism and its human cost
Reader Verification
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