The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Epub)

Description

The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair (1878–1968). Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. Many readers were most concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, based on an investigation he did for a socialist newspaper.

The book depicts working class poverty, the lack of social supports, harsh and unpleasant living and working conditions, and a hopelessness among many workers. These elements are contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption of people in power. A review by the writer Jack London called it, “the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of wage slavery.

“Sinclair was considered a muckraker, or journalist who exposed corruption in government and business. He first published the novel in serial form in 1905 in the Socialist newspaper, Appeal to Reason, between February 25, 1905, and November 4, 1905. In 1904, Sinclair had spent seven weeks gathering information while working incognito in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards for the newspaper. It was published as a book on February 26, 1906 by Doubleday and in a subscribers’ edition.

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Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ The Jungle is a great book. However, the copy of the book I ordered from Amazon, publisher listed as CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 22, 2017), is possibly the worst quality I’ve ever seen in a book. Even the paragraphs are not indented, making this copy difficult to read. Order a Penguin or another trusted publisher.

⭐ I think this edition is being reprinted illegally. The word ‘Copyright’ is spelled wrong on the first page (Copy right) and there is no forward, introduction or table of contents. The format of this edition is odd. Chapters don’t start on their own pages.It does state on the first page that this is an e-book…but this edition is a printed book. Very disappointed and will be asking for a refund.

⭐ Every month I send several of my grandchildren 3 new books. One month, this was one of them. Naturally, when I told them when it was written and why it was important, it wasn’t the first book they read. Interestingly, it became the one they raved about the most. Written in 1904, this book moved me as a teen-ager in the 60s, and my grandchildren (who are now in their mid-20s) were blown away by it nearly 120 years later. Read it for it’s social and political impact or read it because its a well-written, compelling story. This is one of those books, like Catcher in the Rye and Brave New World, that should be on everyone’s reading list.

⭐ Amazing writing. I’m not sure why this wasn’t required reading when I was in school, or why I never was into reading classic novels in my younger years, but I’m glad I finally got around to reading “The Jungle.” I can see why the book created such a stir.This novel, written at the end of the gilded-age, shows the great divide created by unregulated capitalism, showing how workers and consumers can end up bearing the heavy burden, the real cost, of maintaining the lifestyles of the rich and powerful, how the American dream of working hard to succeed does not work when the cards are stacked against you.Funny how some of these same problems are with us again. How easy it is to assume the free market can regulate itself, after generations of living in a regulated market. People seem to forget the first principle of business is to make a profit.The ending was a weak point by today’s standards. There was hope that socialism would address all the flaws of social inequity. Obviously, that never happened, though political changes were enacted to address some of the inequities. Socialism was a dream never realized and I’m not sure I’d want the author’s final solution. It reminded me of Ayn Rand, escaping from Communism and seeing Capitalism as the ultimate system of perfection. The grass is always greener . . .The theories of government never translate into practice with the lofty ideals or ethics of the philosophers who write about a perfect society. I doubt there is any system (including capitalism) that would be successful if not tempered to address the ways humans devise to scam the system.What I found most interesting is the nation’s current drift into a second gilded-age. It makes this a frightening powerful novel, a modern-day warning. I wish it was required reading.

⭐ It’s a story that begins as if you had a microscope into the souls of real people, who are desperate, hard working slaves to a big machine. Then you zoom out and get a broader look at the machine and its negative impact on its immediate surroundings. All the while, you follow the central character, who is very naïve to begin with, but through so much experience learns, first hand how the entire system operates. Finally, you will see the broadest picture of a corrupted system that will destroy any and every thing to preserve its own wealth and keep a thumb on the working-class people who are either too busy or too ignorant to organize and abolish it. Sounds so familiar!You will be shocked by so many atrocities and it will be difficult not to feel empathy for the characters, who destroy themselves in the name of Capitalism. Time and again the protagonist is put through trials that would cause you or I to curl up and die! It’s a very dark book with a very good message and I recommend it to all!P.S. I haven’t read the other reviews, but I’m willing to bet that many of them will warn of the slaughterhouse scenes, which made me REALLY happy to be a vegetarian!

⭐ I don’t know why high schools try to make sure kids DON’T want to read, but my daughter was forced to read this for freshman English. She hated it, unsurprisingly. It even gave her nightmares. Made me think about the time I resorted to cliff notes when I was forced to read “The Grapes of Wrath”. I love to read, and read all the time, but for heavens sakes, high school teachers, pick something better!

⭐ This book is a conundrum. As noted by my title, the first two thirds is very good, and tells the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his family’s ill-fated migration from Lithuania to America. They find their way to Chicago, and then several family members go through a series of highs and lows, finding work, losing work, gettting taken by unscrupulous bankers and lawyers, getting injured on the job, being forced into sexual relationships to keep jobs, etc. The early part of the book centers on Packingtown, and this part of the book is riveting and well written. After a series of incredible misfortunes, the main character, Jurgis, takes to the road and discovers a bit of America. This section of the book is also interesting, though sketchy. Clearly, Sinclair was beginning to either run out of gas or run out of interest in the story. In the last third of the book, Jurgis returns to Chicago and attends a socialist rally in which he gets converted to this economic doctrine. At that point, the story of Jurgis is largely abandoned, and the last 15% (on kindle) of the book is a series of speeches and monologues on the wonders of socialism. This section was for the most part unreadable, and this is coming from someone who considers himself a liberal! The end doesn’t actually even reference Jurgis, so the reader has no idea what happens to him at the end of the story. He simply vanishes from the narrative.I had considered using this for a college level class in Economic Geography, but the last portion of the book was just too slow and preachy, as others have noted here. What is interesting is that within these pages is a GREAT novel, if only he had concentrated on Jurgis’ story. The scenes in the meat packing houses are incredibly well written (and hard to read), but that part of the book is completely wrapped about halfway through. So, in conclusion, this may be a classic, but I believe that judgment is mainly for the first two thirds of the book. As a previous reviewer noted, don’t feel bad that you don’t read to the end, since the story of Jurgis is concluded earlier than that, as is the narrative.

⭐ I loved the character development and description of the Chicago slaughter houses and meat packing industry in the early 1900s.The abuse of immigrants and workers in general was appalling. The harder they worked, the farther behind they were.Jurgis, the main character, was a healthy,strong young man when he came from Lithuania with his fiance and family. He suffered horrible set back after horrible set back. When he enjoyed his FIRST – in 3 years – full body “bath”, in a pond, I had tears in my eyes. (THAT was an awkward sentence but I hope the sentiment came through.)Along the way, Jurgis learned how to read English and learned about politics. He discovered how the meat industry got away with breaking laws and health codes. He became part of the evil web for a brief time – until they couldn’t use him anymore.Then Jurgis discovered Socialism. The last part of the book is about Socialism and although it was very interesting the book ended without mention of Jurgis. WHAT happened to him????One hundred years later, America still has issues with it’s meat industry. PINK SLIME is just one of the problems.The few, rich people at the top will Always try to take short cuts and make more money – even when they already have more than they need.The Jungle is a timeless book. I’m glad I read it.

⭐ Lewis’ classic story of the plight of immigrants in the Chicago stockyards in the early 1900s is both shocking and depressing – and enough to make one a convicted vegetarian or vegan for life. The story features the experiences of the Lithuanian immigrant family of Jurgens Rudkus as they – enthusiastically and optimistically at first – try to establish a living in Chicago. Their experience is brutal and depressing – just when you think that they might take a step up the social ladder, all hopes are dashed by the occurrence of some calamitous event or other. This happens again and again – often at the hands of political/capitalist cronyism. Even if circumstances were half as difficult as they appear in this story, life would still be a bleak and brutal affair.It is tempting to draw parallels with certain trends in American society today especially as we observe the loss of union power, the decreased earning power of the blue collar worker, and ever increasing economic/political power by the wealthiest among us.

⭐ I have read this book several times over the years although it’s been awhile since my last reading so I thought I’d read it again. Upton Sinclair’s vivid descriptions brings the Chicago Stockyards of the early 1900’s to life. In the first two thirds of the book, the lives of an immigrant family are told….their hopes, dreams and experiences of coming to a new country where they don’t speak the language yet struggle to find a better life. What they find is hardship, extreme poverty, swindles, back-breaking work for little pay and death. I came to really like the family that was the focus of the story but after I became emotionally involved, the story shifted to the political corruption in Chicago at the time and how the daily life of all Chicagoans was affected by graft, political favoritism and the rise to power of the unions. The last third of the book is devoted to speeches given by men of the new Socialist party that was trying to form in Chicago which I found to be rather boring because I was more interested in the life of the main character and what happens to him. You never find out his ultimate fate which I found frustrating but the book is a great read and beautifully illustrates early Chicago.

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