Die Handlung zufolge wachsen drei Generationen der Familie Weagle in Pensionen, Gasthäusern und Hotels auf und arbeiten dort. Die Hauptfiguren sind zwei Brüder, Myron und Ora, aus der zweiten Generation. Der poetische, ätherische Ora konnte es kaum erwarten, dem Hotelalltag zu entkommen, war aber nie stolz, den schwerfälligen Myron um Geld zu bitten.
Der Roman erzählt die Geschichte von Carl Ericksons Leben, wie er heranwächst und reift. Er steht vor der Wahl: Entweder er geht auf ein städtisches College und besucht mit seinem Jugendfreund eine öffentliche Schule, oder er lebt mit seinem älteren Freund, der eine Hütte mitten im Wald besitzt, mitten im Nirgendwo.
Der satirische Roman schildert den Aufstieg Elmer Gantrys bis in die Spitze des religiösen Managements der protestantischen Denominationen in den USA. Die Requisiten des Erfolgs sind rhetorische Begabung und eine mit Sentimentalität und Bauernschläue gepaarte Scheinheiligkeit.
Die Geschichte spielt in der Kleinstadt Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, einer fiktionalen Version von Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis' Heimatstadt. Der Roman spielt in den 1910er Jahren und nimmt Bezug auf den Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs, den Eintritt der Vereinigten Staaten in den Krieg und die Jahre nach Kriegsende, einschließlich des Beginns der Prohibition. «Die Hauptstraße» ist vielleicht Sinclair Lewis' berühmtestes Buch, das das Leben in einer Kleinstadt satirisch darstellt und ihm 1930 den Nobelpreis für Literatur einbrachte.
Diese Sammlung enthält die größten Werke des amerikanischen Schriftstellers und Nobelpreisträgers Sinclair Lewis: Die Hauptstraße Elmer Gantry Mantrap Der Mann der den Präsidenten kannte Sam Dodsworth Unser Herr Wrenn Falkenflug Das Kunstwerk Sinclair Lewis' satirischer Erzählstil über komplexe philosophische Themen ist ein besonderes Merkmal des Autors. Das wichtigste außersoziale Problem, das in allen seinen Werken zum Vorschein kommt, ist das Thema des Individuums und der Gesellschaft, das sich wie ein roter Faden durch das gesamte Werk des Schriftstellers zieht.
Neil Kingsblood is a white middle-class man who discovers, while researching his family background, that he is directly descended from an African adventurer on the American frontier. Through various machinations, Kingsblood loses his banking job and takes a lesser one. He begins to be treated differently by former acquaintances, despite the lack of visible black African ancestry. He is forced to choose between continuing what he has come to see as a hollow existence in the white community and taking on the oppressed minority status of the black community. After Kingsblood tells several white friends about his newfound ancestry, the news quickly spreads, and he finds that acquaintances change their behavior toward him. He engages in a quixotic struggle against the racism newly apparent but widespread in his community.
George F. Babbitt as a middle-aged business man devoted to his job and social climbing. Babbitt has three children whom he encourages to try harder at school. He is professionally successful as a realtor. Much of his energy is spent on climbing the social ladder through booster functions, real estate sales, and making good with various dignitaries. After one unsuccessful dinner party, Babbitt and realizes his dissatisfaction with «The American Dream,» and starts questioning his deeds and motives. Babbitt critiques the vacuity of middle-class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in literature to Sinclair Lewis. The word «Babbitt» entered the English language as a «person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards».
Dodsworth is set in the period between late 1925 and late 1927 and it underlines the differences between US and European intellect, manners, and morals. Samuel Dodsworth is an ambitious and innovative automobile designer, who builds his fortunes in fictional Zenith, Winnemac. In addition to his success in the business world, he had also succeeded as a young man in winning the hand of Frances 'Fran' Voelker, a beautiful young socialite. Retiring at the age of fifty he sets out to do what he had always wanted to experience: a leisurely trip to Europe with his wife. In their extensive travels across Europe, they are soon caught up in vastly different lifestyles and it begins to influence their relationship and marriage.
This edition includes the complete novels and the iconic short stories of the great Sinclair Lewis: Novels: Babbitt Free Air Main Street The Trail of the Hawk The Innocents The Job Our Mr. Wrenn Arrowsmith Mantrap Elmer Gantry The Man Who Knew Coolidge Dodsworth Ann Vickers Work of Art It Can't Happen Here The Prodigal Parents Bethel Merriday Gideon Planish Cass Timberlane Kingsblood Royal World So Wide Short Stories: Things Moths in the Arc Light The Willow Walk Nature, Inc. The Cat of the Stars The Ghost Patrol The Kidnaped Memorial Speed Young Man Axelbrod Seven Million Dollars Let's Play King Land A Letter From the Queen The Hack Driver Go East, Young Man Little Bear Bongo Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is best known for his novels Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, and It Can't Happen Here. His works are known for their critical views of American capitalism and materialism in the interwar period. He is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women.
Set in the small town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, the Main Street takes place in the 1910s, with references to the start of World War I, the United States' entry into the war, and the years following the end of the war, including the start of Prohibition. It relates the life and struggles of Carol Milford Kennicott as she comes into conflict with the small-town mentality of the residents of Gopher Prairie.