Ann Vickers

by Sinclair Lewis

Book Overview

Sinclair Lewis published his book Ann Vickers in 1933. The story follows Ann Vickers, the protagonist, from her school days as a tomboy in the American Midwest in the late nineteenth century, through... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803279477
• ISBN13: 9780803279476
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 564 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Classic Lewis

A good book not only in terms of characterization (Lewis's forte) but also in illuminating select issues of the time (1900s-1930s): women's suffrage, prison reform and the reality of "vice." One of Ann/Lewis's strongest achievements is the argument that the nature of prisons essentially exacerbates the crime problem. Ann learns that due to ill-trained wardens/guards and poor conditions "Prison makes the man who enjoyed beating fellow drunks in a barroom come out wanting to kill a policeman" (272). However, like in many of Lewis's novels, a solution is presented. Once a prison superintendent herself Ann preaches the virtues of better trained and better paid employees, cleaner and more humane conditions and an extended parole program. While at times Ann's ultimate destiny feels a bit unrealistic, overall, a solid portrait is painted of possibilities of the New Woman of the early twentieth century.

When America writes books, she sounds like Sinclair Lewis

You are Ann Vickers "of Waubanakee, Illinois, a little south of the center of the state" ( Ch 1, p. 7). You are 17 years old. Your mother died when you were ten. You are an only child. Your father was local school superintendent. But he died a year ago leaving you a legacy of $1,000. What do you do next? You draw on your father's and Waubanakee's values and walk with open eyes into the ripening American world ahead from 1907 to 1933. You wait tables to put yourself through Point Royal College for Women in Connecticut. You grow through the amorous advances of a lesbian roommate and a playboy male professor. You study nursing. You stuff envelopes for years so that American women can vote. You go to jail for the cause and later become an expert on women's prisons. You write a learned book and are a popular national columnist. You have made love to three men over the decades, had one abortion greatly regretted, and after age 40 joyfully birthed a son whose father may either be your cloying husband or a charming rogue who sits on the New York State supreme court until he is convicted of being on the take and sentenced to six years in jail. When the judge is pardoned by the Governor (FDR?) after only a year behind bars, you, he and your son plan to defy convention and make a life together. You are the same Ann Vickers, onetime tomboy of Waubanakee, onetime devotee of the YWCA and Presbyterian Sunday School. You have taken things as they came your way, made your choices and lived with them. And you were written up in a novel by Sinclair Lewis which I defy a reader in 2005 to put down prematurely. Themes in the novel to be pondered: --A mother is persuaded by a professor of obstetrics to have an abortion she does not want and who dreams ever after of her "murdered" girl "Pride." A mother who will never murder Pride again and who knows that "coming children" have rights. --A feminist who never despises men utterly. Most males are taken to be "solid, stolid, unpicturesque citizens who liked breakfast, went to their offices or shops or factories at seven or eight or nine, admired sports connected with the rapid propulsion of small balls ... quarreled with their wives and nagged their children yet were fond of them and for them chased prosperity..." ( Ch. 21, p. 256) --A married liberal woman goes to parties and hears so much TALK in which people per Roget's Thesaurus "cry, roar, shout, bawl, halloo, whoop, yell, bellow, howl, scream, screech, screak, shriek, shrill, squeak ... yawp, vociferate ... rend the air..." (Ch. 35, p. 421f) --Ann Vickers squeezes her lover's wife's hand when the judge is sentenced to jail. This is not the first novel in which Sinclair Lewis puts two women with claims on the same man face to face. --America came of age in the early and middle lifetime of Ann Vickers. What a time! "Hijackers murdering bootleggers. ... Aviators crashing on cottages and burning up old ladies in them. Babies kidnaped and murdered. ... Methodist

Interesting and instantly absorbing book

Sinclair Lewis takes a distasteful and controversial subject and spins one of his best books that I've read. The book examines the feminist / women's suffrage during the early 1900's through the 1930's by following Ann Vicker's life. He covers her experiences with: abortion, voting rights, marriage, sex rights, and divorce.However, the primary focus of the book is on the cruel and primitive jail conditions at the time. Ann's call in life is to run a prison. Lewis unabashedly describes the gory details of the torture and living conditions that Ann finds through her first experiences.The characters in the story, especially that of Ann Vickers, are clearly drawn out. However, I found some of the "innocent" criminals to be a little too fake. At times I felt like Lewis was trying to tell me that all people in jail didn't deserve to be there. However, Lewis does make some poignant observations about punishment and the politics involved with it.Overall, a great book and I would recommend that all Lewis fans or those with a passing interest in feminism / women's suffrage or jail conditions in the early 1900's to read this book.