Chapter 1 Summary

Sister Carrie is Theodore Dreiser's first novel. Sister Carrie, a novel about a young woman who found success as an actress in New York, proved to be so controversial in its original form that the publishers forced Dreiser to edit it heavily before it could be published. Even in this severely edited version, the novel continued to be seen as racy and inappropriate. However, the novel has been credited with breaking new ground in its genre and opening doors for many authors who came after Dreiser. A novel of passion and ambition, Sister Carrie, now available in a fully restored version, changed the way an entire generation viewed the modern novel.

Carrie Meeber is traveling on a train from Wisconsin to Chicago in 1889 in order to stay with her sister and look for work in the big city. Carrie has great dreams of...