The Metropolis

Upton Sinclair

Jan 2014 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Deals with New York as unsparingly as "The Jungle" dealt with Chicago. To expose the vice and extravagance of the New York rich has been Mr. Sinclair's purpose in writing this story. Two brothers, one the antithesis of the other, are the mouthpieces which Mr. Sinclair uses respectively to shout forth the demagogue's selfish creed and to denounce it.

About the author

Upton Sinclair, a lifelong vigorous socialist, first became well known with a powerful muckraking novel, The Jungle, in 1906. Refused by five publishers and finally published by Sinclair himself, it became an immediate bestseller, and inspired a government investigation of the Chicago stockyards, which led to much reform. In 1967 he was invited by President Lyndon Johnson to "witness the signing of the Wholesome Meat Act, which will gradually plug loopholes left by the first Federal meat inspection law" (N.Y. Times), a law Sinclair had helped to bring about. Newspapers, colleges, schools, churches, and industries have all been the subject of a Sinclair attack, analyzing and exposing their evils. Sinclair was not really a novelist, but a fearless and indefatigable journalist-crusader. All his early books are propaganda for his social reforms. When regular publishers boycotted his work, he published himself, usually at a financial loss. His 80 or so books have been translated into 47 languages, and his sales abroad, especially in the former Soviet Union, have been enormous.