Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read. This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter. - Reading time of the complete text: about 14 hours - Reading time of the summarized text: 24 minutes "The Jungle" is a fictional novel written by Upton Sinclair, an American muckraker author, in the early 20th century. The book exposes the corruption in government and business, particularly in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair spent seven weeks working incognito in the Chicago stockyards to gather information for the novel. The story follows Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, and his struggles to support his family in Chicago. The novel depicts the harsh living and working conditions, poverty, and lack of social support experienced by the working class. It also highlights health violations and unsanitary practices in the meatpacking industry, leading to public outcry and sanitation reforms. Despite facing numerous hardships, Jurgis eventually becomes involved in crime and later embraces socialism. "The Jungle" had a significant impact on food safety regulations and remains a powerful critique of the capitalist system.

En 1906, la parution de La Jungle provoque un scandale sans précédent : Upton Sinclair y dévoile l'horreur de la condition ouvrière dans les abattoirs de Chicago aux mains des trusts de la viande. La Jungle est bientôt traduit en dix-sept langues tandis que l'auteur, menacé par les cartels mais porté par le mécontentement populaire, est reçu à la Maison-Blanche par le président Theodore Roosevelt. Une enquête va confirmer ce qu'avance Sinclair et donner lieu à une vague de réformes qui touchent la vie économique toute entière. La Jungle, par sa puissance d'évocation, par sa sincérité, transforment le message humanitaire en épopée.

Comme Émile Zola, Upton Sinclair n'a rien d'un styliste extasié : il peint large, vite, puissant, il emporte le lecteur et l'incite à s'insurger : Sinclair n'aurait pas renié l'acception utilitaire de son travail. Pourtant Pétrole ! demeure un récit d'aventure. Tel Géant, livre qui fut lui aussi adapté au cinéma, ce roman se veut le roman du pétrole, volontiers scélérat, que Sinclair avait déjà affronté en manifestant contre les Rockefeller. [...] Sept cents pages d'idéalisme, empreintes de toutes les composantes du roman d'éducation : on sent qu'Upton Sinclair aspire à donner vie à la chimère de la littérature américaine de tout temps, the great American novel, le grand roman américain à l'échelle du pays-continent qui, une fois pour toutes, s'inscrira dans l'histoire littéraire. Extraits de la préface d'Olivier Barrot.

The story takes place in the fictional city of Western City circa 1920. It begins with a man named Billy who is attacked by a mob of ex-servicemen outside a theater after watching a German film. Billy stumbles into a church to escape the mob and is visited by Carpenter, that is Jesus, who walks out of the stained glass window of the church. Carpenter is shocked and appalled by his observations of greed, selfishness, lust, sorrow, and the ultimate division between rich and poor. The story then roughly follows the ministry of Jesus.

A story of white collar crime and intrigue told from the point of view of Montague, a member of the privileged class of New York. Montague witnesses the manipulation and upset of the stock market by high financier Dan Waterman who is motivated by revenge. Waterman's character is loosely based on J.P. Morgan.

The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation is a non-fiction book, first published in 1917, by the American novelist and muckraking journalist Upton Sinclair. It is a snapshot of the religious movements in the U.S. before its entry into World War I. In this book, Sinclair attacks institutionalized religion as a "source of income to parasites, and the natural ally of every form of oppression and exploitation."

Gnomes are rare these days - which is why so few people ever see them. But Elizabeth and her Uncle find two forlorn little people, the last of a tribe of California Redwood gnomes. When they hear Glogo's sad story, they get in Uncle Rodney's shiny car (The Gnomobile) to search for another tribe of gnomes and a wife for young Bobo. But curiosity seekers cause one problem after another until something really terrible happens... Bobo and Glogo are gnome-gnaped! This is the wildly amusing tale of two gnomes, Glogo and Bobo, who travel to America in the company of two human friends in their custom gnomobile...

King Coal is a book by Upton Sinclair, first published in 1917, that exposes the dirty working conditions in the coal mining industry in the western United States during the 1910s. As in an earlier work, The Jungle, Sinclair expresses his socialist viewpoints from the perspective of a single protagonist, Hal Warner, caught up in the schemes and plots of the oppressive American capitalist system. The book itself is based on the 1914-1915 Colorado coal strikes. (Summary by Wikipedia)Reader's note: In Book 4, there is no chapter numbered Section 16 in the public domain Gutenberg e-text. However, no actual text from the book appears to be missing.