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    The Jungle
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    The Jungle
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    The Jungle
    Ebook491 pages17 hours

    The Jungle

    By Upton Sinclair

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    About this ebook

    Packaged in handsome, affordable trade editions, Clydesdale Classics is a new series of essential literary works. It features literary phenomena with influence and themes so great that, after their publication, they changed literature forever. From the musings of literary geniuses such as Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, to the striking personal narratives from Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, this new series is a comprehensive collection of our history through the words of the exceptional few.

    Set in Chicago during the early 1900s, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays the hardships of the immigrant working class. The story begins with Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus, who takes a job at Brown’s slaughterhouse to try to earn enough money to stay afloat. His life becomes a constant strugglehe, his young wife, Ona, and the rest of his family eventually falling victim to a slew of unfortunate circumstances including exploitation, abuse, and for some even death.

    From unsanitary and unsafe working conditions to poverty wages, the novel revealed to the American public the struggles immigrants encountered in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. Sinclair, a muckraking journalist, penned the bestselling narrative in an attempt to expose the evils of capitalism, and bring to light the extreme adversity these people faced not just in Chicago, but in industrialized cities across the country. By detailing numerous health violations in these workplaces, Sinclair’s novel caused public outrage and eventually led to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

    The Jungle is an honest, sometimes brutal, tour de force that opened America’s eyes to the struggles and horrors many immigrants endured.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClydesdale Press
    Release dateMay 17, 2016
    ISBN9781945186127
    Author

    Upton Sinclair

    Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, activist, and politician whose novel The Jungle (1906) led to the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Born into an impoverished family in Baltimore, Maryland, Sinclair entered City College of New York five days before his fourteenth birthday. He wrote dime novels and articles for pulp magazines to pay for his tuition, and continued his writing career as a graduate student at Columbia University. To research The Jungle, he spent seven weeks working undercover in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. The book received great critical and commercial success, and Sinclair used the proceeds to start a utopian community in New Jersey. In 1915, he moved to California, where he founded the state’s ACLU chapter and became an influential political figure, running for governor as the Democratic nominee in 1934. Sinclair wrote close to one hundred books during his lifetime, including Oil! (1927), the inspiration for the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood; Boston (1928), a documentary novel revolving around the Sacco and Vanzetti case; The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism, and the eleven novels in Pulitzer Prize–winning Lanny Budd series.

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    Reviews for The Jungle

    4/5

    1,531 ratings61 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is a shocking story about the meat packing industry. The things that ended up in the meat. It was also hard to hear what the workers went through and how this family struggled just to survive. How their food was filled with nasty things, how people swindled them. It was a hard life back then for immigrants. Very good book to learn a little bit about America's history.
    • 4/5
      An oldie but goodie. I noticed the condition of the characters much more than I did in the past. It is a sad story all areound of survival of the fittest.
    • 3/5
      As a novel, this book is less than perfect. The protagonist is more of a plot device than a character. In spite of that, I am glad I read this book as historical fiction, and as an important work that led to food safety reforms. The author was hoping for labour law reform, but his work nonetheless provides a chilling perspective into the food industry and it is not surprising that it created a push for reform. In my view, it is worth reading.
    • 2/5
      It is impossible for me to review this without appearing to be pissy. The work itself is barely literary. The Jungle explores and illustrates the conditions of the meatpacking industry. Its presence stirred outcry which led to much needed reforms. Despite the heroics of tackling the Beef Trust, Upton Sinclair saw little need in the actual artful. The protagonist exists only to conjoin the various pieces of reportage. There isn't much emotional depth afforded, the characters' motivations often appear skeptical. I was left shaking my head on many a turn, especially towards the end where entire speeches from the American Socialist party compete with esoteric findings of left-leaning social scientists from the era (around 1905).

      Despite these shortcomings as a novel, the opening half is often harrowing. Graphic descriptions of hellish work conditions, poor food quality and lack of social safety net reached towards a very personal conclusion: I am EVER so grateful that I didn't live 110 years ago and was forced to compete economically under those conditions.
    • 4/5
      Finally finished it way back in June. I actually read the Project Gutenberg version. What strikes me is how little the immigrant experience has changed.
    • 4/5
      I really am glad that I finally got to this book that has been on my list for years. It was really eye-opening about the meat packing industry and the Chicago "machine" that was in charge of Everything in Chicago in the early 1900's. The poor people and immigrants that lived and worked there during that era were under the thumbs of the people in charge, and there was no way for them to get ahead -- almost no way for them to stay alive! The back of my book says "Published in 1906, The Jungle aroused the indignation of the public and forced a government investigation which led to the passage of the pure food laws." So, thank goodness, we may thank this book and author for helping to regulate the purity of the food we eat today, because you sure wouldn't have wanted to eat anything that came out of those places back then! Not a happy story, but very educational, and surprisingly, it was hard for me to put it down!
    • 4/5
      I don't understand why this book is described as an examination of the meatpacking industry in the early days of the 20th century. Yes, it has graphic details of the slaughterhouses in Chicago, but this clearly is the story of the hard life of an immigrant family newly arrived in America and how the odds are stacked against them.
    • 4/5
      I very much enjoyed this novel. Jurgus Rudkus is introduced as a large, strong, proud man. His struggles, tragedies, and downfalls show him transform from someone strong, powerful, and almost invincible to someone completely and totally broken down.The novel ends in a deus ex machina fashion, and seems to have very little connection with what has preceded it. But nevertheless, this one is worth reading.
    • 1/5
      It was well written and has a hidden point, however it was the most boring and highly depressing book i have ever read. i'm glad that i read it, but i will not be reading it again or recommending it to others.
    • 4/5
      Well... this is definitely a book that arouses emotion and thought.When first starting The Jungle, I was impressed and moved by Upton Sinclair's writing. I felt like I'd been reading for forever and nothing had happened, but I still found it interesting because of the way it was written. But I'd talked to people who had read the book, so I knew tragedy couldn't be far away.Tragedy after tragedy strikes the characters until it seems like things just cannot get any worse. In fact, things get a little better, but then worse again. Better! Worse. Better! Worse. It gets tiring, to say the least.Upton Sinclair's writing never gets any less amazing, but I can take only so much tragedy and vehement heartbreak at a time. But, at least, I got to the end, and I felt a little...startled. It seems that Upton Sinclair wrote this entire tragedy just to convert readers to Socialism. And after reading the Afterward, I discovered that my impulse was correct: that was indeed Upton Sinclair's goal.I feel a little cheated, honestly. There's no denying that the fifty million speeches about Socialism at the end of The Jungle are inspiring and moved me to take a stand and do something to change my life, but then it just keeps going and you can tell Upton Sinclair is even more excited about Socialism than about all the tragedy of Chicago and the Rudkus family.The Jungle has definitely made me think, and it has definitely made me feel. But I can't say I agree with Upton Sinclair on all his political views, and I kind of wish he hadn't used his writing to sneak up on me and throw his ideas in my face.
    • 3/5
      Wow! They call it "muckraking journalism" (apparently), and the level of detail used by Sinclair to denounce malpractice in the meatpacking industry of early 20th century Chicago is truly staggering. The author himself claims that his real target was the exploitation and mistreatment of poor immigrants to the U.S. (the plot focuses on the plight of a family from Lithuania), but I can only believe that up to a point.It all makes for fascinating reading, and having visited Chicago, I simply had to use Google Maps to "rediscover" the streets mentioned in the text! Some readers (not myself) might be put off by the fact that Sinclair's in-depth exploration of a) meatpacking procedures and b) socialism actually take precedence over the plot itself.
    • 4/5
      The first 2/3 of the book was heart-wrenching. Sinclair is an incredible story-teller. The last third of the book however...yawn. At that point, I just wanted to scream "get on with it!"The last few chapters were just too muddled and preachy for my taste.
    • 4/5
      I feel this would make an excellent play. The main character arrives in America and something akin to with arms like these how can I ever starve. Then slowly the tragedy sets in with misfortune after misfortune. The main character is subject to the pitfalls of a crooked city and his hope is dashed repeatedly by a cruel reality. He attempts to get work shovelling and his spirits are raised for an instant when the employer calls him to work. However, when his sleeves are rolled up they reveals weak and pale arms and he is sent away. It is after his body has been exploited and rendered useless that his mind opens to the preachings of socialism that the author wished to disseminate to the reader.
    • 3/5
      The graphic novel adaptation took me about 10 minutes to read. But as other reviewers have noted the book is about the plight of immigrants. It just happened to be set in a meat packing plant. It makes one realize that undocumented immigrants today are only a little better of than those in The Jungle. Although today's meat packing plants are better we would still be disgusted by them. Don't get me started on factory farms.
    • 5/5
      I can just imagine the furore this book caused when it came out. The descriptions of the conditions at the meat packing plants in Chicago, which Sinclair knew from having gone undercover, were horrendous. As a result of this book the forerunner to the Food and Drugs Act was passed. At least as terrible as how meat was processed was how horribly the workers were treated. There was no such thing as health and safety or worker's compensation. If someone didn't turn up for work there were 100 more people to take their place. Wages were low and people went into debt to live in squalor. Children either worked in the meat packing plants or were sent out to sell papers. Women who had given birth had to go right back to work or lose their job. The protagonist lost everything, tried crime and strike breaking, and finally discovered socialism. Now, the promises and schemes the socialists made seem naive but to millions of the poor it must have seen like a beacon of light.
    • 5/5
      I am so glad that I have read this book... but what a hard journey it was. I am a Health and Safety Professional and this book underscored why I am doing what I do for a living. The horrible conditions (not to mention the food quality and ethics issues (which fit right in to my Vegetarian leanings!!))... the horrible abuse of human labor for the sake of enriching the already too rich. A very eye-opening book. I wasn't sure I would be able to make it through to be honest. It was just very hard to read. Death, suffering, sadness, hopelessness. the book is a brilliant picture of the times - you can't not be changed by reading and listening to your heart as you read it. I plan to read it again someday... which is funny because I wasn't sure if I could finish it! But once I got past the horror, the message of the book rung true.
    • 5/5
      This is a book that I love. I read it when I was living in the woods of Wisconsin after being abused on a job by a miserly old small town employer bully.The story is described in the introduction of the copy with this cover as being rather thin and superfluous to its intent to expose the plight of the workers as a group. The characters are meant to be composites and are merely used to illustrate social conditions. This kind of analysis deadens the emotional impact of the struggling protagonist and his families plight.It is always noted that this book spawned reforms in the meatpacking industry not over the cost of human suffering but just the unwholesome product that was exposed in the revolting manner in which the food was being produced.
    • 5/5
      This book could be called the prequel to Fast Food Nation. Written in 1906 it is ammazing to see how the poor and uneducated are used for fodder by the beef trust. One feels the struggles of Jurgis and his family. This is trily a classic that holds the reader even today.
    • 4/5
      This one might make you sick - from head to toe. Not only are the stories agonizing, but the descriptions of the meat-packing industry might make you want to vomit. Read it alongside Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser if you're trying to compare just how far (very little it seems) our food industry has come in the last 100+ years.
    • 3/5
      OMG, Upton Sinclair, preachy much?

      It's not the uncomfortably vivid depictions of the meatpacking industry at the turn of the last century. It's not the series of tragedies, as if the author had a checklist to work through and a determination to mark off every box. It's not even the Socialist propaganda of the last few chapters, when no one speaks except to explain the coming revolution.

      Rather, it's the litanies against drinking; the vilification of "green negroes" too stupid and savage to avoid the temptations of alcohol and the flesh; the women who sink into poverty, prostitution and drug abuse. Even more than that, it's the characters who have no life or will of their own, but who merely move wherever Sinclair chooses to place them. As the book goes on, his manipulation of his characters becomes more obvious, until Jurgis's motivations cease to make sense. In the latter half of the book, Sinclair simply herds him through a series of tableaux that end in a Socialist awakening. By the end, Jurgis has all but lost his voice. In the last chapter, he doesn't speak at all - just listens to Sinclair's mouthpieces and thinks he might like to talk to a girl, but never does.

      That said, I recognize the sociocultural and historical importance of The Jungle, and I'm not unsympathetic to its message. I only wish Sinclair had found a way to convey that message through his characters, without resorting to editorial- and sermonizing.
    • 4/5
      It seems wrong to say I enjoyed this book because it was such a heart-wrenching story, but I did. It was almost like being unable to pull your eyes away from a horrific car crash as the main character Jurgis suffers throughout his working life. Anything that could go wrong for him and his family did go wrong.I know what it's like to be out of work and to have to work the most menial jobs because that's all you can get, but at least in this day and age we have welfare benefits and employment law to protect us when things do go wrong. But poor Jurgis had none of that. I felt so sorry for him and his family as everytime they dreamed of doing something good and improving their lives it was ripped away from them by injury, tragedy, deceit or exploitation.What makes this book even more harrowing is the fact that it is based upon the truth behind industry in America at the time. It also makes you think about what's changed since then, or if anything has actually changed at all...The last little bit of the book was mostly socialist propaganda and I only really skim-read that. Although some of the socialist views probably make sense in the context of the story it wasn't really something I needed to read about in detail.This is one of those books that will stay with me for quite a long time, and not just because of the gory slaughterhouse scenes.
    • 5/5
      Intense. Had to have a drink on hand whenever reading this to stomach the misery and greed. A Lithuanian family, hoping for a life less oppressed, immigrates to America and finds their way to Chicago's stockyards at the turn of the last century only to be cruelly tricked into indentured servitude in the meat packing industry. Their daily struggle to counter starvation, sickness, exhaustion, and homelessness is heartrending. The reader experiences the foul and brutal practices of the meat industry; the utter lack of a social safety net for anyone or basic infrastructure in the workingman's neighborhoods; the corruption of the industries, the city officials, and the political machine - and their collusion; the extensive world of crime, gambling, and prostitution (women habitually held hostage and doped); and the tenuous hope of relief through union organization and the socialist revolution. Sickening to think that these situations and conditions still exist in the world. Come the fuck on humanity.
    • 5/5
      This book is positively amazing- I was about ready to become a Socialist at the end. Basically what we have is the incredible story of what America was doing to its immigrants, and it wasn't pretty. Yes, the meat packing stuff was gross, but it wasn't even the most disturbing part (plus it makes great quotation material when you want to annoy people at dinner). I was most upset about the saga of how the family was starved out of their house. We need to see what corperate America was doing to immigrant Americans (and undoubtably still is).
    • 3/5
      I'd been very pleasantly surprised when I'd read "Fast Food Nation", but I wasn't aware how much that book owes to The Jungle. This is a powerful book; it opens our eyes to the gruesome meatpacking business and the struggles of poor immigrants.Unfortunately, after the first half, The Jungle spirals down. It becomes an exercise in sadism, where everything you can imagine could go wrong will, and then, near the end, it's all redeemed by a couple dozen pages of communist wishful thinking. Still a valuable book, but one with diminishing returns.
    • 3/5
      I didn't find it as disgusting as people have said but still interesting.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book, published in 1906, especially from the historian's perspective. It was a book that after it was written, completely changed the Chicago stockyards. It was written about a Luthanian family who worked there during the beginning of the 20th century. Not many authors can be credited with writing a book that changed laws (The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) is a direct result of the publication of this book). You have to appreciate a book that had such a monumental impact on many people's lives. The stockyards in Chicago were so bad... and this book brought it to light, not just in Chicago but nationally as well. Last year (2006) it was it's 100th year anniversary. It's a GREAT book and I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I decided to read this as one of those books I have heard of as classics, but I had never read. I anticipated that these books would be things to wade through. I could not have been more surprised. I didn't want to put it down. It was fascinating and if I had not known when it was written, I would have thought it was contemporary. I did think it ended rather abruptly, but I couldn't put it down.
    • 5/5
      Sinclair tries to enlist our sympathy and support for the socialist cause. But mostly what we bring away from this book is the horrifying conditions in the meatpacking industry, and the heart-rending plight of the immigrant worker. As he once said, he aimed for our hearts and got our stomachs instead.
    • 4/5
      A good book which inspired a nation to take a closer look at meat packaging plants. However, it did get a little to preachy about Socialism at times for my tastes.
    • 5/5
      Great classic novel about the struggle of European emigrants in the meat processing industry of early 20th century Chicago.