Sister Carrie, a novel by Theodore Dreiser published in 1900, tells the story of young Carrie Meeber, who comes to Chicago from rural Wisconsin. The book paints a rich portrait of turn-of-the-century Chicago. Carrie finds work in a shoe factory and boards with her working-class sister and brother-in-law. But soon she becomes the live-in mistress of traveling salesman Charles Drouet. During Drouet's absences she meets George Hurstwood, a married man who manages a fashionable bar. When Hurstwood's wife learns of the affair and throws him out, he steals $10,000 from his employer and tricks Carrie into fleeing with him to New York.

John Mack Faragher