Sister Kerry in English with parallel translation. The attractive force of a magnet. At the mercy of the elements

1. The attractive force of a magnet. At the mercy of the elements

When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, all her belongings consisted of a small chest, a cheap suitcase made of fake crocodile skin, a lunch box and a yellow leather wallet containing a train ticket, a piece of paper with the address of her sister who lived on Van. Buren Street, and four dollars.

This was in 1889. Caroline has just turned eighteen. She was a smart girl, but shy, filled with illusions characteristic of ignorance and youth. If, when parting with her family, she regretted anything, then in any case it was not about the advantages of the life that she was now abandoning.

Tears flowed from her eyes when her mother kissed her for the last time, her throat tickled as the train rumbled past the mill where her father worked by day, a deep sigh escaped from her chest when the familiar green surroundings of the city flashed by and ties that They tied her too tightly to her home.

Of course, she could have gotten off at the nearest station and returned home. Ahead lay a large city, which is connected with the whole country by trains arriving there every day. And the town of Columbia City is not so far away that it is impossible to travel to your native land even from Chicago. What does a few hundred miles or a few hours mean?

Caroline looked at the piece of paper with her sister’s address and couldn’t help but think. For a long time she followed with her eyes the green landscape that quickly flashed before her; then the first impressions of the road faded into the background, and the girl’s thoughts, overtaking the train, took her to an unfamiliar city, she tried to imagine - what is it like, Chicago?

When a girl of eighteen leaves her native home, she either falls into good hands and then becomes better, or she quickly assimilates the capital’s views on moral issues and becomes worse. There can be no middle ground here.

The big city, with the help of its insidious tricks, seduces no worse than other seducers, the most experienced of whom is microscopically small compared to this giant and will bring a person much less disappointment. There are powerful forces at work in the city that have ways of penetrating the soul of their victim that are only accessible to an intelligent and subtle person. The flickering of thousands of lights is no less powerful than the expressive sparkle of loving eyes. The moral decay of a simple-minded, naive soul is promoted mainly by forces beyond the control of man. A sea of ​​deafening sounds, a violent boiling of life, a gigantic accumulation of human hives - all this vaguely attracts stunned feelings. What kind of lies will the city whisper into the ear of an inexperienced creature, if there is not an adviser nearby who can warn in time. And this lie, not yet revealed, is seductive - often it imperceptibly, like music, first softens, then makes weak, then corrupts the fragile human consciousness.

Caroline, or Sister Carrie, as she was called with a touch of affection in the family, had a mind in which the abilities of observation and analysis were still completely undeveloped. She was self-absorbed, and this selfishness, although not too obvious, was nevertheless the main feature of her character. She was sweet with the insipid prettiness of adolescence, her build promised a pleasant roundness of form in the future, and her eyes shone with natural intelligence, moreover, she was full of ardent dreams of youth - in a word, before us is a wonderful example of a middle-class American woman, who is only two generations separated from great-grandfathers - emigrants from Europe.

Reading did not interest Kerry at all - the world of knowledge was behind seven locks for her. She still didn’t know at all what intuitive coquetry was. She didn’t know how to playfully throw her head back, she often didn’t know where to put her hands, and even though her legs were small, she walked heavily.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser

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Title: Sister Carrie

Release Date: December 13, 2011

Language: English

Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (from scanned
pages available at the Internet Archive)

SISTER CARRIE

image of the book's cover

My Dear Mr. Norris:

Owing as I do so very much to your earliest and most unqualified approval of this story in manuscript form it is my determination to inscribe a copy to you whether you will or no.That it reaches either you or the public "under cover" so soon is due entirely to you.Therefore refuse not a corner on the family table to the off-spring you so generously fostered;neither attempt to deny in the future that your sins do find you out.

With the most grateful remembrances I am,

Sincerely yours
Dreiser

Sister Carrie

By
Theodore Dreiser

colophon

NEW YORK
Doubleday, Page & Co.
1900

COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.

WHOSE STEADFAST IDEALS AND SERENE
DEVOTION TO TRUTH AND BEAUTY
HAVE SERVED TO LIGHTEN THE METHOD
AND STRENGTHEN THE PURPOSE OF
THIS VOLUME.

SISTER CARRIE

Caroline Mieber is 18 years old, she is beautiful and young, which attracts the attention of men. A girl with minimal belongings from her provincial town goes to Chicago to visit her sister in the hope of somehow organizing her life. On the train she meets a certain Drouet. Life in the city turns out to be extremely difficult, especially financially. She loses the job she found with difficulty due to illness, her sister and husband are angry, and there is no money. Kerry is desperate. The aforementioned Drouet comes to the rescue. But not without reason, he wants to see the girl as his mistress. She agrees, although the gentleman is not nice to her. George Hurstwood shows obvious sympathy for Kerry. He is married, runs a bar and every day he breathes more and more passion for the young beauty. Under the power of persuasion, she agrees to flee with John to New York. Lack of money motivates Kerry to get a job as an extra in the theater. Soon she appears on stage as a comedian. Hurstwood is unemployed, he is morally deteriorating, and Kerry abandons him. As a result, he commits suicide.