Elmer Gantry (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Sinclair Lewis
- First Published: 1927
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Satire
- Time of Work: 1915-1925
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Satire
- Subjects: Sex or sexuality, Religion, Midwest, 1910’s, 1920’s, Ministry or ministers, Greed, Moral conditions, Ethics, Preaching, Corruption, Fraud, Fundamentalism
- Locales: Midwest (U.S.)
Places Discussed
Paris. Kansas village in which Gantry grows up. With some nine hundred residents, it is smaller than the real town of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, in which Lewis grew up, and the fictional Gopher Prairie, which Lewis satirizes in Main Street (1920). Pretentiously named Paris, Gantry’s hometown is even more culturally impoverished than either Sauk Centre or Gopher Prairie, and appears to have not even a pubic library or a social club. A small Baptist church and its Sunday school are the leading institutions of the village. Except for Fourth of July parades...
[The entire page is 939 words long]
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