I don't know that I have ever encountered a book that was so emotionally difficult to read. From the moment that I was introduced to Jurgis and Ona, I shared their plight, and even experienced nightmares about the deprivation which they experienced. Upton Sinclair based this book on factual accounts, and so it becomes much more than literature; it is a social commentary whose main purpose was to expose the ills of capitalism, and idealize socialism. While I didn't care for the end of the book, which was one extremely long speech about socialism, I was completely drawn into the story. I found myself wishing that I would have been able to do something to help Jurgis's family. ( )

Good book until the very end. One gets to read Sinclair's rave for Socialism. Good for an argument against slaughter houses. ( )

Intense--the socialist stuff towards the end was a bit dense to read, but overall, very good. Lived up to my expectations, which is rare. ( )

This book is good with regard to exposure of the evils of the meatpacking industry at the turn of the century. However, the author uses this for the purpose of making socialism the cure to all ills. The latter part of the book is socialistic dogma. ( )

Is this the most important novel to be written in the USA? By that I mean in terms of its importance outside the world of literature. It has to be near the top, doesn't it? That it brought about change in a form other than what Sinclair intended is but dressing to the situation. The only reason I'm not giving it a full five stars is that it deserved a better, more compelling ending. ( )

A head-turning account of an immigrant life in and around the Chicago stockyards.

"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... " A LITTLE "HEAVEY HANDED" IN THE LAST 75 PAGES. SINCLAIR IS CREDITED WITH PESONALLY MOTOVATING TEDDY ROOSEVELT TO AN INQUIRY INTO FOOD SAFTY STANDARDS BUT I HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT THE (LAST 75 PAGES - THE RISE OF A SOCIALIST SPECTER) WAS ACTUALLY THE PRIME MOTIVATOR.

An oldie but goodie. ( )

i have not read the novel. tom who has read both says this is not as good ( )

Every once in a while, you read a book that makes you look back and reevaluate your life. For me, that book is The Jungle.

It was absolutely heart wrenching following Jurgis Rudkus, the main character, and his constant failed attempts to provide for his family. An immigrant from Lithuania, he came to America to strike it rich and marry Ona, the girl of his dreams. They, along with ten other members of their family, go to the stockyards of Chicago where they have heard that jobs are available for everyone.

What they didn't know is they would have to work fourteen hour days under horrible conditions to make enough to barely survive.

It's amazing how spoiled today's society is. I could never handle this type of work. The difference between now and a hundred years ago is staggering to behold. When reading The Jungle, it is obvious to the reader the luxuries available to them that were inconceivable back then.

And the losses that Jurgis had to cope with! He survived as he watched member after member of his family die. You see him at his strongest, his weakest, his cruelest. You are there, pitying him when he is forced to sleep under cars in the dead of winter and you are there, cursing him as he allows himself get sucked into the system, making his living off of the misery of others when he becomes a boss at one of the stockyards. You see how the misery finally trumps even the strongest soul. Every man has a breaking point, a point where he will do anything to survive.

Apart from being a real eye opener, Sinclair's prose is amazing. His descriptions of events and sights put you right in the middle of Chicago's stockyards. I didn't even notice when paragraphs went on for more than a page because I was so involved with every single sentence. The book opens with a wedding feast and you can smell the food and hear the laughter and music and see the couples dancing. When Jurgis first sees the inside of a stockyard, you are right there, witnessing the horrible sight. It's extremely powerful.

I usually never give a book five stars because so few are really, truly good. However, I don't think I could give The Jungle anything but five stars. This book makes me wish there was an option for a sixth star. ( )

The Jungle was meant to hit American's in the stomach over the food packing indstry and the regulations, or lack thereof. Sinclair's muckraking began an era of muckraking and investigative journalism (even though he wasn't a journalist). ( )

1365 The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (read 2 Nov 1975) For years I thought I should read this, so I finally did. It reminds me a bit of Zola--its picture of the horrors of Chicago in 1904 is staggering and I hope a little exaggerated. Jurgis and his girl friend and her family come from Lithuania to Chicago. Everything goes wrong, all is evil, nothing but work under appalling conditions, really stark. The book ends with a Socialist harangue, after dire events and Jurgis is converted to Socialism. Worth reading, if dated. ( )

I have read and re-read "The Jungle" many times and used it for my law and literature project in law school. It is a fine story enveloped in a somewhat flawed book. A couple of years ago, at a garage sale, I came across this commemorative edition that was re-released after the original hand-written manuscript was uncovered in a small town about 25 miles from where I live. Turns out the little town was a hotbed of Socialism back in the day. Very nice edition, highly recommended addition to a hardcover library.

Upton Sinclair never set out to write a story about the evils of the meat-packing industry. The effect it had on government oversight and food safety was a by-product (sort of like bologna) of his original intent - to write a magnum opus on Socialism.

The last few chapters, the clarion call for the workers of the world to unite are dated and can get wearing, hence a 4-star review rather than 5.

However, this book is superb reading and a brutal look into the life of the working class in a major city at the turn of the century. How every minute of every day is a struggle for the basics of survival, much less comfort.

The hero's solution, "I will work harder!" Yet, that is impossible. In the early industrial age, the worker was the cheapest, weakest, most disposable, and easiest cog in the great machine to replace. When he is injured in a slaughterhouse accident, he is a broken man, no longer the first chosen when the bosses were surveying the crowd of day-laborers every morning.

Out of this entire book, I still remember a passage where the working class laborers are packed into and herded through a tour of a 'modern' meat-packing plant. The hogs are grabbed by a hind leg on the never-ending chain drive and hauled - screaming, terrified and doomed - into the bowels of the plant to be processed.

The hero's thoughts? "Thank God I am not a pig." Actually, the pigs had it easier, they died quickly . . .

Why readers will like this book: A true, unvarnished look at a laborer's life in turn-of-the-century Chicago. Brutal and uncompromising. What the worker's have to do to survive and what others do to survive off the workers. Stores water milk and adulterate meat. Supervisors prey on female workers. And yes, the fun of learning about processing meat. Not for the meek.

Why writers will like this book: Amazing characterizations. Even in the more tedious diatribes on Socialism, the characters are crisp, vivid and alive. Excellent descriptions and ringing passages that make you want to pound the table and cheer along with the masses. This book has definitely stood the test of time as a brilliant book with a brilliant message. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

"They could tell the whole hateful story of it, set forth in the inner soul of a city in which justice and honor, women's bodies and men's souls were for sale in the marketplace, and human beings writhed and fought and fell upon each other like wolves in a pit, in which lusts were raging fires, and men were fuel, and humanity was festering and stewing and wallowing in its own corruption."

The Good:

Jurgis Rudkus is a Lithuanian immigrant, newly landed in Chicago, IL with his extended family. Like many immigrants, he dreams of a new life: work, good pay, food on the table. Things begin to go wrong from the moment they arrive. Con men are quick to take advantage as greed, corruption and moral decay are the driving forces in town. The fortunes of the family dwindle and they learn to shrink from opportunity as it often serves as a Trojan Horse.

Upton Sinclair traveled to Chicago to research this story, originally intending to focus on the morbidity of working conditions but instead switched over food safety after witnessing the revolting conditions in which food was prepared. After the book was published, its effect became apparent. Foreign sales of American meat fell by one half and to calm public outrage, major meat packers lobbied the government to pass legislation to pay for the additional inspection and certification of meat packaged in the United States. This led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which established the Food and Drug Administration.

This story is a great example of the idea that books can change the world, something I deeply believe in. The publishing of this book led to public outcry and a government investigation that led to the passage of pure food laws.

The Bad:

The story and main characters are victims of Sinclair's criticism of the meatpacking industry, the poor working conditions and the all consuming poverty and hopelessness of the lower classes. While Sinclair spends time over-describing slaughterhouse conditions and the joys of socialism, the plot fades into the background, subservient to his hidden agenda.

While I like the idea of a book changing things for the better in the real world, I was looking forward to the story of this Lithuanian family and their struggle as immigrants. Instead the story is treated more like a textbook documenting the lack of food safety in Chicago in order to illustrate the problems with American food safety. The book shouldn't have tried to be both story and textbook as the two inevitably end up clashing and leave the reader wanting.

The Ugly:

I had trouble stomaching this book. I'm not a vegetarian but it was difficult to contemplate eating meat after finishing this book. As well, I found couldn't physically eat anything in the actual reading of the book. Sinclair doesn't hold back on detail or description when it comes to the horrors of the packing houses or other various food preparation factories. ( )

Warning: If you have ever been poor--and I mean no food, no fuel, maybe-I'll-whore-myself-to-buy-the-baby's-medicine poor, not "I can't afford cable" poor-- the first two thirds of this book will trigger some really fracking awful flashbacks.
If you haven't been that poor, and you read The Jungle, you're not going to believe it...but Sinclair was writing the truth of his time, and sadly, it's still close to home for a lot of people.
....And then comes the end third, and our hero discovers communism, and the whole thing falls apart.
Two-thirds a powerful, painful book. One third a useless, painful rant.

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. ( )

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. ( )

First read in 1967...a shock to the system then and now. A classic in every sense. ( )

The Jungle is one of those books whose fame eclipses its reality. You probably learned about this one in sociology, history, biology, psychology, whatever class. Unfortunately, too few people have read it. You should. Not because it practically created the FDA either, but because it is a great story. However you want to classify the book - immigrant story, historical fiction, social realism, whatever else English teachers have done to deaden the fun – it's Jurgis' struggle to carve out a place for his family in the raw, brutal world of America that continues to fascinate. As a Chicagoan, I think this should be required reading for anyone who lives here - so many of the political and social conditions of the city and still connected to the systems of corporate and political cooperation that were established in the era of the novel. The ending is disappointing and definitely skip-able, but don’t let that stop you from reading a great story. ( )

So much has already been written about The Jungle it's hard to write an original review without resorting to personal impressions which simply echo others - like so many cows in a Chicago stockyard, I've joined millions of other Americans in a rite of passage through Sinclair's Packingtown, and in the end "I never sausage a thing." But original discussion can always be found by asking: is the novel still worth reading today? Clearly many teachers think so, it is widely assigned in the classroom, in particular at the high school level. I partly attribute this to the books relative ease of reading (I finished it in 2 days), but it comes at the expense of artistic quality - it is a journalistic novel with a lot of facts and not a lot of things we might come to expect in a great work of art: the characters are often not well developed, there is not the beautiful language and heavy use of symbolism, and it ends on a purely propaganda note. Sinclair is more interested in the novels message than the characters, ironic given the message: people are more important than the system.

It is still worth reading for its historical detail of working class life at the turn of the century; as a lover of history I reveled in all the tiny details, not only of the meat packing but the clothes, the food, the types of jobs, the types of things people bought, attitudes, mannerisms and expressions. These were people of my great-grandparents generation, who my grandparents were born into, so it still remains personally relevant and fascinating. Another novel about Chicago from this time period, Sister Carrie (1900) does as good a job in the historical detail, but is a stylistically much more mature work of art - and it broke new ground in allowing "fallen women" to rise up and succeed, a taboo of the age - Sinclair's fallen women are "correctly" killed off or given no hope of improvement.

Because of The Jungle's historical importance in raising awareness of social issues - similar to what Uncle Tom's Cabin did for equality laws and Oliver Twist did for the working poor of England - as a novel of social improvement it will probably remain popular among educators who want to show fiction as more than just entertaining stories. In summary, the novel is a classic because it is a mythological part of the American reading landscape, and for its effects on US health laws. It is not a classic in the artistic sense, but still worthwhile for the historical detail about America at the turn of century.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )

Very grahic; slightly disturbing; the ending sucked, the last twenty pages are nothing but socialist propaganda ( )

The story of a Lithuanian family that moves to Chicago to live a better life, but it turns out in ruin. All members of the family are forced to work under degrading conditions in filthy industries, whose bosses could care less about humanity and couldn't care more about profit. One by one, members of the family fall ill and die, lose their jobs, their home, and their dignity. As the story progresses, it focuses more on the patriarch, Jurges, and his errors, adventures, trials, and travails. By the end, he goes from a political boss's henchman to a full-blown socialist.

Although remembered for its critique and exposure of the meat packing industry, the novel is really focused on socialism and social change. How fitting, considering the fact that The Jungle helped spur the movement toward a "better" system of food regulation.

A good read and a good story; sad, enlightening, frightening, and still relevant today.

Sinclair is famously noted for claimin that in this book he "aimed for the heart, and hit the stomach," because of the outrage produced over his (true) depiction of the handling of animal carcasses and by-products, but little reaction over the working conditions of the plants. To today's audience, the melodrama is a bit over the top; the protagonist loses both his young wife and son to the conditions that existed in the neighborhood and the workplace. Or, at least, we like to think that it is melodrama. The book remains a classic because it portrays a slice of life that was just beginning to be examined by "muckrakers" when the book was first published in 1905. ( )