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The Jungle
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The Jungle
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The Jungle
Audiobook17 hours

The Jungle

Written by Upton Sinclair

Narrated by Michael Lackey

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Jurgis Rudkus, an impoverished Lithuanian immigrant, takes a lowly job at Brown’s slaughterhouse to support his young wife and their relatives. Once admiring America for its potential, Rudkus has found opportunities to be too far out of his reach. After being evicted, Rudkus is living in a slum and deeply in debt - unable to support his family. As he attempts to make ends meet, the oppressive working conditions and crippling poverty begin to take a toll on Rudkus and his family.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 29, 2014
ISBN9781629234953
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

Rating: 3.812818821109694 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,568 ratings61 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I don't generally review the "classic" titles I read, because who the hell am I? But I wanted to tackle this one. Bear in mind that I seldom, if ever, enjoy a novel with a Message. The Jungle, of course, is the famous muckraking novel that brought the horrific conditions of the Chicago stockyards to the public eye. Good for it.The protagonist is Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant who personally faces every possible indignity that a worker could suffer under capitalism. The parade of horribles actually became funny after awhile: of course one of his relatives turns to whoring. Of course another is eaten by rats. Jurgis and the other characters are so thinly drawn, and the episodes so clearly crafted to make a point, that I felt no emotional involvement, not even outrage. Granted, if the book were telling me something I didn't already know, the outrage factor might have come into play, but I was reading it as a novel, not a report.I have never read a book that more clearly called out for one more chapter. The book ends with Jurgis, homeless, hungry and freezing, stumbling into a socialist meeting. He is an instant convert to the cause and is taken in by the kindly socialist owner of a hotel. The last 20 pages or so consist of a group of men debating various points of socialist theory, and Jurgis disappears from the narrative completely. But here's my ending, and it absolutely fits with the rhythm of the book. Throughout the novel, Jurgis plugs away against adversity and always thinks he has finally caught a break. Then the other shoe drops and life sucks once again. So, he falls in with these nice socialists and instead of a worldwide worker's revolution he encounters: Terror. Torture. The Gulags. Fooled again!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well, second time to read the book, June 2016, first time was July 2010. 1001 reference book states "this is not the first muckraking novel, but one of the most influential novels. It was used politically by Roosevelt to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act. It states that this book is based on real incidents in 1904 stockyard worker's strike. It is a manifesto for social change." In this book, the United States is not the place for the immigrant. It is the tale of Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant from Lithuania. When you read this stuff, you have to wonder why anyone would leave their homeland. This is a story of one failed dream after another. The other presents socialism as the beacon of hope. Perhaps, this book was a wake up call to the democrats and republican parties. I don't know but according to this book, the socialist made great strides. Anyway, I still dislike this book. I hate that business was so awful to people and I know that is the very reason's unions and socialism had such surges as they did but I just hate that people would be so greedy. But mostly, I dislike this book because it is such a lot of preaching. The story of the man and his family, if told in true Dickensian fashion, would have made a great story. I listened to the audio the second time and it was read well and made a good alternative to reading it for a second time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Welp, that was cheerful.The story follows an immigrant man and his family trying to survive in the packing district of turn-of-the-century Chicago, and details the corruption and filth of the packing companies and the devastating lives the workers led. Fascinating and horrible. And important. And not, horrifyingly, without certain relevancies today. My one quibble: the ending gets bogged down in a description of socialism and then ends much too abruptly. Otherwise, a solid - if not happy - read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A depressing classic about working class immigrants around the turn of the 20th Century, exploring the deplorable working and living conditions in the Stockyards section of Chicago. It's a bit over the top, as one would expect from a work from an activist. (It also reminded me of the melodrama of 19th Century novels I've read.) But any single episode recounted in the book should be enough to make one feel outrage. Even if it's not an enjoyable book, it's definitely worth reading for its historical value. --J.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Yep, pretty revolting. I can see why it made a difference in its day, that's for sure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    So, the first thing you need to know is that if you’re reading this version in place of the original version that you’re supposed to be reading, you are missing some major plot points, including the horrific deaths of at least two major characters, some key conflicts and complications, as well as the ending chapters on socialism. That being said, I still really enjoyed this adaptation. It had enough of the original storyline to make it worthwhile and the artwork is just fantastic, but go into it understanding that it’s just a sliver of the original.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    i know it's a classic, but....listened to about an hour of this--it's not my kind of book. If it weren't so old, I'd turn it in for an audible.com refund.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book that led to all sort of reforms in the processing of meat. It took awhile after finishing this novel (it's "real" fiction) to return to my love for meat. The depictions are graphic as are the lives of the poor immigrants who work in the slaughter houses and meat packing plants until they have an "accident" (losing appendages is a work hazard - no worker's comp. then!) and can no longer work. The whole industry is taken to task for the conditions. Pretty disgusting, but it shows how greed run rampant can run and ruin an industry until government intervenes. And usually I'm against government interference but there are times and conditions that demand it for the sake of the majority.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Somewhat spoilery:
    There is nothing worse than getting through an entire book to suddenly find the character have an epiphany that is like "And then she found Jesus, and all her problems were solved." For this book, replace Jesus with the Socialist party.

    The basic outline is this: Interesting first chapter, misfortune, misfortune, misfortune, hope?, worse misfortune, hope?, worse misfortune, misfortune, and then 35 pages of sudden political propaganda...

    The characterization was good, so I was really hoping to enjoy this story. I cared for the characters and felt that they were real. Yet the structure of the plot is so repetitive and predictable that it easily slid into the ridiculous. It's as if Sinclair asked himself how bad could he possibly make the lives of the main characters before he lost his audience, and then tried to tip-toe over the line anyways.

    I was considering giving this novel a three, until I got to the last thirty pages, which is so drawn out and unnecessarily preachy that I had to push myself to finish this book. I only made it because I had to write a paper regarding the ending specifically. I felt as if my intelligence was insulted by this ending.

    It's an okay read, worth it only for the historical details concerning the life of the laborer, and the grossness of the meat-packing industry. But consider yourself warned.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a very interesting book that covers the meat packing industry in Chicago, the political corruption, and the evils of capitalism. The story revolves around the charcter of Jurgis who is a Lithuanian imigrant. He and his family become used and largely destroyed by the capitalist system of industrialism. The story ends with a hopeful opinion that socialism would overcome and improve the life of the working class. The detail provided by the author is enlightening but the naive belief in socialism is unfounded, although politcal reform was definitely needed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have heard about this book for decades, and knew about its expose of the meatpacking industry. However, I only read it after chancing to come across it while searching for something else on my Kindle. After a few pages, I was hooked. The story of a family of Lithuanian Immigrants who come to Chicago and end up being consumed by the meatpacking industry and its corollaries, such as canning, is a masterpiece of melodrama. The scenes in the meatpacking plant are vivid and disgusting--but not so much that I didn't have sausage for dinner last night--and the mistreatment of the family, including its women and children, is described in excruciating detail. Perhaps it loses some of its effect because I was expecting it to be really awful (and it was), but what I found most engaging was Sinclair's writing. While occasionally given to a bit of bombast, especially when socialist politics enters the picture, he was an extremely talented writer. Some of the scenes in this book will stick in a reader's mind for ages. The book loses a bit of its intensity when the main character, Jurgis, who has reached the end of his rope is miraculously swept up in Chicago's Democratic Party machine and finds himself living the high life for a time. This gives the author a chance to depict the political corruption of Chicago close up, but the book becomes more and more of a tract rather than a novel. The final chapters, where Jurgis discovers the wonders of Socialism, are a bit reminiscent of EQUALITY, Edward Bellamy's sequel to Looking Backward, although only has one character speak for a few pages about the advantages of the new socialist society. In addition to its meandering conclusion, this book, which is otherwise sympathetic to the poor and downtrodden, uses revolting racial stereotypes to describe the black men who came to Chicago as strike breakers during the meatpackers strike.If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend you do so. It is, despite its flaws, a riveting read. And its main theme, the exploitation of the masses by the rich elite, is perennially relevant.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If you want to read about happiness, Upton Sinclair probably isn't the author for you. The lesson taken away from the book was how food should be inspected by the government, but the lesson meant was the horrible working and living conditions people were forced to live in, and that something should be done about them.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm going to stick with a solid 3-star rating for this book because overall, I liked it. There were some parts that I really liked and much that I didn't care for. This book really was a rollercoaster ride (albeit a depressing one) of emotions and plot twists. Following Jurgis through his life in Chicago (and elsewhere) was often a challenge but always exciting. Funnily, I didn't like Jurgis as an immigrant worker, criminal, political muscle, union worker, union detractor, or socialist... the only time I had respect for the main character was when he was a hobo; travelling the country.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, is the finest example of “muckraking” journalism produced in the 20th century and led to sweeping changes in the way food is prepared in America. Written in the form of a novel, featuring a Lithuanian immigrant, the story revolves around industrial practices in and around Chicago around the turn of the century, most particularly the Beef Trust and slaughterhouses of the area. As you can imagine, much of the prose is literally revolting, dealing with rats, excrement, garbage, filth, inhumane living conditions and all that entails. Judged strictly on the basis of the writing and the story itself, the novel is moderately entertaining for about three quarters of way, before turning into a propaganda piece for the Socialist party. At that point, it becomes virtually unreadable as dozens of pages are consumed with polemics issued by party hacks (akin to Atlas Shrugged on the other end of the political spectrum).Though perhaps lacking as a novel, the impact of the work cannot be ignored and must be viewed as a seminal effort in that regard.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.