Elmer Gantry (Record no. 8697)
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| 000 -LEADER | |
|---|---|
| fixed length control field | 02427nam a2200157 4500 |
| 010 ## - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER | |
| LC control number | 44045554 |
| 020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER | |
| International Standard Book Number | 9780451520128 |
| 024 ## - OTHER STANDARD IDENTIFIER | |
| Standard number or code | 491385109 |
| 050 ## - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CALL NUMBER | |
| Classification number | PS3523.E94 |
| 082 ## - DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION NUMBER | |
| Classification number | 813.52 |
| 100 1# - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME | |
| Personal name | Sinclair Lewis |
| 245 1# - TITLE STATEMENT | |
| Title | Elmer Gantry |
| 260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC. | |
| Name of publisher, distributor, etc. | Penguin Publishing Group |
| 520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC. | |
| Summary, etc. | Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.<br/><br/>Elmer Gantry was first published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927, dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken.<br/><br/>The novel tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who abandons his early ambition to become a lawyer. The legal profession does not suit the unethical Gantry. After college, he attends a Baptist seminary and is ordained as a Baptist minister. While managing to cover up certain sexual indiscretions, he is thrown out of the seminary before completing his BD because he is too drunk to turn up at a church where he is supposed to preach. After several years as a travelling salesman of farm equipment, he becomes manager for Sharon Falconer, an itinerant evangelist. Gantry becomes her lover, but loses both her and his position when she is killed in a fire at her new tabernacle. After this catastrophe, he briefly acts as a "New Thought" evangelist, and eventually becomes a Methodist minister. He marries well and eventually obtains a large congregation in Lewis's fictional Midwestern city of Zenith. During his career, Gantry contributes to the downfall, physical injury, and even death of key people around him, including a sincere minister, Frank Shallard, who is plagued by doubt. Especially ironic is the way he champions love, an emotion he seems incapable of, in his sermons, preaches against ambition, when he himself is so patently ambitious, and organizes crusades against (mainly sexual) immorality, when he has difficulty resisting sexual temptation himself. |
| Withdrawn status | Lost status | Damaged status | Not for loan | Home library | Current library | Date acquired | Total checkouts | Full call number | Barcode | Date last seen | Copy number | Price effective from | Koha item type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Chapala Society | Lake Chapala Society | 07/17/2024 | PB LEWI | 7815 | 07/17/2024 | 1 | 07/17/2024 | Book |