The Metropolis

The Metropolis Upton Sinclair - These are Unique Content for this Book EditionIn this 1907 novel about the extravagant life of New York Citys high society, the author of The Jungle, presents a richly detailed portrait of the wealthy elite of The Metropolis. Allan Montague, a lawyer of thirty, moves to New York City from Mississippi, along with his mother and cousin Alice, to join his younger brother Oliver, who had taken up residence there several years before.
The newcomers soon discover that Oliver has become a highly networked member of a fast-paced social circuit comprising some of the most powerful members of the business class. Oliver wastes no time in introducing Allan and Alice into this exclusive group in the hope that they will all prosper through their connections. Sinclair devotes much of the novel to depictions of the profligate and jaded party life of the very rich, who spend vast sums of money on entertainment and new toys to relieve their boredom.
Expensive cars (still a novelty at this time), lavishly furnished limousines and private trains, sumptuous dinners attended by liveried servants, tailor-made clothing costing thousands of dollars are described with meticulous attention to the enormous cost of it all. Sinclair also spares no detail in describing the rampant alcoholism, marital affairs, malicious gossip, backstabbing, and shallow values of this set.
Deals with New York as unsparingly as "The Jungle" dealt with Chicago. To expose the vice and extravagance of the New York rich has been Mr. Sinclair's purpose in writing this story. Two brothers, one the antithesis of the other, are the mouthpieces which Mr. Sinclair uses respectively to shout forth the demagogue's selfish creed and to denounce it