The Jungle

Publisher Marketing: It was four o'clock when the ceremony was over and the carriages began to arrive. There had been a crowd following all the way, owing to the exuberance of Marija Berczynskas. The occasion rested heavily upon Marija's broad shoulders-it was her task to see that all things went in due form, and after the best home traditions; and, flying wildly hither and thither, bowling every one out of the way, and scolding and exhorting all day with her tremendous voice, Marija was too eager to see that others conformed to the proprieties to consider them herself. She had left the church last of all, and, desiring to arrive first at the hall, had issued orders to the coachman to drive faster. When that personage had developed a will of his own in the matter, Marija had flung up the window of the carriage, and, leaning out, proceeded to tell him her opinion of him, first in Lithuanian, which he did not understand, and then in Polish, which he did. Having the advantage of her in altitude, the driver had stood his ground and even ventured to attempt to speak; and the result had been a furious altercation, which, continuing all the way down Ashland Avenue, had added a new swarm of urchins to the cortege at each side street for half a mile. This was unfortunate, for already there was a throng before the door. The music had started up, and half a block away you could hear the dull "broom, broom" of a cello, with the squeaking of two fiddles which vied with each other in intricate and altitudinous gymnastics. Seeing the throng, Marija abandoned precipitately the debate concerning the ancestors of her coachman, and, springing from the moving carriage, plunged in and proceeded to clear a way to the hall. Once within, she turned and began to push the other way, roaring, meantime, "Eik! Eik! Uzdaryk-duris!" in tones which made the orchestral uproar sound like fairy music. Review Citations: Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2011 pg. 1058 (EAN 9780812976236, Paperback) Library Journal 04/15/2003 pg. 132 (EAN 9781884365300, Paperback) - *Starred Review Library Journal 01/01/2004 pg. 170 (EAN 9781884365300, Paperback) Library Journal 04/01/2003 (EAN 9781884365300, Paperback) Atlantic Monthly 07/01/2002 pg. 176 (EAN 9780808514312, Prebound-Sewn) Newsweek 09/03/2007 pg. 14 (EAN 9780140390315, Paperback) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 862 (EAN 9780375759505, Paperback) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2007 pg. 816 (EAN 9780375759505, Paperback) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 852 (EAN 9780375759505, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Sinclair, Upton Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), novelist and journalist, is best known for his novel about the Chicago meatpacking industry, ""The Jungle"." A paperback edition of his ""I, Candidate for Governor"" is available from California. Jules Tygiel is the author of ""The Great Los Angeles Swindle: Oil, Stocks, and Scandal during the Roaring Twenties"" (paperback California, 1996) and ""The Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy"." He is Professor of History at San Francisco State University.