ABSTRACT
The curious rise of Carrie Meeber, piovincial ingénue arriving on the train to find work in the Chicago of 1889 and ending as a star of the stage on Broadway, reverses the traditional tale of the fallen woman. Carrie’s advance begins at the point where she succumbs to material need and goes to live with Drouet, the traveling salesman; her subsequent abduction by the sophisticated Hurstwood ultimately leads to her individual triumph in New York. She moves through successive stages: from subsistence-level worker in a shoe factory, to kept woman plus amateur actress; then kept woman cum housewife, as money decreases with Hurstwood; to professional actress supporting them both; until finally she is on her own as a highly paid celebrity.
