In our first episode exploring the literature of Chicago, host Dr. Douglas Cowie and his guest, Dr. Katie McGettigan (Royal Hollow, University of London) discuss one of the first great Chicago novels, Sister Carrie, by the German-American author Theodore Dreiser.

Set in the late 1800s, the novel tells the story of an innocent country girl from Wisconsin who makes her way to the booming city of Chicago in 1889, seeking a better life for herself while getting mixed up with problematic men. The novel asks many questions. Does life in the city make people better or worse? Is it a corrupting force, or does it help us discover our true selves? Or is living in the city like being on a Ferris Wheel (first constructed in Chicago for the World's Columbian Exhibition in 1893), sometimes rising, sometimes falling, but always sitting in the same place?