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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9780451530752
ISBN number: 0451530756
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: December 04, 2007
Publishing house: Signet Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 119754
Studio: Signet Classics
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Possibly the best student of hypocrisy since Voltaire
This portrait of a golden-tongued evangelist-who lives a life of hypocrisy, sensuality, and self-indulgence-is also the chronicle of a reign of vulgarity, which but for Lewis would have left no record of itself.
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Rated by buyers 
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A scathing look evangelicals and the dirty business of old time religion. The book stays relevant and is true to the nature of religion, politics, entertainment and the gullibility of the masses.
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Truly classic mix of rampant cynicism, hypocrisy, greed, lust--and great insight into not only the spiritual depravity of man, but the true fruit of the spirit that a Christian can display when living a Christ-like life. It doesn't often happen, but when it does it shines through.
Elmer Gantry, and his supporting characters, despite their deeply cynical and hypocritical faults, are treated more gently by Lewis than was Babbitt (Bantam Classics), the poor grasping sap of a businessman in his earlier classic novel (in fact, Babbitt and Main Street, another earlier Lewis novel, have bit parts in this book!). I sense that as Lewis wrote Gantry, he was working through in his own soul some of the spiritual struggles he was writing out in the novel.
In any case, be warned before reading Gantry that while you may get angry at the characters for their faults, or Lewis for portraying them so harshly, you will also find your conscience pricked as you see some of your own sins and faults so viciously harpooned.
Lewis' treatment of normal characters living out moral dilemmas sometimes seems like a modernization of Dickens with a twist of jaded "modernism" masquerading as cynicism. Is Lewis the 20th Century American Dickens? Maybe so. I find myself reading intently and quickly, almost as if in a mystery novel when there is a thread of plot being woven to a climax. Instead here in Lewis (and Dickens) there is not a single mystery, but a tapestry of moral choices made well or poorly that result in a finished portrait that the reader can't wait to see completed, no matter how sad the final subject.
Rated by buyers 
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Sinclair Lewis created an immediately-controversial character with Elmer Gantry. And while Gantry may be deeply rooted within 1920s America, he remains as sadly relevant, topical, and controversial in America, 2000, as he did in America, 1927. It's quite interesting to think that this book might have seemed quaint and dated in the 1970's. But so much has changed in our politics and regard toward the role religion plays within our everyday lives since that time, that this book could have been written today, acting as a parable or a mirror of our current culture. Gantry is a despicable character in American letters. He is uncultured, crude, hypocritical, power-hungry, and cruel in almost all of his most intimate and personal relationships (with the possible exception of his mother). Yet his shallow charisma ultimately serves him well. Lewis holds up a damning portrayal of contemporary American life, as well as the ugly side of American ambition and character.
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I was very impressed with the order of Elmer Gantry. The book shipped quickly and arrived between the 7-14 day window. The service was professional. The book details matched the quality of the book. I am very pleased with the service provided.
Rated by buyers -
When Elmer Gantry was published, author Sinclair Lewis received death threats, an ivitation to be lynched in Virginia, a warning to stay clear of New Hampshire or wind up in a prison cell. I wonder if he would still have the courage to write a similar book today, in the climate of religious fanaticism that prevails. Elmer Gantry is a portrayal of hypocrisy and opportunism among the Evangelical clergy of the early 20th Century. The title character is as hateful and fraudulent as the Bakkers, Swaggerts, and Blackguards of our era, with the same vices, most prominently sexual misbehavior and exploitation. In fact, Gantry is so thoroughly unappealing that the reader's only interest in him is waiting and hoping for his downfall. But the numerous other clergymen, deacons, and congregational leaders portrayed in the novel are none of them very appealing; they are all greedy hypocrites, timorous holders of sinecures, and/or weaklings unable to confront their own doubts about the sanctity of the clerical profession. I have to say that Sinclair Lewis seriously weakens his case by overstating the universality of corruption in the Christian leadership, and damages the literary interest of his book by making his principal character irredeemable. Yet as I survey the current fundamentalist eruption into politics, I also have to say that Lewis was remarkably prophetic. The anti-evolution, anti-science-in-general, anti-diversity rants that fill the pages of Elmer Gantry could be copied-and-pasted right here on our favorite web pages.
The chief woman character of the book, tent evangelist Sharon Falconer, is also portrayed as a power-hungry opportunist, half hypocrite and half delusional madwoman. That portrayal won Lewis no friends, particularly since most readers were certain that Falconer was a thinly disguised representation of Aimee Semple McPherson, one of the founders of modern millenialism, whose personal improprieties are well documented. Likewise, numerous critics supposed that the character of Gantry himself was at least partly a portrait of evangelist Billy Sunday.
We Minnesotans are proud of our Nobel Prize author, though we show our pride mostly by not reading him. Honestly, this is not an easy book to enjoy. The language is stiff and corny at times, the characters are too cartoon-like, and the very first half of the book would be better if it were edited in half. Even so, it has intellectual integrity and profound historical relevance, and its unrelenting portrayal of moral shallowness builds enough momentum to make it a worthwhile classic.
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