Arrowsmith

By: Sinclair Lewis

Narrated by: John McDonough

The son of a country doctor, Sinclair Lewis turned to writing instead of medicine. He won the Nobel Prize in 1930. Arrowsmith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. This is the story of a brilliant young man who dedicates his life to science, yet finds that corruption, not disease, is his greatest foe.

Martin Arrowsmith is fascinated by science and medicine. As a boy, he immerses himself in Gray’s Anatomy. In medical school, he soaks up knowledge from his mentor, a renowned bacteriologist. But soon he is urged to focus on politics and promotions rather than his research. Even as Martin progresses from doctor to public health official and noted pathologist, he still yearns to devote his time to pure science.

Published in 1924, this novel had a profound effect on the reading public. As an expose of professional greed and fraud, it was a call to scrutinize flawed medical practices. Now, through John McDonough’s vibrant narration, it is a truly notable audiobook.

Public Domain (P)2001 Recorded Books, LLC

Great book, but some audio errors in this reading

This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone.I also quite like the narration. my only issue with this recording is that it contains several points where audio is either missing or garbled by some kind of processing error. probably no more than 20 seconds of audio are missing from the book overall, but it is still annoying.

Arrowsmith - The Classic Book, Not the Band

Book: In general, I do not comment on classics. However, I found the story interesting since it draws from the history in the US from 100 years ago: Pre-WWI, midwest, industrialization of the economy, the movement of most of the population from the farm to the city, etc - all the changes - economic, political, social, etc. I liked it but if you were looking for fast moving book, this is not it. However, if want to see changes in personalities and slices of social groups, it is interesting with great wording and character development. I sure it won the Noble Prize for Literature for its social-political aspect, in part, but it is a very good piece of literature.

Performance: The reader was very good. In time, I forgot there was reader and toward the end of the book the reader acted some of the characters well out.

Precursor to Rand's The Fountainhead

It's no coincidence that Ayn Rand read many of Sinclair Lewis's novels, especially Arrowsmith. The theme of Arrowsmith is staying true to oneself, to one's very soul. Unlike Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, Martin Arrowsmith has not achieved the certainty of Roark, yet he fights throughout the book to not be a second-hander (to use Rand's term). He succeeds, but it takes the length of the book to find out for sure.

Wonderful book!

Fantastic

I enjoyed this story so much that I want to do it all over again. I really felt like jumping up snd down sometimes, but that was when he was young mostly, and he was rather selfish and I wanted to shake him. Going to the Indies made the whole book.

Classic and elegant

Oh! The craftsmanship of this tale. Felt transported to turn of the century America and did not want this to ever end.

immersing

The most absorbing book I have read in the past few years. I hated for it to end.

Tough to push through

This was not an easy title to stick with. My mind kept wandering off. If you’re willing to do the work, you’ll find it satisfying in the end. I suppose in modern times it would be edited down to fit our shorter attention spans. It did not wow me, but it was okay. #depressing #Nostalgic #Midlifecrisis #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Enjoyed Elmer Gantry, Babbitt and Main Street more

Although I am a big fan of Sinclair Lewis, this was my least favorite of his novels. His reaction to the death of his wife and his dalliance with the socialite seems inconsistent with Arrowsmith's character. I prefer Elmer Gantry, Main Street and Babbitt. The single-mindedness of Arrowsmith and Max Gottlieb are reminiscent of Ayn Rand's Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead." There is an ongoing struggle between the noble ideals of medical research vaunted by Arrowsmith and Gottlieb and what they considered to be "mere practitioners." A similar contrast exists between Rand's architect Roark and the "second-handers," the architects content with compromising their personal vision to gain fame and fortune. This connection is pointed out by Tore Boeckman in his essay, "The Fountainhead as a Romantic Novel." And Boeckman noted that at the time Rand was writing "The Fountainhead," she considered Sinclair Lewis to be her favorite writer.

Slow

Slow moving and lots of racist language. The story never grabbed hold for me and I typically like Sinclair Lewis' writing.

Still Relevant

I am going to medical school next year and was told to read this book by several people. It was startling that so many of the issues that face the modern doctor had already been clearly outlined almost 90 years ago. This book was particularly interesting to me after reading several nonfiction books describing medical science in the same era like "The Demon under the Microscope" and "The Great Influenza". Although the moral dilemmas are complex and interesting, Lewis does not achieve that same complexity in his characters and their actions.