#186 in Classics
The Jungle
- 344
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Jungle” is a harrowing account of immigrant workers in Chicago’s meatpacking district, as much an indictment as a novel. Sinclair gathered his material on the spot, and the swindles practised on the poor are as disturbing as the slaughterhouses, and still recognisable. The misery is relentless, and some readers find the characters hollow and the prose unappealing. The last chapters turn openly to socialist argument.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Jungle is a novel by American author and journalist Upton Sinclair, who was known for his efforts to depict corruption in government and business in the early 20th century. In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks gathering information in the meat packing district of the Union Stock Yards in Chicago for the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, which published his novel in serial form in 1905. In 1906, the novel was published in book format by Doubleday.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 332 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 69% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.5 | 96 | 29% |
| Hardcover | 7.4 | 236 | 71% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Jungle?
It has 344 pages — longer than 73% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.7 and 7.8, closest to this book.
