bertolucci and sister elizabeth

Sister Carrie was finished last night and I have thought since about its publication in 1900, the year of Nietzsche's death, and whether other modernist ideas had crept across the pond to influence the pages. I have read a few sources that declare that Dreiser had not read Zola at this point. I wonder though whether Dostoevsky and, perhaps, Mallerme had not burrowed into Ted's skin by this time.

Much as the Dickens found both London and Paris nefarious, New York and Chicago are twin siblings of material ague for Carrie and her doomed lover. The novel was quite sound, if operatic.

I will now shift my sights to The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford. It was quite delightful to be in a groaning queue this a.m. at the post office and laugh aloud at the opening salvoes in the saddest story ever told.