1906 best-seller shockingly reveals intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the Chicago stockyards as it tells the brutally grim story of a Slavic family that emigrates to America full of optimism but soon descends into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and despair. A fiercely realistic American classic that will haunt readers long after they've finished the last page. Published privately by Sinclair in 1906 after commercial publishers rejected the manuscript, The Jungle was a shocking revelation of harmful labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the Chicago stockyards. It quickly became a best-seller, arousing public sentiment and resulting in such Federal legislation as the Pure Food and Drug Act. The novel is a brutally grim story of a Slavic immigrant family that migrates to America full of optimism but soon begins an inexorable descent into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and despair. Required reading in many history and literature classes -- this fiercely realistic American classic will haunt readers long after they've finished reading it.