영어로 읽는 고전 _ 싱클레어 루이스의 앨머 갠트리
싱클레어 루이스의 “엘머 갠트리”는 1927년에 출간된 풍자 소설이다. 이 작품은 카리스마 넘치지만 도덕적으로 타락한 한 설교자를 따라가는데, 그는 위선과 여성 편력, 그리고 권력욕에도 불구하고 미국의 복음주의·근본주의 진영에서 출세해 나간다. 갠트리가 변두리의 작은 교회에서 시작해 감리교회의 거물로 부상하는 동안, 그의 술수와 추문은 주변 사람들의 삶을 파괴하지만 정작 그 자신은 파멸을 가까스로 모면한다. 이 소설은 1920년대 종교 문화에 대한 신랄한 비판을 담고 있으며, 출간 당시 엄청난 논란을 불러일으켰다.
Classics Read in English _ Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Published in 1927, Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel that follows a charismatic yet morally bankrupt preacher who climbs to prominence within America's evangelical and fundamentalist movements despite his hypocrisy, his womanizing, and his hunger for power. As Gantry rises from obscure fringe congregations to become a commanding figure in the Methodist Church, his schemes and scandals leave a trail of ruined lives behind him—even as he himself only narrowly escapes downfall. A scathing indictment of 1920s religious culture, the novel ignited fierce controversy the moment it appeared.
Among the contents
Elmer gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk. He leaned against the bar of the Old Home Sample Room, the most gilded and urbane saloon in Cato, Missouri, and requested the bartender to join him in “The Good Old Summer Time,” the waltz of the day.
Blowing on a glass, polishing it and glancing at Elmer through its flashing rotundity, the bartender remarked that he wasn’t much of a hand at this here singing business. But he smiled. No bartender could have done other than smile on Elmer, so inspired and full of gallantry and hell-raising was he, and so dominating was his beefy grin.
