Main Street (novel) - Literary Significance and Criticism

Literary Significance and Criticism

Readers' fascination with the portrayal of petty back-stabbers and hypocrites in a small town was probably a factor in the novel's popularity. When the book was published, it was common to wish to live in purportedly "wholesome" small towns like Gopher Prairie; a notion denounced by Main Street's vicious realism and biting humor.

Though it was not expected to be extremely popular, in the first six months of 1921, Main Street sold 250,000 copies, becoming a major best-seller of its time.

Many urban literary critics derided the novel's seeming lack of direction and endless description. Some of Lewis's contemporaries said the novel was too bleak, even humorless, in its conveyance of ignorant small-town life and people. However, Main Street is generally considered to be Lewis's most significant and enduring work, along with its 1922 successor Babbitt.

Some small-town residents resented their portrayal and the book was banned in Alexandria, Minnesota.

Because of the popularity acquired by Lewis and his book, high-school teams from his hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota began to be called the Main Streeters as early as the 1925–26 school year. This name was essentially given to the town by the nearby towns at school events. The Sauk Centre High School still goes by the name in a tribute to Lewis.