厄普頓·辛克萊爾的《叢林》是一部熱血沸騰的社會現實主義小說，講述了尤吉斯·魯德庫斯(Jurgis Rudkus) 的命運，這位移民在世紀之交的芝加哥牲畜場裡發現了一個使他墮落和貧困的無情制度，以及一個骯髒行為污染的行業。從殺戮場的惡臭到化肥廠的恐怖，尤吉斯工作時的駭人聽聞的條件被這位熱衷於社會改革的作者詳盡地描述了。這本書傳達的訊息如此有力，以至於引起了西奧多·羅斯福總統的注意，並導致了食品衛生法的修改。拉斯·卡斯特羅諾沃（Russ Castronovo）在新版本的簡介中強調了辛克萊抱負核心的美學關注，審視了歷史與歷史小說之間的關係，以及紀錄片衝動與文學敘事之間的關係。當他審視這本書作為小說的有爭議的地位（它是宣傳還是文學？）時，他揭示了為什麼辛克萊的信息驅動的小說與今天的文學和歷史問題相關，距離小說首次印刷已有一百多年了。
A searing novel of social realism, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle follows the fortunes of Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant who finds in the stockyards of turn-of-the-century Chicago a ruthless system that degrades and impoverishes him, and an industry whose filthy practices contaminate the meat it processes. From the stench of the killing-beds to the horrors of the fertilizer-works, the appalling conditions in which Jurgis works are described in intense detail by an author bent on social reform. So powerful was the book's message that it caught the eye of President Theodore Roosevelt and led to changes to the food hygiene laws. In his Introduction to this new edition, Russ Castronovo highlights the aesthetic concerns that were central to Sinclair's aspirations, examining the relationship between history and historical fiction, and between the documentary impulse and literary narrative. As he examines the book's disputed status as novel (it is propaganda or literature?), he reveals why Sinclair's message-driven fiction has relevance to literary and historical matters today, now more than a hundred years after the novel first appeared in print.
