Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man

By Sinclair Lewis

He stands out in the correspondence of the Souvenir and Art Novelty Company as "Our Mr. Wrenn," who would be writing you directly and explaining everything most satisfactorily. At thirty-four Mr. Wrenn was the sales-entry clerk of the Souvenir Company.
This early works is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473372498

Sinclair Lewis

Nobel Prize-winning writer Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) is best known for novels like Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith (for which he was awarded but declined the Pulitzer Prize), and Elmer Gantry. A writer from his youth, Lewis wrote for and edited the Yale Literary Magazine while a student, and started his literary career writing popular stories for magazines and selling plots to other writers like Jack London. Lewis’s talent for description and creating unique characters won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, making him the first American writer to win the prestigious award. Considered to be one of the “greats” of American literature, Lewis was honoured with a Great Americans series postage stamp, and his work has been adapted for both stage and screen.

Reviews for Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man

[baswood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Subtitled: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentleman. Published in 1914 This was Sinclair Lewis’ first novel and it owes an awful lot to H G Well’s the History of Mr Polly, although Mr Wrenn is set mainly in New York. Mr Wrenn is in his late thirties when we take up his story; he is working for the Souvenir company pushing forward ideas for new products it is an undemanding job and Mr Wrenn lives in fear of his manager as do most of his colleagues. He is a bachelor and his life revolves around his job, the Moving Picture Palace that he visits most days and his dreams of visiting far off places. He reads all he can about exotic travel locations and his head is filled with adventure stories, all his spare money is saved for his travelling fund, but it looks certain that he will never get to spend it, until one day he inherits enough money to become independent.Mr Wrenn is a kind gentle man who is also lonely and he craves friendship, his inheritance changes everything for him because now he can live his dreams if he can dare himself to do so. He books a working passage on a cattle steamer heading for England and learns more about people and friendship than he ever did working for the Souvenir company. In England he travels to London where he meets Istra a wilful independent redhead. He is both fascinated and frightened of her artsy lifestyle, but she needs a kindly friend and sees in the innocent but brash American an ideal companion in her times of need. They embark on a foolhardy walking tour because Istra wants a little adventure and when she bails out and escapes to Paris, Mr Wrenn finds he is homesick for his previous life and returns to America. He gets his old job back, but now with added confidence he is able to make real progress and in addition he has discovered enough about himself to venture into making friends with other individuals. He finds new lodgings in a friendly household and romance is in the air with one of his fellow residents, but then unexpectedly Istra comes to New York and bursts back into his life.The novel contains a well rounded portrait of a lonely bachelor clinging to a hum drum life in a big city, there must have been thousands of people like him and the book evokes this state of being very well. The readers sympathy is always with Billy Wrenn and although we might cringe at his unworldliness we are pleased at his hesitant progress. Other characters are also successfully drawn in what turns out to be a rather slight novel. There is very little humour and absolutely no satire and it lacks the depth that H G Wells achieved in his History of Mr Polly. A novel of its time that was content to break no new ground and today has an antiquated feel but is entertaining nonetheless if you are in the mood for a light read. A harmless three stars.