Set in the 1890s, it concerns a naive girl from rural Wisonsin goes to Chicago to make her fortune. She meets a travelling salesman called Charles Drouet who eventually seduces her. She becomes his mistress, and in the process, discovers her love of fashion, constantly desiring more and more commodities. It's a meditation on human nature and burgeoning American consumerism and the department store phenomenon. The novel ends with her as a successful actress, having jumped from her affair with Drouet to one with a prosperous bar manager, who runs away with her only to end up homeless in New York, while she lives a life of luxury.
Even if it wasn't inspired by the novel, it always makes me think of that story, anyway.
I think the song is a reference to the novel <i>Sister Carrie</i> by Theodore Dreiser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Carrie
Set in the 1890s, it concerns a naive girl from rural Wisonsin goes to Chicago to make her fortune. She meets a travelling salesman called Charles Drouet who eventually seduces her. She becomes his mistress, and in the process, discovers her love of fashion, constantly desiring more and more commodities. It's a meditation on human nature and burgeoning American consumerism and the department store phenomenon. The novel ends with her as a successful actress, having jumped from her affair with Drouet to one with a prosperous bar manager, who runs away with her only to end up homeless in New York, while she lives a life of luxury.
Even if it wasn't inspired by the novel, it always makes me think of that story, anyway.