Main Street is the story of an idealistic young woman's that attempts to reform her small town. It remains one of the essential texts of the American scene. "In Main Street an American had at last written of our life with something of the intellectual rigor and critical detachment that had seemed so cruel and unjustified, Young people had grown up in this environment, suffocated, stultified, helpless, but unable to find any reason for their spiritual discomfort. Mr. Lewis released them." - Lewis Mumford