Elmer Gantry

Elmer Gantry is a novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 (published in 1927) that satirically represents aspects of the religious activity of America within fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. This ferocious satire by Lewis deals with fanatical religiosity and hypocrisy in the United States during the 1920s by presenting a preacher (the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry) who starts by preferring booze, easy money (though eventually renouncing tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.