Martin Arrowsmith, a young medical student at the University of Winnemac, is driven by a sincere passion and a desire to make a positive contribution to the world. But events get in the way, and a series of personal vicissitudes, love interests and societal pressures threaten to lead him away from the path of pure science – until he is forced, in the face of a humanitarian crisis, to decide between scientific rigour and compassion, between maintaining his medical principles and saving lives.

First published in 1925 to great critical acclaim, Arrowsmith is the third major novel by Sinclair Lewis, author of Main Street and Babbitt, and arguably his most ambitious work. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1926 – which the author famously declined – it contributed to Lewis's growing reputation as a master storyteller, social commentator and the unsurpassed satirist of his time.