I'm just reading the original version now, which is harder to find (I'm not sure if the one online is the original or the censored one), but so far I think it's extremely well written.

It's about an immigrant family and their lives in the stockyards of Chicago in the early 1900s. It depicts the terrible conditions they faced and how they survived (or failed to) in the poor conditions and cramped housing.

Really I've been wanting to read it bc of the vast impact it had on America. It helped pass food laws, sanitation laws, child labor laws, and bring basic human rights to the forefront of American conversation.