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by Theodore Dreiser (Author)
A businessman leaves prison and heads to Chicago to regain his fortune--but his past follows close behind him--in this absorbing historical epic.
Newly released from prison, Frank Cowperwood immediately dives back into the stock market after the Panic of 1873, aiming to recover his lost fortune and become a millionaire once more. This time, he has a new plan and sets out for Chicago with his mistress, Aileen. Using his brutal business sense to snuff out his opponents, Frank has his eyes on the city's street-railway system as his ticket back to the top. But as Frank knows, the past cannot remain buried forever, and it's only a matter of time before his previous misdeeds come back to find him in his new home, threatening his stability--and more importantly, his money. "The great American novelist."--Publishers WeeklyAuthor Biography
Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is nothing less than what the title holds it to be; it is the story of a weak-willed young man who is both villain and victim (the victim of a valueless, materialistic society) and someone who ultimately destroys himself. Dreiser modeled the story of Clyde Griffiths on a real-life murder that took place in 1906; a young social climber of considerable charm murdered his pregnant girlfriend to get her out of the way so that he could instead play to the affections of a rich girl who had begun to notice him. But An American Tragedy is more than simply a powerful murder story. Dreiser pours his own dark yearnings into his character, Clyde Griffiths, as he details the young man's course through his ambitions of wealth, power, and satisfaction. The Indiana-born Dreiser (1871-1945) has never cut a dashing or romantic swath through American literature. He has no Pulitzer or Nobel Prize to signify his importance. Yet he remains for myriad reasons: his novels are often larger than life, rugged, and defy the norms of conventional morality and organized religion. They are unapologetic in their sexual candor--in fact, outrightly frank--and challenge even modern readers. The brooding force of Dreiser's writing casts a dark shadow across American letters. Here in An American Tragedy, Dreiser shows us the flip side of The American Dream in a gathering storm that echoes with all of the power and force of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Inspired by the writings of Balzac and the ideas of Spenser and Freud, Dreiser went on to become one of America's best naturalist writers. An American Tragedy is testimony to the strength of Dreiser's work: it retains all of its original intensity and force.
