Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is nothing less than what it purports to be -- the harrowing story of a weak-willed young man who destroys himself, a villain who is also victim of the values of a deceptive, materialistic society. Dreiser patterned the story of Clyde Griffiths on a real-life murder that took place in 1906, a charming young social climber who killed his pregnant young girlfriend in order to romance a rich girl who had begun to notice him. A powerful murder story, An American Tragedy is much more than that. For Dreiser pours his own dark yearnings into the character of Clyde Griffiths, while grimly charting the young man's pitiful rise and fall as he pursues empty ambitions to wealth, power and satisfaction. The Indiana-born novelist Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) has never been a dashing or romantic figure in American literature, and he has no Pulitzer or Nobel Prize to signal his importance. His big, rugged novels were shocking in their day -- unapologetic in their sexual candor, antagonistic to the norms of conventional morality and organized religion, often banned or suppressed -- and challenging still to readers. Yet the brooding force of his writing casts a deep shadow across modern American letters. At his best, in An American Tragedy, Dreiser examines the flip side of The American Dream in a gathering storm of a story that develops with a power echoing Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment. Inspired by the novels of Balzac and the ideas of Spenser and Freud, Dreiser became one of America's greatest naturalist writers, and An American Tragedy retains its rocky intensity and its devastating view of American longing almost a century later.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: Russian English Chinese
Subjects
Classic Literature, Fiction, Thriller, Trials (Murder), American literature, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Young men, Social classes, Man-woman relationships, Adirondack mountains (n.y.), fiction, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, legal, Man-woman relationships, fiction, Fiction, romance, general, Fiction, general, Readers, Man-woman relationship, Trials (Homicide), Fiction, classics, Fiction, crime, Crime, Fiction, historical, general, Fiction, mystery & detective, traditional, Fiction, romance, lgbtq+, general, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Fiction, thrillers, crime, Traingles (Interpersonal relations)--Fiction, Trials (Murder)--Fiction, Social classes--Fiction, Young men--Fiction, New York (State)--Fiction, New york (n.y.), fiction, Romance Norte Americano, Legal stories, Love storiesPlaces
New York (State)Showing 12 featured editions. View all 176 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
01 |
zzzz
|
02 |
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
03 |
zzzz
|
04 |
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
05 |
eeee
|
06 |
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
07 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
08
An American Tragedy (Signet Classics)
September 1, 1964, Signet Classics
in English
0451522044 9780451522047
|
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
09 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
10 |
eeee
|
11 |
eeee
|
12 |
bbbb
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Work Description
The classic depiction of the harsh realities of American life, the dark side of the American Dream, and one man's doomed pursuit of love and success..."Mr. Dreiser is not imitative and belongs to no school. He is at heart a mysticist and a fatalist, though using the realistic method. He is, on the evidence of this novel alone, a power." --The New York Times Book Review
History
- Created June 22, 2010
- 6 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
August 17, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
April 29, 2022 | Edited by AgentSapphire | Removed incorrect IA ID. |
May 18, 2020 | Edited by CoverBot | Added new cover |
April 6, 2014 | Edited by ImportBot | Added IA ID. |
June 22, 2010 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record |