Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    An American Tragedy
    An American Tragedy
    An American Tragedy
    Audiobook34 hours

    An American Tragedy

    Written by Theodore Dreiser

    Narrated by Dan John Miller

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    An American Tragedy is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who spends his life in the desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, it is the masterful portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's ambitions and seal his fate; it is an unsurpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and of the dark side of the American dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, An American Tragedy stands as Theodore Dreiser's supreme achievement.

    First published in 1925 and based on an actual criminal case, An American Tragedy was the inspiration for the 1951 film A Place in the Sun, which won six Academy Awards and starred Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJul 19, 2011
    ISBN9781452671895
    Author

    Theodore Dreiser

    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 <i>An American Tragedy</i>, 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 <i>Crime and Punishment</i>. 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. <i>An American Tragedy</i> is testimony to the strength of Dreiser’ s work: it retains all of its original intensity and force.

    Related to An American Tragedy

    Related audiobooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    • Article

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read

      Aug 7, 2018

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mexican Gothic

      Jun 17, 2020

      RELEASED 30 JUNE 299 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia Publisher Del Rey There are shades of Daphne du Maurier in this twisty little gothic novel, which pits a young woman against the horrors of a crumbling ancestral home. Our heroin

      1 min read

    • Article

      Idolatry

      Sep 1, 2022

      My grandfather Dave Pinsky’s disregard for the practice of Judaism as a religion was so calm and perfect that he didn’t seem to express his feelings about piety and rabbi-craft except implicitly, by living his profane life. Without warning, Zaydee Po

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Poetry No. 111

      Sep 6, 2022

      The Art of Poetry No. 111
      26 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane

      Apr 20, 2021

      Lane's memoir, which won the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, explores the author's ancestral history in order to give her future child a family history. The post ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane appeared first on The

      8 min read

    • Article

      It All Begins in Love

      Dec 1, 2023

      It All Begins in Love
      9 min read

    • Article

      His Greatest Legacy

      Mar 24, 2020

      Don’t all girls worship their father? Not until I was older did I realize that all dads are not the same. Mine was especially kind, loving, and supportive; I strive to be as kind and accepting. When I was growing up, my dad had a small business in ou

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11

      Dec 7, 2021

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11
      26 min read

    • Article

      On Za'atar

      Oct 15, 2021

      On Za'atar
      14 min read

    • Article

      Degrees Of Separation

      Oct 14, 2021

      I have a very low threshold for sentimentality. This has never made much sense to me, given my love for Shakespeare’s sonnets, Irish drama and Charlotte Brontë. Then again, I also love British drama, Russian literature and Chris Rock, all of which co

      3 min read

    • Article

      WALKING in THE LIGHT

      Oct 20, 2019

      WALKING in THE LIGHT
      10 min read

    • Article

      Past The Edges Of Town

      Jan 27, 2022

      Past The Edges Of Town
      10 min read

    • Article

      Black Turtlenecks, Hoop Earrings

      Jun 1, 2021

      Black Turtlenecks, Hoop Earrings
      18 min read

    • Article

      In Elvis We Trust

      Aug 13, 2018

      We need Elvis now more than ever. Growing up in Georgia and Alabama in the 1970s and ’80s, I always felt that the bad old days of Southern prejudice and ignorance had passed, that we were entering a new South built upon hard-won racial equality, cha

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for An American Tragedy

    4/5

    54 ratings25 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Clyde Griffiths, a poor, uneducated, working class boy from the midwest, heads east to work for his wealthy uncle who owns a shirt collar factory in upstate New York. Excluded from social activities enjoyed by his relatives, Clyde is lonely but soon falls for Roberta, a pretty farm girl who works under him in the factory. Relationships between supervisors and workers are forbidden so they keep their relationship quiet. A little later Clyde becomes intrigued with Sondra Finchley, a local society girl who includes Clyde in outings initially to enrage Clyde's snobby cousin Gilbert Griffiths. Clyde, wanting very much to be part of high society, pursues Sondra with the hopes of marrying her. When Roberta gets pregnant, Clyde attempts to find a doctor to abort the pregnancy but has no success. Seeing no other way out, Clyde murders Roberta. Soon after Clyde is arrested, found guilty and ultimately goes to the electric chair.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Based on the real life criminal Chester Gillette, who was convicted of murdering Grace Brown in 1906, Dreiser’s Clyde Griffiths is a complex picture of the American dream gone wrong. There is perhaps no greater American novel that paints the portrait of one young man striving towards the wealth and glamour of the social class above him except The Great Gatsby. Published in the 1920s, the main character Clyde did remind me a bit of Nick Caraway from The Great Gatsby. He's a complete outsider to the world of wealth, but unlike Nick he's completely enrapture by the opulence. He was raised by mild-mannered religious parents who eschewed any sort of fancy clothes or drinking. He is quickly seduced by a life of partying when he begins working as a bellhop in Kansas City. Things spiral out of control for Clyde as he starts to value the high society life of his cousin above all else. He realizes that he'll do anything to get what they have no matter what the consequences are. That’s a gross simplification of a novel that is almost 1,000 pages long, but there’s so much more to the plot. “The beauty of that world in which they moved. The luxury and charm as opposed to this of which he was a part. Dillard! Rita! Tush! They were really dead to him. He aspired to this other or nothing.”SPOILERSThe book is split into three almost equal parts. The first introduces Clyde to the world of luxury and excess and all of its temptations. The second involves his rise in the social world and his relationship with both Roberta and Sondra. The third deals with the murder trial and his conviction. For a short time I thought maybe the first section wasn’t necessary, but it sets the stage for the rest of his life. It shows us why he values money and status. It builds a foundation for doing wrong and believing you can get away with it. The way he sees women is shaped by his trip to the brothel and by his sister’s experience with becoming pregnant and being jilted. The car accident that ends in a little girl’s death teaches him that man slaughter might be ok as long as you can escape without consequences. The section with Roberta is where much of this unfolds, but the seeds were planted in the first section. As it unfolds you value the structure of the novel more and more. As Clyde progresses down that path of selfishness it becomes harder and harder to sympathize with him. He takes no responsibility for his actions and seems completely surprised when he finds himself in one difficult situation after another. He never acknowledges the fact that his own actions and decisions lead to the situations. He falls in love with someone, seduces her, gets her pregnant and he then thinks that the universe trying to keep him from achieving greatness. He was strangely delusional at times and had an overwhelming sense of entitlement. “For to say the truth, Clyde had a soul that was not destined to grow up. He lacked decidedly that mental clarity and inner directing application that in so many permits them to sort out from the facts and avenues of life the particular thing or things that make for their direct advancement.”Honestly I wasn't sure that he ever loved Sondra. I think he loved what Sondra embodied; the lifestyle and wealth, but he never loved her. Instead of dealing with the situations he creates, all he wanted to do was escape. He wanted a perfect life with wealth and power and status, but he didn't want to have to work for any it. SPOILERS OVERAmerican Tragedy at its core is the story of the dangers of pursuing the American dream with no moral code. We put such an emphasis on success and wealth in our country, that the “ends justify the means” mentality is so prevalent. But is it really worth it if you lose your soul in the process? This story seems to be a common one in American literature. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Gatsby’s ambition, the awful outcome in “A Lesson Before Dying,” and of Richard Wright’s “Native Son” and his disastrous end. We seem to repeat this pattern of longing for something else and making horrible decisions attempting to reach our goal. BOTTOM LINE: Although the moral message can be a bit heavy handed at times, this epic novel was unforgettable. The attention to detail, the large scope, the rise and fall of Clyde’s social standing, all of these elements meddled together to create a tragic picture of ambition and selfishness. “There are moments when in connection with the sensitively imaginative or morbidly anachronistic . . . the mind [is] befuddled to the extent that for the time being, at least, unreason or disorder and mistaken or erroneous counsel would appear to hold against all else. In such instances the will and the courage confronted by some great difficulty which it can neither master nor endure, appears in some to recede in precipitate flight, leaving only panic and temporary unreason in its wake.”“Titus Alden was one of that vast company of individuals who are born, pass through and die out of the world without ever quite getting any one thing straight. They appear, blunder, and end in a fog.” 

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This is another book that I find difficult to rate because the main character is so distasteful. I am also torn because I know that I should find the actions of this character deplorable. However, I'm not sure that I particularly sympathize with the main character and I am not enirely convinced that his situation is uniquely American. People in all societies experience greed and a desire to be part of the in crowd, but this doesn't excuse murder. To me, the tragedy of this book isn't the main character's moral degredation at the hands of a winner take all America, the tragedy is what befalls the people surrounding a man (although no true man) who will stop at nothing to satisfy his fleeting passions.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I was spooked when I read this that somehow I'd been able to make it through school without any teachers making us read this. Perhaps a little too gruesome? I think this is a great American novel. It covers all the bases--class issues, choice between good and evil as we strive to reach 'the American dream', the clash between naivete of youth and our desire to give children independence. This is probably more of a thriller than you'd get in the 30s and 40s. From a genre/time in our history perspective, if folks ought to read Ralph Ellison then they ought to read this. Without sounding contorted, -- as this book doesn't fit a profile in my mind -- it's kind of Studs Terkel meets Ralph Ellison meets John Grisham meets John Dos Passos.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Despite its length, this novel captures the attention from beginning to end. The impetuous, sometimes melodramatic, style keeps the reader turning the pages: good time entertainment to be sure! This book, however, is much more. While it could have easily been a soap opera by modern standards, Dreiser's messages on social struggles and discrepancies, religion and the justice system makes this novel a powerful critique which gives it its timelessness. I found that the entire trial was extremely modern in content and form, and I was actually surprised to see such an overt and compelling argument against the death penalty (maybe it's just my reading). This is definitely an example of pathos well rendered, an attempt at showing the emotions behind the bars as opposed to the judgement and righteousness of institutions.Overall, I found that this book is still relevant both as a literary enjoyment and as a piece of social criticism for issues that are still on-going today.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      American Tragedy is your typical 1920s story about the folly of chasing the American dream except that it is also a psychological novel about committing murder. It's like Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby except that it is not quite as good as either one. Dreiser reminds me of Dickens in that his prose is excessively wordy and repetitive. This actually turns out to be a good thing. It enables us to really get to know his characters as people and evokes sympathy for them. It becomes easy to put yourself into their shoes and really experience everything that happens in the novel, including what it is like to plans and commit murder.The story is about Clyde Griffiths, a poor son of two street preachers, and is based on a true crime. Griffiths wants nothing more than to be somebody, a common theme in American literature. In doing so, he comes in contact with a host of characters on his way up. Some of these characters are likable and others are not. Several obstacles stand in his way of overcoming his humble beginnings, but the greatest of which is his own weakness and propensity to make bad decisions. In the end, I found myself rooting for Clyde to at least gain some sort of redemption despite the fact that I really hated him throughout most of the book. That is probably the greatest compliment that I could pay Dreiser for this novel. His main character was human enough that he really cannot be portrayed as good or evil. He simply was, and that made for a very enjoyable tragedy.
    • 2/5
      [SPOILERS] On June 15, 1949. I said of this book: "It is prosaic, and the things about it that made it much discussed 25 years ago are now no longer so discussion-provoking." On June 18 I said: "Claude Griffiths has killed his old girl and is on trial now. The legal aspects of the story are interesting, and a person can't help but be for him, even though he practically killed her. Don't quite see how I can be for him so, since he's no good. Story is very 1910ish, even drug for awhile, going into great detail. It seems such kiddish writing in that it describes the obvious so non-subtlely, and of course it is the perfect example of the omnipresent author--I never was so aware of this in other books." On June 19 I said: "He was convicted and after that, though the book drug on dully for pages and pages, you knew how it would all come out. He was electrocuted. Stupid, stupid, abd few relieving features."
    • 4/5
      Book Circle Reads 24Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Book Description: On one level An American Tragedy is the story of the corruption and destruction of one man, Clyde Griffiths, who forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, however, the novels represents a massive portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's tawdry ambitions and seal his fate. Clyde Griffiths is a young man, from the poor branch of his family but with ambitions of making the big-time; and seeks a start in his rich uncle's factory. He gets a poor girl pregnant, Roberta Alden, who works with him at the factory; but then something better turns up in the form of a rich girl, offering a much better future. Meeting the rich girl at a family function at his uncle's home makes him suddenly regret getting involved with Roberta, and he feels trapped. He takes Roberta canoeing on a lake with the intention of pushing her into the water, changes his mind at the last moment, but she falls into the lake and drowns...and he can never prove that it wasn't what he had planned. His fate is sealed, he is found guilty of murder. A dramatic story, it was based on a real life murder trial of the 1920s, and the success of Dreiser's novel saw it made into a film in the 1950s -- A Place in the Sun, which starred Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor.My Review: Watch the movie. The "novel" is bloated and Dreiser's prose is as wooden as a plank.
    • 5/5
      This book delineates a tragedy of enormous proportions because the values of the main character are so evident from the very beginning. He is a deplorably shallow person who will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve what he wants, regardless of the consequences for those who provide obstacles . Clyde is undoubtedly one of the most despicable characters in all of literature. The girl he seduces and promises to marry is heartbreakingly earnest and blinded by her misguided love for Clyde. Shelly Winters played this character flawlessly in the movie version.
    • 4/5
      Awful writing style, but interesting psychological depictions of characters. Makes one fear canoe rides for a little while.
    • 4/5
      - Clyde Griffiths is a young man with ambition. From the start of this novel when he is a young boy from a poor but devout family he is both on the run and doomed. In over his head with problems that stick to him like honey he leaves Kansas City and arrives in New York, and before long he is in love with a rich girl, but it's a poor girl he has gotten pregnant, Roberta Alden, who works with him at his uncle's factory. One day he takes Roberta canoeing on a lake with the intention of killing her. From there his fate is sealed and doom is once again on the horizon. But by then Dreiser has made plain that Clyde's fate was long before sealed by a brutal and cynical society. - The usual criticism of Dreiser is that, line for line, he's the weakest of the great American novelists. And it's true that he takes a journalist's approach to writing, joining workmanlike sentences one to the other. His prose is repetitive at times, but he slowly builds a powerful network of words, sentences and paragraphs with a natural vitality flowing through them. The first time I read this novel I was still in high school during my Dreiser and Hardy phase. Hardy wears better over the years, but both remain powerful for the attentive reader.
    • 4/5
      3 stars for the book & 4 stars for the audiobook. Dan John Miller did a fantastic job with the narration - one of the best I have ever listened to!As for the book, I was planning on giving it 4 stars until about 2/3 through (about when the trial started). My interest started flagging and the last third of the book dragged for me. Unfortunately a third of this book is about 280 pages (as long as some full novels!). Perhaps when a little time has passed, I may revise my rating as the ending becomes more in proportion to the entire book.
    • 3/5
      It is good to see minor details of a killer's psychology. I listened to it as though it is happening to me. I actually felt depression、 when Clide was in the jail and moaning . But it was too lengthy for just this much development.
    • 5/5
      This book should be required reading in every ninth grade class in America. Especially now that women’s choices are made more difficult. Kids need to understand the consequences of their actions.
    • 3/5
      Dreiser can be a frustrating writer, what with the profusion of perfect tense verbs and parataxis, but some of those frustrating bits paradoxically account for the almost breathless and riveting movement of the narrative. This novel is also frustrating because of its tripartite structure: late Victorian bildungsroman, psychological thriller, and social commentary, in that order. To the middle section, and due almost entirely to Dreiser's ability to so finely render psychological nuances, I give four stars.
    • 3/5
      I'M FINISHED! It's a very interesting psychological glimpse into a criminal's mind, but I underestimated how much it would take out of me.
    • 2/5
      I'm sort of in two minds about this book myself. While it is a tragedy in the traditional sense, it does not really stand up to the great tragedies of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the Greeks. The story is about the downfall of the main character, who is a tragic hero in all senses of the word, but it does not have the intricate and complicated plot that the tragedies of Hamlet and King Lear have, nor is the character of Clyde torn and haunted in the same way as Macbeth and Dr Faustus. Further, while in a sense we do see Clyde being driven by forces to an extent beyond his control, he downfall is not marked out by fate in the same way as King Oedipus.The story involve the child of a missionary couple in 1920s America. While America of that era can be reflected in America of other eras, the 1920s do stand out much more than say the other periods of prosperity such as the 50s or even then 90s and early 2000s. In a way the 20s was seen as a time when America was still on the rise, and the opportunities were still open to almost everyone. The ethic of getting a job on the ground floor and then rising through the ranks was seen as being available to anybody. While this was also true in the 50s and the 90s, the fifties seem to reflect a time when America was at its peak, and opportunities were open to all, while by the 90s many of these doors had decisively slammed shut.Another aspect of the 20s, which is reflected in this novel, is the aspect of how people are driven by their desire to succeed, but behind this drive there is still a strong sense of morality. This was still there in the 50s, but had decisively vanished by the 90s. What we have in An American Tragedy is young Clyde getting his first job as a bellhop, but while working at the hotel, he falls in with the other bellhops, and the desire to succeed is balanced out by the desire to have fun, and through this he falls into alcohol and prostitution (both of which were illegal in the United States at this time). Unfortunately tragedy strikes (and though he is not the instigator of this tragedy, he is complicit in it in that he is a passenger in the stolen vehicle, and flees shortly afterwards) and thus his desire to rise to the top is cut short by this misdemeanor.Clyde, however, gets a second chance. This is another theme that is supposed to reflect the difference between the United States and the old world of Europe, and that is the possibility for a second chance. Once again, this has vanished by the 90s, with not so much the rise in the crime rate, but rather once one becomes such a statistic (at least at street level) ones opportunity to participate in society is brought to an end. As people suggest, soon the population of the United States is either going to be in prison, or working for the prison system. With the rise of computers and information systems, it is much easier to keep track of people, and their records, than it was back in the 20s, or even in the 50s. It should not be surprising that the rise in the crime rate is not only reflective of population growth, but also of systems of collecting and storing information.However, I should come to the main part of the story, and that is the events in Lycurgus. Clyde arrives at this small, upstate New York town where a distant uncle owns and operates a factory. Clyde is given a job in the factory, and even raised to a senior position, however once again we see him torn between his desire to live the high life and his inner lusts. Inevitably he gives into his lust and forms a relationship with one of his employees, something that is forbidden in the factory. This becomes even more complicated when it turns out that the woman that he is sleeping with becomes pregnant. Now, ironically, most of the upper echelons of society would easily be able to get out of this situation, but Clyde is not there yet (even though he is associating with his Uncle's friends) and decides to take the easy way out: kill her. Unfortunately, the easy way out is not necessarily the best way out and he is caught and executed.Simply put, Clyde is the harbinger of his fate. His lusts get the better of him and when he finds himself in the mess he takes the easy way out. Despite all this, looking over the characters of this book, and the events, it does not draw me in as the great tragedies do. It is one of those painful and annoying books where you see where the main character is heading, but unlike a true tragic hero, you do not sympathise with him. In the same way that we see Macbeth, we see Clyde as being somebody fully responsible for his actions and deserving of the consequences. However, because we have been drawn into Clydes' life, we do not want to see anything bad happen to him, we want to see him succeed, however this is not going to happen. Is it a warning? Possibly, but in another sense many of us read as a form of escapism, to for a time be something that we are not, but one thing we do not want to be is a failure, which in the end is what Clyde becomes. I guess the other irritating thing is that many of the upper echelon behave like Clyde, but get away with it. It is only because Clyde doesn't have the connections, and can easily be cut lose, that he meets the fate that he does. At least, in the end, acknowledges his sin and seeks forgiveness.
    • 5/5
      The novel pivots on an issue that even Obama said was above his paygrade to render a judgment on. The issue isn't the moral center of the book, but it projects the book into the future indefinitely. When I read the book 15 years ago, I thought, hey, this is the Great American Novel that everyone talks about, but no one gives creedance to, either its existence or possibility. In the same way that Nabokov's Lolita may be a stand in for America the seductress, the protagonist An American Tragedy, is a stand-in for America the promise. To be continued....
    • 3/5
      An epically long look at the life of Clyde Griffiths, an ambitious young man who wants to escape the poverty of his youth and replace it with wealthy, prestige, and social status. Along the way, he becomes entangles in the "dark side of the American Dream."I am starting to loose faith in the Modern Library's ability to choose so-called "great" books. While I think a truly great book goes beyond just entertainment to where it makes the reader think or expands their point of view, I don't see why so many "classics of great literature" have to insist on a kind of dark drudgery. Dreiser, for example, rehashes scenes, dialog, events multiple times, and maybe that's necessary in a book that involves a trial and thus requires multiple interpretations of the same events. However, I really think this book could have done with an editor to hack away all the superfluous repetition that beleaguers the point at every turn. (I almost gave up at a couple of points, but each time figured, welp, I got this far. I may as well see it through.)And yet, I didn't out right hate the book, because even though Clyde is greedy, selfish, and in all rights rather unlikeable, I found it interesting that even as I came to realize just how awful a human being he is, I also found myself siding with him against the law and society that also wasn't all that likable (though for entirely different reasons). So there are definitely some interesting complexities there. I suppose the only "good" character in the whole book is Clyde's mother, an unordained preacher whose entire faith lies with God, which isn't surprising as Dreiser's message seems to be that people need to give up the selfish and destructive pursuit of things and seek a simpler more godly life. Definitely not a favorite.
    • 1/5
      This is one of the worst novels I have ever read. Poorly written, poorly edited, poorly realized. It is rife with missed opportunities at true insight and contents itself with sticking to a factual, chronological enumeration of events leading in an apparent attempt to force the outcome to appear as if it arose from unfortunate mixture of nature and circumstance.After having written Sister Carrie (his debut novel) it is almost shocking how poorly executed Tragedy is. Dreiser's not very nuanced and shallow understanding of the absurdities of American life (for rich as for poor, for powerful as powerless) results in a stew of contradictory themes. Despite his awareness that something is gravely wrong with American life and society, Dreiser didn't seem to have the depth of intellect to translate this awareness into a coherent story. It may be that his writing suffered from his near obsession with the real life story of Chester Gillette on which the plot of Tragedy is based.
    • 3/5
      It's easy to dismiss this novel as an antique curiosity, with its clunky, humorless prose and its turgid plot. Dreiser is the kind of author that tells you everything you need to know about his characters before they do anything. He breaks the primary rule of fiction writing by telling rather than showing. And he does so at length. In fact, he dwells on the occasional advancements in his plot for whole chapters, with the result that the novel repeats itself. Worse, he allows himself melodramatic forays into interior monologue, which lead to passages like, "But why? Why? Why?" Viewed by modern standards of reading, shaped in part by the Hemingway school of spare storytelling, Dreiser's work is at best primitive and, at worst, boring. In short, this is not a page-turner. Still, buried inside this novel's critique of wealth and privilege and social inequity and organized religion is an ambiguity that belies Dreiser's tendency to tell rather than show. Clyde Griffiths's arrest for the murder of Roberta Alden at first seems to be the climax of the novel. But there are still dozens of chapters left. The lengthy descriptions of Clyde's trial and its aftermath feel like a case of beating a dead horse. But as I trudged on I forced myself to push past this reading. Instead, I found myself thinking about the title and the notion that there is something peculiarly American about the tragedy of Clyde Griffiths, whose ambition to escape his poor, religious upbringing is framed by his desire for nice clothes and a large house like the one his wealthy uncle inhabits in Lycurgus. Clyde spends the first half of the novel ignored, neglected or misunderstood. His tragic fate, at first, seems to be invisibility. But then he gains national attention (and inspires national disgust) when he is accused of murder. As perceived by the public that so swiftly condemns him, Clyde's tragedy is not merely his moral bankruptcy, but his brazen attempt to duck out of responsibility and obtain a social status he had no right to claim. By prolonging the agony of both Clyde and the reader in the novel's final chapters chapters, it seems to me that Dreiser begs the reader to consider tragedy and to draw his or her own conclusions about fate.
    • 5/5
      The killer's point of view makes it excellent and complex
    • 5/5
      I absolutely had to read this because I read another book called Adirondack Tragedy, whose last few chapters dealt with the fact that Theodore Dreiser had written his work "An American Tragedy," based on the true story found in Adirondack Tragedy. The true story dealt with one Chester Gillette, who in 1906 had come to New York to work for his uncle in his skirt factory, met a woman Grace Brown and then after Grace got pregnant, killed her out on a lake, then went off to join some of his friends who were at a posh hotel in the area, like nothing had happened. At the time, the murder/trial was a peak sensational drama, a major case for its time.Drawing on the Gillette murder case, Dreiser builds a very powerful novel around the facts. David Denby wrote an awesome review in the New Yorker about this book a couple of years ago. Originally published in 1926, I can only imagine that this book caused quite a stir. Dreiser's book is a look at the "ills" of society based on wealth and the lack of and therefore desire for things that wealth can get a person. But beyond wealth, he goes a bit deeper and looks at the entire class system that capitalism and wealth generate, and how some people will do anything to get past the barriers keeping them "down," or in their "proper socioeconomic strata," often with tragic results. Life goes on; the cycle doesn't stop, and this is made all too sadly clear at the ending of this novel. What was interesting to me was that the lines of class are perceived differently from different viewpoints -- for example in the novel, Clyde Griffiths (the main character) is looked up to by the lowest of the factory workers at his uncle's family, but yet he is doing the same job with the same pay as they are. All that is different about him is that he has the family name, but it is enough to put them in awe of him. And he, in turn, looks down on these people, even though in a socioeconomic status sense, he is no different than they are. It's just his perceived sense of where he falls socially that gives him this "right" to look down his nose at these people. In reality, Clyde has no right to look down on anyone; he is in their same boat.I very highly recommend this book -- most excellent and probably scandalous for its time.
    • 4/5
      Tremendously detailed story of the entire life, quest and failure of a young American man in the early part of the 20th century. Vivid, detailed descriptions of his working life as a bellhop in a Kansas City hotel, and then in his uncle's upstate New York collar (!) factory are fascinating and informative. His search for a foothold in what he perceives as the glittering social life of the industrial elite, partying in the lakes and towns around Albany and Saratoga, is utterly convincing and pathetic. His motivations throughout the book are twisted, but at the same time quite understandable. The murder of his working class lover, his confusion and bungled attempts to escape afterwards, the twists and turns of his trial and his religious confusion before his execution are all convincingly laid out in thorough detail. Although Dreiser is no stylist, I found this book compelling, moving and a fine examination of the struggle of one man determined to grasp the American Dream at any cost.
    • 4/5
      The character study of Clyde Griffits is captivating but he never does seem to reslove his quilt. Never acknowledges his child which was also part of the murder. It's whole different era but still a fasinating story.