Mencken who said, 'that he is a great artist, and that no other American of his generation left so wide and handsome a mark upon the national letters. Literary critic Irving Howe said of Dreiser that he was, 'among the American giants, one of the very few American giants we have had,' and one of Dreiser's chief advocates during his lifetime was H.L. Dreiser's first commercial success was An American Tragedy (1925), which was made into a film in 1931 and again in 1951 (as A Place in the Sun).

These are situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. His writing often portrays characters whose strength lies not in their moral code or ethics, but instead in their absolute persistence as they are confronted by all obstacles their unwillingness to yield. No one else confronted so directly the sheer intractability of American social life and institutions.'- The New YorkerĪbout the Author Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (1871-1945) was an American novelist and journalist best known for his pioneer work in the naturalist school. Throughout the great length of An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser does not mention a specific year in. 'Dreiser is widely regarded as the strongest of the novelists who have written about America as a business civilization. American Literary Naturalism - October 2020. Yet he continues to yearn ambitiously for money and status-a desire that will be his downfall. Leaving the needs of his family behind as he buys expensive presents to impress a rich girl, Clyde finds that his new life leads him into a tragedy born of recklessness. Inspired by the true story of an early twentieth-century murder and adapted into a classic film under the title A Place in the Sun, An American Tragedy follows Clyde Griffiths as he is drawn into a circle of wealthy friends despite his own poverty-stricken background.

Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy is the story of a weak-willed young man who is both a villain and a victim of the valueless, materialistic society around him. America's Crime and Punishment' ( Kirkus Reviews). Book Synopsis This epic of class, ambition, and murder in the early twentieth century is ' masterpiece.

An american tragedy by theodore dreiser