The Financier

By Theodore Dreiser

According to Wikipedia: "Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist. He pioneered the naturalist school and is known for portraying characters whose value lies not in their moral code, but in their persistence against all obstacles, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency... His second novel, Jennie Gerhardt, was published in 1911. Many of Dreiser's subsequent novels dealt with social inequality. His first commercial success was An American Tragedy (1925), which was made into a film in 1931 and again in 1951."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455340453

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) was an American novelist and journalist. Born in Indiana, Dreiser was the son of John Paul Dreiser, a German immigrant, and Sarah Maria Schanab, a Mennonite from Ohio who converted to Catholicism and was banished by her community. Raised in a family of thirteen children, of which he was the twelfth, Dreiser attended Indiana University for a year before taking a job as a journalist for the Chicago Globe. While working for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Dreiser wrote articles on Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Dean Howells, as well as interviewed such figures as Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison. In 1900, he published his debut novel Sister Carrie, a naturalist portrait of a young midwestern woman who travels to Chicago to become an actress. Despite poor reviews, he continued writing fiction, but failed to find real success until An American Tragedy (1925), a novel based on the 1906 murder of Grace Brown. Considered a masterpiece of American fiction, the novel grew his reputation immensely, leading to his nomination for the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, which ultimately went to fellow American Sinclair Lewis. Committed to socialism and atheism throughout his life, Dreiser was a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and a lifelong champion of the working class.

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Reviews for The Financier

[katherinegregg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Financier is the first book in a trilogy by Theodore Dreiser which chronicles the life the Frank Cowperwood.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Given the havoc that bankers and financiers cause in society, it is remarkable that hardly any information on what a financier is can be found on for instance Wikipedia, other than that they are people who make their money through investments. It is therefore hard to quickly determine how far back the history of financiers goes, the Renaissance, probably; the South Sea Bubble of 1720 is often cited as one of the first great speculation scandals.Reading The financier (1912) by Theodore Dreiser gives readers an uncanny sense of recognition, as the main character of the novel, Frank Cowperwood could just have sprung up from the pages of a contemporary newspaper, or e-Reader, for that matter.The financier is the first volume in a trilogy, but can very well be read on its own. It describes a complete cycle of fortune, misfortune and recovery of Cowperwood. As a son of a banker, nonetheless, young Frank set out to make his fortune all by himself, starting very modestly by buying a chest of soap and selling it at a profit. In the first twelve chapters, the novel develops rapidly, seeing young Cowperwood setting up as a brokerage, at first as a partner and increasingly independently, running across Mr Butler's pretty young daughter, as early as in chapter 12.As a young, and upcoming financier, he marries the affluent widow, several years his senior. In his burgeoning wealth, Cowperwood buys a house, soon to be replaced by a more magnificent mansion, decorated by a fashionable architect, Ellsworth.Young Cowperwood begins an affair with the young Aileen Butler; her father has them shadowed by private detectives and leaks evidence of adultery to Cowperwood's wife. The hatred of old Mr Butler knows no boundaries and he is bent on destroying Cowperwood, and separating him from his daughter.Growing wealthy through the Civil War Years, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 leads to Cowperwood's bankruptcy, as he is unable to find money to financy his creditors. The financial crisis caused by the Fire leads to the uncovering of a network of illicit borrowings and speculation with money from the city's Treasury. Cowperwood is made a scapegoat and goes to jail.His lover, Aileen, visits him in jail and remains loyal until he is released two years later. Money works in jail to ease some of the discomfort. Soon after his release, Cowperwood starts with new energy to recoop his lost wealth.Although the novel starts and developes rapidly, the story is dragged out throughout the bankruptcy and jail episodes. Nonetheless, the novel seems to need this volume, and it never seems too wordy or lengthy. The novel is simply elaborate and descriptive in great detail, but it seems appropriate to tell the story with so much detail. It certainly helps to be interested or even a bit knowledgeable in the world of finance, to know the difference between various types of financiers and financial services, and the bulk of the story is developed in this environment.Frank Cowperwood is portrait as a sympathetic financier, whose passion for Aileen seems sincere, although his earlier marriage to the rich widow was probably not. He is a man of good taste. The other characters, old Mr Cowperwood, Mr Butler and other characters, such as Stener are all described in psychologically very convincing portraits, and the tragedy of the novel is sufficiently moving.While not the easiest novel to read, The financier is still very rewarding.

[corinneblackmer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Frank Cowperwood, impatient to leave school as a boy, learns all he needs to know on the street and from his banker father. Soon he is trading for profit and moving up from one firm to another. In Philadelphia, he begins to skim from the city as a broker and is only discovered by the disaster of the great fire. He endures a nasty prison sentence, meted out to him by men who are as guilty or more guilty of fraud and corruption than he is, and, when freed, swiftly regains his fortune in speculation. His love life matches his financial life, with Frank marrying an upper class older widow and then having an affair with a young woman because here as with all else, he is a strong man, and strong men must satisfy their appetites. A book to elucidate that the latest rounds of corruption on Wall Street is nothing new under the American sun.

[patito7de7hule · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is the first of a trilogy, The Financier, Titan, and The Stoic written by Theodore Dreiser. The first two were written late in the progressive era (prior to WWI), and the last was published in 1947. Frank A. Cowperwood, a character based on Charles T. Yerkes, grew up in Philadelphia, and then moved on to Chicago and finally London. The three books are based on one of these periods of Yerkes's life among the free-booting boodlers of the post civil war era.In The Financier Cowperwood grows up in Philadelphia among trusting, loving family and is married. He becomes involved as a broker in skimming money from the Treasury of the City of Philadelphia. After the great fire in Chicago (1871) the bankruptcy of the Treasury can no longer be hidden, and his co-conspirators come together to lay all the blame on Cowperwood. He is convicted and ruined. In the Panic of 1873 he has early knowledge and uses it to rebuild his fortune. He abandons his faithful wife for another then goes on to Chicago. Chicago is where the novel Titan begins.The book is interesting for the character it builds in Cowperwood, based on Yerkes, and for its portrayal of historical events in a social context. While it was not Dreiser's greatest work, I give it four stars.

[browner56 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting trend in literary fiction is for some really good writers to base the plots of their novels on events surrounding crises or other calamities in the financial markets. From Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities and Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis to the more recent A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks and Other People’s Money by Justin Cartwright, authors frequently use economic chaos in some way as a backdrop for their stories as well as a metaphor for the social critique they are trying to convey. Indeed, fiction of this ilk is often a thinly veiled morality tale, with the financial institution (e.g., bank, hedge fund) or businessperson (e.g., stockbroker, money manager) playing the role of the evil menace and would-be destroyer of all that is decent and good.With the stock market panics of 1987, 2001 and 2008 fresh in our collective memory, it would be easy to view this literary movement as a contemporary fashion. That would be wrong, however. Written more than a century ago, Theodore’s Dreiser’s The Financier tells the story of the rise, fall and resurrection of Frank Cowperwood, a man whose personal and professional machinations frame a gripping account of the tumultuous United States capital markets in the post-Civil War era, before the country itself was even 100 years old. Based on the true history of Charles Yerkes, a legendary trader and tycoon of the day, the novel is set in Philadelphia and describes Frank’s comfortable but humble origins as well as the economic and emotional carnage he creates on the way to building his financial empire.Cowperwood’s genius lies in his ability to recognize investment opportunities and then manipulate a financial system almost completely devoid of meaningful regulation to his own advantage. Starting with little more than a keen mind, a strong work ethic and a disregard for political and social norms, Frank creates wealth for himself in a very old-fashioned way—by borrowing lots of money and then making more right bets in the stock market than wrong ones. As is often the case when using such massive amounts of financial leverage, though, his downfall—which is truly steep—comes when a stock market crash caused by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 leaves him without enough money to repay his loans. This chain of events leads to a brief prison term for embezzlement after which another market crash in 1873 provides him with the opportunity to once again use other people’s misfortune (and money) to his benefit. The novel ends with Frank and his long-time mistress leaving their respective families for a fresh start in Chicago.The Financier is the first of Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire and is followed by The Titan and The Stoic, which continue the Yerkes/Cowperwood saga. This was not always an easy book to read; the author’s so-called gritty naturalism style of prose led to what at times was a densely worded and overly detailed story that was decidedly old-fashioned in tone by modern standards. Nevertheless, I found the scope and imagination of the tale to be quite compelling and, from a historical perspective, it was also a book that taught me a lot about some crucial events that previously were little more than footnotes in my mind. To his credit, Dreiser neither glorifies nor demonizes Frank for the myriad choices he makes in his personal and business affairs, meaning that he offers the reader no easy answers as to what is right and what is wrong. Without question, this remains relevant fiction that deserves to be read for years to come.

[rsubber · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's just amazing that Dreiser (1871-1945) wrote this gritty novel in 1912, before anyone even thought of derivatives, credit default swaps, sub-prime "liar loan" mortgages and no-fault (for bankers and brokers, that is) national financial meltdowns. Frank Cowperwood is the ethically-challenged "financier" whose star and fortunes rise so marvelously and then collapse with equal flare. He seems so absolutely convincingly contemporary that I had recurring transient episodes of inverted déjà vu as I followed his desperate ambition and burnout. Frank is a first-rate villain. He burns his friends and enemies with equal disdain, he channels Gordon Gekko with suitably theatrical energy, and he is most deliciously unrepentant when his schemes go awry, his loans get called and his empire crashes around him.I say "deliciously unrepentant" because, unlike his contemporary villainous free spirits of Wall Street, Frank promptly goes to jail for his crimes."The Financier" so obviously is the kind of novel that might be written by a baroque clone of Michael Lewis. If you'd like to work out a bit of the residual rage you feel about the man-made financial cesspool we've been wallowing in for the last few years, try this American classic.