An American Tragedy
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About this ebook
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 An American Tragedy
683 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Book title and author: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. 5/23/23Why I picked this book up: it was the next book in the Banned Books Compendium: 32 Classic Forbidden Books that I won in April 2023. Thoughts: This tragedy manuscript was started the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of her lover. In 1923 Dreiser returned to the project, and with the help of his future wife Helen and two editor-secretaries, Louise Campbell and Sally Kusell, he completed the massive novel in 1925. In 1927, the book was banned in Boston after the Boston District Attorney targeted it for sexual content, abortion, and murder.In 1930, the Superior Court condemned An American Tragedy for “containing certain obscene, indecent and impure language, manifestly tending to corrupt the morals of youth, the same being too lewd and obscene to be more particularly set forth in this complaint.” The publisher was fined $300. ($5,332 in 2023 dollars.)Ironically, just across the Charles River, the book was required reading for a Harvard English course.In 1933, the novel was burned in Nazi book bonfires because it "deals with low love affairs.” This went to a Superior Court decision. This is a three book story. This book follows the life of Clyde Griffiths from late childhood to his infamous death. The novel discusses the balance of spirituality and materialism, landing firmly on the importance of humility and family as Clyde’s decisions lead to his destruction. The hard core Christian upbringing as a child, financial desire for material issues, growing up he had a lust for money, the first girl he liked drew him in, fed more into wanting to buy an expensive coat then wanted to be like his rich uncle, how to be social with females, his interactions with females, coworker, his ignorance of how to connect with females, how to earn, use and lie about $ to his family, his despicable, choices and sad out comes all made this book, intriguing to me. It basically did a great job making me want to root for him, get to watch his situation with other characters. This book discusses the balance of spirituality and materialism. Clyde’s unending pursuit of material wealth and the social status that comes from it pushes him into poor choices that result in his death and the death of two innocents.Why I finished this read: As in classical tragedies, Clyde’s downfall is a result of his innate psychological and moral weaknesses. This kept pages turning and the depth of the consequences from his beginning to where he was not truthful and how much it made me think made me want to finish.Stars rating: because I was torn between watching his development, his siding with. materialism, coming around at the end to his initial religious belief, consequences and suffering. I gave this a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 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.