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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...
Signet
August 2000
Featuring: Clyde Griffiths
880 pages
ISBN: 0451527704
Trade Size (reprint)
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Fiction
This big turbulent novel by Theodore Dreiser takes an
unrepentant look at the sexual nonreticence of the day with
a browsing hostility of traditional morality and organized
religion. In this quagmire of conflicted standards, Dreiser
presents Clyde Griffiths, an ordinary young man who is the
discontented offspring of a family of street preachers. Readers are immersed in this social background so they can
understand how social and political agencies become
involved when Griffiths is accused of a vicious murder.
Dreams of improving his economic status and social
relevance maneuver Griffiths toward this unpardonable act. While he is also a victim of the deceptive benefits of a
materialistic society, this pursuit of vacuous goals to
riches, authority, and vanity does not bode well of its own
accord. America's view of success leads to a destructive
intensity in Griffiths as he comes in direct contact with
lies, adultery, and, finally, homicide. Dreiser offers the
reader complex insinuations about the extent of Clyde's
guilt which result in an examination of sexual hypocrisy,
financial pressures, and governmental dishonesty. Even to
the end, before his execution, Clyde's inability to
comprehend his own blame is a true representation of human
nature. Dreiser's triumph is his talent to provide a
magnificently ominous picture of how evil can sneak up on a
situation and render it poisonous.
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