Showing results by author "Theodore Dreiser" in All Categories

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.

Sister Carrie is an epic of urban life, the story of an innocent heroine adrift in an indifferent city. When small-town girl Carrie Meeber sets out for Chicago, she is equipped with nothing but a few dollars, a certain unspoiled beauty and charm, and a pitiful lack of preparation for the complex moral choices she will face. Her story is one of struggle, from sweatshop to stage success, and of the love she inspires in a married man twice her age, whose obsession with her threatens to destroy him.

A magnificent portrayal of 1890's America and the harsh realities of a dog-eat-dog world, Sister Carrie lies at the forefront of American Naturalism. When poor young provincial woman Carrie Meeber arrives in Chicago, she little expects to be catapulted from lower-class woman to prominent Broadway actress. Passive and yielding, she lets circumstances coerce her into action and by good fortune she arrives at fame. It is in Chicago that Carrie meets a successful businessman, Hurstwood, who helps her establish her name.

The Titan is the second volume in what the author called his "trilogy of desire," featuring the character of Frank Cowperwood, a powerful, irresistibly compelling man driven by his own need for power, beautiful women, and social prestige.

This story follows a true crime murder case from New York in 1906. Clyde Griffiths is the impoverished young man from a family of street preachers who dreams of bettering his station in life. However, his dream ends in murder and he is subsequently arrested and put on trial—putting the media in a frenzy.

Sister Carrie is about a young country girl who moves to the big city, where she begins to realize her own American Dream by embarking on a life of sin rather than hard work and perseverance. At the time of its first publication, the novel caused a minor scandal, and Dreiser had difficulty finding a publisher for it. This was due to its blurred division between good and bad and the fact that, at the end, Carrie is rewarded rather than punished for her immoral life.

The first in a "trilogy of desire", The Financier tells the story of the ruthlessly dominating broker Frank Cowperwood as he climbs the ladder of success, his adoring mistress championing his every move. Based on the life of flamboyant finance captain C. T. Yerkes, Theodore Dreiser's cutting portrayal of the unscrupulous magnate Cowperwood embodies the idea that behind every great fortune there is a crime.

Set in 18th century Philadelphia, the book follows Frank as he amasses a large fortune through stock speculation and purchases of shares in the growing street railway industry. He marries an older woman and has two children and uses his new found wealth to become socially prominent. Things however take a turn for the worst when he has an affair with Aileen Butler, the daughter of a politically prominent Irish industrialist.

The Financier is the first volume of Theodore Dreiser’s novel Trilogy of Desire which also consists of "The Titan" and "The Stoic". The protagonist, Frank Algernon Cowperwood, is based on the real-life millionaire Charles Tyson Yerkes. In The Financier, Dreiser describes the early life of Cowperhood in Philadelphia, beginning with his first transaction in an auction at the age of 17. This is followed by his rapid rise with jobs at Henry Waterman & Company, and Tighe & Company, forming his own business and trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

The greatest short story writers strive to achieve a single, dramatic effect, a feature which the early masters of this genre perfected. Although the short story came from Europe, it was reborn in America and reached a pinnacle of superb form on these shores by the turn of the 20th century. In so many of our best writers, we hear echoes of a pioneer ethos that sustains the heart of a great literature. Here are 12 of America's best.

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser is a novel about Carrie Meeber's journey from a small town to Chicago and New York, exploring themes of ambition, love, and betrayal in the pursuit of the American Dream. Dreiser, an American novelist of the naturalist school, is known for his unflinching portrayal of life's struggles.

Theodore Dreiser's first and perhaps greatest novel appeared in 1900. The story is about a young country girl who moves to the big city, where she starts realizing her own American Dream by embarking on a life of sin rather than by hard work and perseverance. On publication, it met with outraged disapproval and was immediately withdrawn as "too shocking and sordid for polite readers".

This classic novel describes an ambitious poor relative of a rich man who secures an opportunity in his uncle’s factory and has a social leap to prospectively marry another rich man’s daughter in town. Similar to Gatsby and published in the same year, 1925.

This powerful novel explores the dynamics of the financial world during the Civil War and after the stock market panic caused by the Chicago fire. Frank Cowperwood, a ruthlessly domineering wheeler-dealer, experiences both the heights and the depths of the financial world, always with his loving mistress championing his every move.

This collection presents eleven of Dreiser’s best tales, ranging from trenchant social analysis to penetrating character study.

"The Lost Phoebe" is a short story by Theodore Dreiser. Henry is so devastated by the death of his wife that cannot find peace, he finds himself constantly searching for her. He slowly yet inevitably descends into madness. Dreiser’s vivid descriptions of the couple’s happy days offer a sharp contrast to Henry's gloomy present. Set on a dilapidated Midwestern farm during the Big Depression, it as story about love, death, sanity and social inequality. B. J.

An American Tragedy is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in 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 wife, Helen, and two editor secretaries, Louise Campbell and Sally Kusell, he completed the massive novel in 1925.

Carrie kommer med tog til Chicago fra Wisconsin. Hun skal bo hos sin søster og dennes nærige og tvære protestantiske mand af skandinavisk afstamning. Det viser sig at være svært at tjene til dagen og vejen - og endnu sværere at få en arbejdsplads - når man ingenting kan. Og stemningen i lejlighedens små rum bliver efterhånden ubærlig for hende at være i. Hun forsøger at lette humøret ved at tage i teateret. Her støder hun tilfældigt ind i Drouet, som hun også talte med i toget på vej til storbyen.

Carrie har succes i et dillettantstykke på teateret. Igennem Drouet møder hun den smukke og velansete Hurstwood, der betages fuldstændig af hende. De forelsker sig. Uden Carrie ved det, stjæler Hurstwood af kassen på sit arbejde og bortfører hende. De bosætter sig i New York, uden at Hurstwood finder noget job. I takt med at pengene slipper op, falder den smukke mand fra hinanden. Til gengæld begynder Carrie at få arbejde i teaterverdenen. Igen får hun mulighed for at slippe ud af en ellers så grå hverdag.

Theodore Dreiser skrev på sit hovedværk, En amerikansk tragedie, i elleve år, og denne roman skulle blive et af de betydeligste værker i den amerikanske naturalisme. Her koncentrerede Dreiser essensen af sin viden om og sit syn på det amerikanske samfund i begyndelsen af det 20. århundrede og kombinerede den med sin store indsigt i det menneskelige sind og de bevæggrunde, der skjuler sig der.