An American Tragedy (Signet Classics)

After finishing Sister Carrie, I started this great story of unrequited desire. It is truly magnificent. The story of Clyde Griffiths is engrossing. No one but maybe his mother comes out very well. If you saw the movie ( excellent though it may be), treat yourself to this cascade of language and a journey into the American psyche guided by Dreiser, a giant of a writer!

Try to understand Theodore Dreiser through this novel. There are a few more novels that I really recommend related to "An American Tragedy", which are "Jennie Gerhardt" and "Sister Carrie". I strongly recommend these three novels to understand Theodore Dreiser more.

Some brilliant passages, but too few to hold an interest….author is especial adept at taking a very long time to state the obvious. Very vintage, stylized writing that hasn't stood the test of time.

I came into reading An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser in an unusual way. I was writing a fictional murder mystery which involved a 1960s drowning in Lake Singletary in Sutton, Massachusetts. When talking with friends about my plot, they pointed out that there HAD been a drowning in Lake Singletary, in 1935. Newall P. Sherman, a married man, had fallen for a young mill-factory co-worker. So he took his wife Alice out into the lake in a rowboat and drowned her. The trial became a nation-wide sensation and was called "An American Tragedy" by many of the papers. The writers were referencing this book which had come out exactly ten years before. There is little doubt that Sherman's actions were based on this book.

What makes the tale even more fascinating is that An American Tragedy, while fiction, is based on a real life drowning in 1906. Chester Gillette was the man in question and Grace Brown was the woman he drowned. So we have art imitating real life, and then real life imitating art. And then came the movie A Place in the Sun, and on it goes.

So reading the book was fascinating to me, because at that point I'd learned all about the 1935 real life drowning caused by the book. The book lays out in substantial detail how the process unfolded, even going back to the protagonist, Clyde Griffith's, youngest days. This 866 page book goes into rich exploration of just how this man grew up, hit hurdles, overcame them, and got to the point that he was in a factory with a young woman. We understand by then all the complex aspects of his character and his concerns and fears and desires.

We get the same with Roberta. We learn why she held out against and then finally gave in to Clyde's advances. We understand her fears and concerns when she gets pregnant. We have a sense of the confusion and unhappiness and tension as they try to figure out what to do.

Lest we get sidetracked by a debate of contraception rights, the point wasn't that it was a pregnancy specifically that caused the issue. It could have been anything equally life-changing. The focus of the book is on how Clyde and Roberta reacted mentally and emotionally to that challenge. Nearly all of us hit hurdles in life that are life changing hurdles of some sort. We are presented with a range of options on how to get past them. A key focus of this book is on how we, as flawed humans, look at those options and try to sort and choose from them.

Yes we all have a sense of "right" and "wrong" - and it's clear in looking at humanity that each of us has a slightly different yardstick from our neighbors. It's not even just a "help me or help others" single-sided slider. There are all sorts of different dimensions. Do we hold family / friends to different standards? Do we help strangers? Are we frugal? Do we worry about our reputation? There are so many different things that we take into account, that it's no wonder that, like snowflakes, no two of us are exactly alike.

So these are the things Dreiser examines. Each person in the story has his or her own flaws and positive traits and foibles. Lawyers are swayed by politics. Witnesses are swayed by their reputation. Mothers are swayed by family ties. We all twist and bend based on the specific things we value.

Certainly we might hope that, should we find ourselves in a dire strait, we would not take a route out which seriously hurt another person. Still, life rarely has a perfect balance. For example, we know that every day 25,000 people die of hunger. That includes 16,000 children. So in this one day today, 25,000 people have died due to having no food. The WFO states they only need 50 cents to feed a person for a day. So let's say I "splurge" on a $5 coffee-and-muffin every day. That is 10 people I could have kept alive - and instead I "selfishly" spent it on a whim for myself instead.

We argue that we deserve luxuries that we worked for, and maybe that's true. But maybe it's also true that a human being's life should be worth more than a luxury item. If that person was right in front of us, and we knew our 50 cents would ensure they survived the day, would we give it to them? If so, why does it matter if they're in the next town over?

Again my point is that each of us makes those decisions through our own complex lens. I know people with laptop computers and smart phones who feel they are poor. I know people with no electronic items at all, no electricity, and an outhouse in their back yard who still share portions of their food and supplies with the less fortunate. We all make these decisions every day, and the book does a great job of delving into how complex they can be.

My review comments are primarily about the electronic transfer of this novel. There are no paragraph indents, many misspellings, and overall poor copy editing, particularly near the end.

Regarding the novel itself, I can only imagine what this story would have been like in the hands of a more competent writer. It is a testament to the fundamental bones of this story that, in spite of Dreiser's almost singular heavy-handedness, the moral elements shine through the leadenness of Dreiser's language. No doubt shocking in its day, the contemporary reader cannot help but think, "get on with it already," but Dreiser doesn't get on.

A great classic delivered in fine condition. What's not to like in the story of a petulant, albeit, unlucky, protagonist, who is a small-time opportunist and shallow womanizer, and becomes a lukewarm murderer? A fine picture of materialistic America.

Impressive book who a few years ago inspired Woody Allen for his movie Match Point; although it may not strike you as you read it the general plot is the same. Knowing that Dreiser himself was inspired by Crime and Chatiment, from who you know........well it certainly makes you want to read it, don't it?

Dreiser may not be a poetic wordsmith, but his work encompasses themes that are at the heart of American culture and life. It's not the idiosyncratic, navel-gazing style of contemporary American fiction.

I'm from Cortland County, where the story evolved. The sister of the drowned girl was my mother's friend, a Mrs. Johnson later from DeRuyter NY. I actually have the old Cortland Standard that headlined the tragedy when it occurred!! And, in1953, I got married at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks where she (Grace Brown) was drowned, and we stayed at Roy Higbee's Lodge there... Roy's son is the one who fished Grace's body out of the lake. Wow ... am I excited about this story, and the movie as well!

Loved the film with Monty Cliff, Liz Taylor and Shelly Winters so very much thought I'd enjoy reading the original. Found Dreiser's writing ploding, dated and difficult to follow. Character development was slow and shallow. Film writers did a fabulous job making such a remarkable landmark film based on this writing. Sorry, watch the movie!

Interesting content but many adjectives and wordy distracting from the plot. I read it prior to seeing the movie so as to have better understanding of the position of the author. Plan a lot of time to complete this book. Lots of obscure and interesting vocabulary.

Good historical material both in subject and style of writing. However, the author fails to say in a simple sentence what can be said in very verbose and complex one. Now I know why I didn't finish it when I was in High School.I am much more patient now.

As the story unfolds, almost like a Greek Tragedy, we are immersed into the lives of the characters, and the issues of that day- that are prevelant even today. While the first book unfolds and reads more slowly, due to the wordiness of the writing, the second half addresses the character flaws, the moral, social and religious issues, that make this a true "American Tragedy" and one of the great books of the 20th Century.

Very long winded novel but with very modern themes: pre marital sex, out of wedlock pregnancy, abortion, greed, social climbing, criminal prosecution and the death penalty. Just wished it was shorter.

Humorless, scary, and Dreiser like cold case story with semi-proslytizing(sp), yet overall, after a few hiccups, enjoyable read. Vivid enough that lately, when I am near a lake, I imagine the pivotal scene in the novel.

The story line was excellent and well done, but the book was much too "wordy"--it often rambled on for pages without much purpose. In general I enjoyed the psychological aspects, but would have preferred a shorter book.

So hard to read. Pages and pages of monotonous religious tracts and descriptions. I struggled, really struggled to make it through but I was curious to find out how it ended.
I will go now and research what I must be missing and why this is considered a classic.

It took me 10+ months to finish this book. Dreiser was wordy and irritating for most of it, but it did touch on the human condition (for his time) pretty well. I would not recommend this book, however.

I chose this book simply because it was on Modern Library's 100 Greatest books of the 20th century list. I knew nothing about the author and from the title and the summary on the back, knew only that probably something bad would happen. This is the way to read the book.

People have said that it is overly long or wordy. It may seem like this in the beginning, but even at this part the book is not boring or dry. It is the story of a boy growing and maturing at this point, and it is precisely this personal growth (in detail) that makes the book so powerful. You, as the reader, become one with the protagonist because you have witnessed his entire life.

The preface in the version I read said something to the effect that the story builds slowly like a tsunami, finally striking you with all that built-up force. I am a 29 year old male who does not often cry, and I was in tears for the last hour of this book. After finishing I looked at myself in the mirror and I was shaking and my eyes were completely bloodshot. My only thought was what a terrible book that was, and why anyone would write something like this.

I read a lot of the supposed "best books" like the ones on the Modern Library list, and this is the most immediately powerful novel I have ever read.

In 1906, there were two infamous murder cases that everyone was talking about. One was the murder of Stanford White on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden, a case that was briefly mentioned in this novel. The Thaw trail was actually called “The Trial of the Century” by the newspapers of the day. E. L. Doctorow later featured the case in his novel Ragtime. The other trial was the murder of factory-girl Grace Brown, nicknamed Billy, by Chester Gillette at a secluded lake resort in the Adirondeck Mountains. Theodore Dreiser based his famous novel, An American Tragedy, on the Brown murder.

Ironically, another famous murder of the 20th century was the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson. Her estranged and jealous husband, O.J. Simpson, was acquitted in the criminal trial, but found guilty in a civil trial related to the case.

Dreiser wasn’t trying to chronicle the case, but rather get into the mind of a murderer. All of the names were changed (the two principles in the novel were Clyde Griffiths and Roberta Alden), and some situations were altered, too. Gillette attended and dropped out of Oberlin College before heading to work with his uncle, while Clyde learned early life lessons as a bellhop at the posh Hotel Green-Davidson in downtown Kansas City. But both the character and the person were low-level managers at a textile factory in Upstate New York. The town was named Lycurgus in the novel, but the real-life factory was located in Cortland, maybe a 1/2 hour drive south of Syracuse on I-81.

Social class is an important component of the novel, and it was discussed endlessly during the Age of Capitalism and the Progressive Era in the United States. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy was a best-selling novel of the era because the story proposed a way to eradicate class distinctions. But the real-life case might have had less to do with social classes then the old story of real-life issues overwhelming the ties of a casual relationship. There was no Sondra Finchley in the real-life case.

Reading an 856-page novel can be a chore, but this story has extra attractions that make the job fun. You can find plenty of information on the internet about the real-life case, to help you explore the differences between Dreiser’s Roaring Twenties-based novel and the case of Chester & Billy. There was also a great movie made on the novel in 1951, called A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. All three versions of the story are interesting in their own ways, and they build on each other. You’ll get something different from the novel once you read it after watching the movie. You’ll get something different from the movie once you watch it after reading the details of the actual case. And so on.

One complaint that I have heard about the novel is that Book One doesn’t add much to the story. But Book One is only 146 pages in length; it sets the background to the story; and it is the only part of the novel where the location becomes a character in the story. Here, the location is a unique one -- Kansas City in the Roaring Twenties.

I picked up this novel recently for a book discussion at the Inwood branch of the New York Public Library. The discussion was fantastic, where one hour discussion seemed like a New York minute. This powerful story has legions of fans, and it was the energy of those patrons inspired by the story that drove the discussion.

*Spoilers*

*Spoilers*

What would shape a young man to commit murder? How did he get to that point? An American Tragedy is a case study of one such man, Clyde Griffiths. Dreiser attempts to answer these questions by describing Clyde's family upbringing, his poverty, his lack of education, and his overwhelming desire for wealth. You learn that Clyde essentially grew up with no moral guidance. Both his dad and mom failed to have any real presence in his life. While you never condone Clyde's actions, you can understand them.

The novel is divided into three books. I was captivated by Book I and Book II, which ends with poor Roberta Alden's murder. Unfortunately, I found Book III virtually unreadable as it recounts Clyde's bumbling attempts to deny his guilt and his final days facing the death penalty. By the end, he experiences a religious conversion. I skimmed to the end and concluded Dreiser should've wrapped up his story quicker.

I do recommend the film adaptation directed by Josef Von Sternberg (1931). The actors Sylvia Sydney, Phillips Holmes, and Frances Dee were perfectly cast and I kept imagining them while reading the book. However, just as the final third of the book lagged, so does the film.

Dreiser is one my favorite authors. While frequently mocked by critics for his sometimes clumsy prose, Dreiser is in fact a great storyteller. Wordsmithing is, after all, a means to and end; and when it comes to telling a riveting tale with an emotional punch, not many do it better than Dreiser.

The hero, Clyde Griffiths, is a tragic figure on many levels. First and foremost he's seduced by the lure of the American dream of social and financial success that is always just outside his reach. While Dreiser layers the story with a great deal of moral and legal ambiguity as to Griffiths' motivation, there is little question that he is legally and morally responsible for the death of his girl friend. He's not the monster lampooned by the prosecutor, but he is legally responsible for a lesser degree of homicide -- he should probably not be convicted of capital murder, but his legal as well as moral sins are grave.

More interesting is the extent to which Griffiths is symptomatic of a larger social problem of American materialism unanchored by any moral code. Yet, Dreiser makes Griffiths, despite all his weaknesses and failings, a sympathetic figure. The passages where Griffiths is portrayed as the outsider looking in on the security and success of others are very moving. Most Americans can identify with him. Also very moving is the pathos of his suffering mother at the end of the book, and Griffiths' attempt to find some solace in religion. But Dreiser is very clever here as well -- Griffiths' conversion is tepid indeed. One wonders whether, if he were released, anything would be truly different with him.

Dreiser is very concerned about the power individuals hold over others as a result of their social and financial position. His writing is a raw and unflattering portrait of the power realities of American culture -- and is very effectively done.

This is one of the great American novels of the Twentieth Century.