An American Tragedy Summary
Theodore Dreiser

Biography EssayHenry David Thoreau, Living Thoughts of Thoreau, selected, with an introduction, by Dreiser (New York: Longmans, Green, 1938). Theodore Dreiser is one of the most significant and most... Read more

Theodore Dreiser now seems securely established as the principal American novelist in the tradition of naturalistic fiction, which includes his European counterparts Emile Zola and Honoré de B... Read more

Although Theodore Dreiser--generally considered the foremost writer in the tradition of American literary naturalism--is principally important as a novelist, he made a significant contribution to the ... Read more

In the following essay, St. Jean explores how a deconstructionist approach to Dreiser's An American Tragedy illuminates his focus on the relativism of truth in the novel. Of all major aspect... Read more

In the following essay, Mitchell examines An American Tragedy as a deterministic novel in which repetition forces the characters to submit to events beyond their control. The death of Roberta Alden... Read more

In the following essay, Plank traces the nonfiction sources of An American Tragedy. In the early 1930s a series of events led Theodore Dreiser to write several articles explaining the historical ba... Read more

In the following essay, Pizer discusses the ways in which Dreiser's naturalism in An American Tragedy compliments the naturalism in Edith Warton's The Age of Innocence. Naturalism has... Read more

In the following essay, Guest explores the ways in which Dreiser raised questions about the nature of criminal responsibility in An American Tragedy. Twenty-six years after the publication of Frank... Read more

In the following review, Phelps dismisses An American Tragedy as a second-rate novel, concluding "I cannot believe that this work, hampered by such clumsy composition, will be read in the next ... Read more

In the following essay, Farrell contends that it is the loss of American values and an uncaring society that represent evil in An American Tragedy. Dreiser seems to have thought for years about the... Read more

In the following essay, Orlov posits that, despite Dreiser's well-known devotion to literary naturalism, An American Tragedy is actually anti-naturalistic in its treatment of the idea of the in... Read more

In the following essay, Hakutani discusses the influence of An American Tragedy on Richard Wright's crime novel Black Boy, noting similarities in the two writers' views of crime and puni... Read more