Dreiser, Theodore, An American Tragedy, Signet Classic, 2000.

Dreiser's 1925 novel, which traces the rise and fall of a poor boy striving to attain a position in the upper reaches of society, shows the struggle between the dazzling effects of transitory things upon the character of a young man who has lost a sense of eternally determined virtue.

Kushner, Tony, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Theatre Communications Group, 1993-1994.

In his two-part, six-hour-long drama, Kushner shows the effect of AIDS on his characters' sense of the value of the transient world: AIDS makes that world more desirable and natural phenomena all the more ravishing. He also confronts a search for an eternal meaning beyond transitory experience, with insight into the value of life itself.

Ruskin, John, “The White-Thorn Blossom,” in The Genius of John Ruskin, edited by John D. Rosenberg, Houghton Mifflin, 1963.

Ruskin's...