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 Balzac. Much of Dreiser 's preeminence follows from his achievement of a mature and consistent viewpoint from which, in all of his important fiction, life may be observed, analyzed, and judged. For Dreiser 's central characters, life is unrelenting struggle; the prizes of material success are its paramount goal. Dreiser 's favorite metaphor for this struggle, one often reiterated in his novels, pictures life as a walled city where power sits entrenched--against its proud gates a newcomer may pound in vain for admission. Most aspirants fail to gain entry. Those enduring few whose siege of the walled city does not end in self-exhaustion find that victory is won at immense cost, is never total, and remains forever ephemeral. Thus life...