American Tragedy, An (Signet Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

For one to wade through Theodore Dreiser's 856 pages of stilted prose, he has to truly appreciate a good crime story. Far from merely a fictional account of an unspeakable crime and a classic of American literature, An American Tragedy pioneers the naturalist literary movement of the early 20th century while heralding the arrival of two well-recognized features on today's fine arts landscape - the psychological thriller and the courtroom drama. Simply on the merits of its depth and complexity alone, this novel is a masterpiece.

Liberally bending conventions in both grammar and sentence structure, Dreiser writes as if slowly and methodically peeling back the layers of an onion. Particularly in his development of the story's central character, Clyde Griffiths, the author's detailed and meticulous portraiture leaves little to the reader's imagination. He commits countless words to thoroughly evolving his characters. Further, despite the occasional lengthy and overly elaborate passage, Dreiser adroitly paces his work. His prose only bogs down when he ambitiously plumbs the thoughts of his characters and deconstructs those thoughts as a psychotherapist would those of his patient.

We are treated to the consummate bad actor in Griffiths - an immature, selfish, and morally impoverished cad given to endless rationalizing around what should be his in a life with pathetically humble beginnings. When confronted with the specter of social ruin and life without the beautiful, self-absorbed, and socially ascendant Sondra Finchley, he behaves irrationally and murders his sweet and innocent sprite of a lover, Roberta Alden. His actions are those of a cold-blooded killer. We readers are privy to Griffiths' every thought as he carefully ponders Roberta's murder and how he might avoid suspicion.

By contrast, there is Roberta, the product of a hard-working, God-fearing but luckless farm family. Dreiser portrays this family beautifully, and we realize that it was probably on the backs of families just like the Aldens that much of the Adirondack region of upstate New York was built. A tragic figure to be sure, Roberta dares to dream of a life of marital bliss with Griffiths but her love for him goes unrequited. Pregnant and alone, she is instead manipulated by her one-time lover. Perhaps wishfully believing that he only desires to be temporally free of her but is still disposed to do the honorable through marriage, she underestimates Griffiths' treachery. Sadly, she is guilty only of a poignant naivete, a breathtaking ignorance to the ways of a sometimes harsh and cruel world.

Griffiths' ham-handed bumbling in carrying out premeditated murder is only to be rivaled by his feeble attempt at a cover-up. He is eventually tried, convicted and executed - his life but an asterisk not on the social register to which he aspires, but on the rolls of the criminally culpable. A reptile masquerading as a human being - a caricature, really - Griffiths' character (based on that of Chester Gillette, the real-life perpetrator of this crime) meets a fate that, ironically, he so assiduously endeavors to avoid. Friendless, penniless and irretrievably lost to the forces of Evil, Griffiths tragically implodes, his life ending in ignominy and disgrace.

Its unparalleled depth defines An American Tragedy, listed by Time magazine in its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 list. A multi-leveled latticework of themes that includes everything from Freudian psychoanalytic theory to the ills of capitalism and its attendant social climbing in early Industrial America, this epic novel reminds me why I love great literature. One really has to consider carefully what Dreiser imparts. The author's style, characterized as much by rich metaphor as it is by lengthy, impossibly creative 'sentences', held my attention from cover to cover. Of Griffiths' inexplicable behavior Dreiser writes,

"There are moments when in connection with the sensitively imaginative or morbidly anachronistic - the mentality assailed and the same not of any great strength and the problem confronting it of sufficient force and complexity - the reason not actually toppling from its throne, still totters or is warped or shaken - the mind befuddled to the extent that for the time being, at least, unreason and disorder and mistaken or erroneous counsel would appear to hold against all else. In such instances the will and courage confronted by some great difficulty which it can neither master nor endure, appears in some to recede in precipitate flight, leaving only panic and temporary unreason in its wake."

Great stuff... and well worth wading through.

Literature at Its American Best!

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!

Loved this book but it is very long. I thought about the length of this book and how I would shorten it but couldn't bear to see anything cut.
This book was the subject of a movie by the same name in 1931 starring Sylvia Sidney as "Bert" and Phillips Holmes as Clyde. I have yet to see this movie but I have read that it stays closer to the original novel than 1951 remake titled "A Place In The Sun" starring Montgomery Clift as Clyde, Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers and Shelly Winters in the role of "Bert" renamed for this movie Alice Tripp. Montgomery Clift was born to play the part of Clyde, renamed in this version George Eastman, one cannot imagine anyone else in the role. Elizabeth Taylor is beautiful and her portrayal of Angela (Sondra Finchley)is compassionate and convincing. However, I found Shelly Winters portral of the Bert character tiresome and heavy handed.
A Place In The Sun departs greatly from the book but is still a Hollywood classic.