American Tragedy was a "real" tragedy

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	• An American Tragedy (Signet Classics) Theodore Dreiser Signet Classics, 2000 - 880 pages average customer review:based on 102 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

American psyche

In the summer of 1906 a young factory worker died of drowning in mid-state New York. Shortly thereafter her boyfriend (and the father of her unborn child) was arrested and placed on trial for murder -- the first of the 20th Century's many trials of the century. This pathetic story was exploited by Theodore Dreiser as the basis of his 1925 novel "An American Tragedy". Vastly popular throughout the decades, it has been made into a play, two movies, and now an opera at the Metropolitan. At 800 pages and without a scintilla of humor, "An American Tragedy" is not exactly an easy read, but it does present a realistic (and disapproving) look at the sadder aspects of American life. Poor but ambitious, Clyde Griffiths leaves his holy-roller family to get ahead in the big cities, but instead he gets into big trouble, fleeing from a big city after being involved in the hit-and-run killing of a child. While working as a bell hop, he meets his father's affluent brother, a clothing manufacturer from Lycurgus, NY. (Lycurgus was Dreiser's fictional version of Cortland, where the real tragedy took place.) Accepting a job in his uncle's factory, Clyde meets a co-worker, the shy farm girl Roberta, and eventually they become lovers. In the meantime Clyde has ingratiated himself with his cousins and their crowd, including the vivacious debutante Sondra, who at first finds Clyde amusing, then increasingly attractive. (Clyde, one of his buddies assures him, has "the goods".) Conflict occurs when Roberta becomes pregnant and, attempts at abortion failing, it is mandatory that Clyde marry her, meaning that all his dreams of Sondra and society are to end. Dreiser's attitude towards Clyde is almost clinical: he doesn't condemn his central character, but he doesn't solicit the reader's sympathy either. As it is, sympathy for Clyde is difficult, if only because he has such a dreary sense of values. His idea of success is living in a "swell" house, and the society he admires is hopelessly shallow. Sondra and her friends play tennis and cards, and that's just about it. Never once do they discuss political or artistic issues. It seems young bears can't utter a sentence without including "Gee"; and flappers, according to Dreiser, were addicted to baby-talk, an affectation that gets tiresome really fast. Dreiser had his own affectations, indulging in a dark detailed style (Funk & Wagnalls calls it "plodding") that indicates a relentlessly pessimistic outlook for his characters. This is partly due to his contempt for their capitalistic ambitions. (Dreiser was a card-carrying Communist, which may explain why he was one of the most popular American authors in the U.S.S.R.) But aside from that, Dreiser indulges in literary gimmicks that can be distracting. E.g., about the time of Roberta's death on the lake, Dreiser begins each sentence with the connective "and". Meant to be ominous, it's actually annoying. But for all its distractions, "An American Tragedy" is a powerful indictment of the great American illusion; and, as such, it's a fascinating piece of fiction.

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Compelling and unforgetable

I read this book almost 20 years ago. It still sticks with me today, and every so often the story pops back into my head. I've read so many books, I don't know why this one seems to stand out among a very few books that stay with me, but it does.

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A distinctly American classic

I was inspired to read Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy after recently seeing Woody Allen's film Match Point (2005); I was struck by the similarity of that film to George Stevens' 1951 film A Place in the Sun, and was humbled by the fact that I'd never read the Dreiser classic (though I'm an avid reader). So I started reading the novel...and couldn't put it down, I was entranced from first page to last.

Because I was so familiar with the story, I focused much of my attention on what was distinctly "American" about the tale and it soon became clear that this is an incisive examination of American society, as seen through the eyes of a naive, simple and easily dazzled young man. Clyde Griffiths is constantly seeking that American "dream," a mirage of wealth, social acceptability and sexual gratification. But those other forces in American society--class and religion--constantly serve to thwart and even confuse Clyde, leading inexorably to the tragedy of the murder and Clyde's own fate. It is a gripping, profoundly moving and often-times oppressive journey, but a richly rewarding one for the reader.

One other comment I would like to make concerns the character of Roberta; in A Place in the Sun and especially in Match Point, the female victim of the murder plot is portrayed as an initially appealing character who turns into a nagging shrew, so that her death, oddly, is seen as something of a relief. The great power of Dreiser is that he does not sink to such a level of castigating the character of Roberta--she remains, throughout, a complex but mostly sympathetic character; indeed, when the fateful boat trip finally comes to pass, one reads with dread and sorrow, and not a little bit of abject horror.

An American Tragedy is a must-read for any student of American literature and culture.

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American Tragedy was a "real" tragedy

I read several reviews of this book. I myself read it many years ago, and remember the story quite vividly. It is a fascinating read and really brought you into the characters lives. But all of the reviews I have read have referred to it as fictional (and one mentioned that it seemed so real that you could imagine it was a real story). Don't most people know that it was, indeed, a real story? Yes, the names and places have been changed, but Dreiser's American Tragedy is based on an event that occurred in upstate New York in the early 1900's. Clyde is based on the life of Chester Gillette, who was the son of religious zealots, and his relationship with Grace Brown, a girl he met while working in his uncle's shirt factory in or around Herkimer, New York.
Chester wanted nothing more than to be accepted by the upper class, but when Grace, a commoner, became pregnant, and demanded that he marry her, his dreams were shattered. In the end, Grace ends up at the bottom of a lake. In truth, the lake was Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks of New York State. Chester never does admit to his guilt, but one can gather from his lack of defense of himself, that he was indeed guilty. The real story is actually a book titled Murder In The Adirondacks.
It too is a fascinating read, and most definitely, a true story.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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