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Title details for An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser - Available

An American Tragedy

by Theodore Dreiser
ebook
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This epic of class, ambition, and murder in the early twentieth century is “[a] masterpiece…America’s Crime and Punishment” (Kirkus Reviews).
 
Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy is the story of a weak-willed young man who is both a villain and a victim of the valueless, materialistic society around him. Inspired by the true story of an early twentieth-century murder and adapted into a classic film under the title A Place in the Sun, An American Tragedy follows Clyde Griffiths as he is drawn into a circle of wealthy friends despite his own poverty-stricken background. Leaving the needs of his family behind as he buys expensive presents to impress a rich girl, Clyde finds that his new life leads him into a tragedy born of recklessness. Yet he continues to yearn ambitiously for money and status—a desire that will be his downfall.
 
“Dreiser is widely regarded as the strongest of the novelists who have written about America as a business civilization. No one else confronted so directly the sheer intractability of American social life and institutions.”—The New Yorker 
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Publisher: RosettaBooks

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780795311512
  • Release date: September 24, 2002

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780795311512
  • File size: 3646 KB
  • Release date: September 24, 2002

Formats

OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Classic Literature Fiction Literature Mystery

Languages

English

Levels

ATOS Level:8.5
Lexile® Measure:1170
Interest Level:9-12(UG)
Text Difficulty:7-9

This epic of class, ambition, and murder in the early twentieth century is “[a] masterpiece…America’s Crime and Punishment” (Kirkus Reviews).
 
Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy is the story of a weak-willed young man who is both a villain and a victim of the valueless, materialistic society around him. Inspired by the true story of an early twentieth-century murder and adapted into a classic film under the title A Place in the Sun, An American Tragedy follows Clyde Griffiths as he is drawn into a circle of wealthy friends despite his own poverty-stricken background. Leaving the needs of his family behind as he buys expensive presents to impress a rich girl, Clyde finds that his new life leads him into a tragedy born of recklessness. Yet he continues to yearn ambitiously for money and status—a desire that will be his downfall.
 
“Dreiser is widely regarded as the strongest of the novelists who have written about America as a business civilization. No one else confronted so directly the sheer intractability of American social life and institutions.”—The New Yorker 
Expand title description text
Classic Literature Fiction Literature Mystery
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