An American Tragedy, V. 1
The novel that defined America's dark dream. Clyde Griffiths is born into poverty, the son of street preachers whose ragged hymns barely keep the family fed in Kansas City. But Clyde has seen another America, the gleaming hotels and wealthy young people whose lives seem painted in light. He wants that life with a hunger that will consume him. When he lands a job at a wealthy man's mansion, he begins his ascent, but the America that seduces him is also the America that will destroy him. Based on a real murder case, Dreiser's masterpiece traces how a young man shaped by poverty and driven by wanting becomes the architect of his own catastrophe. This is not just one man's tragedy. It is the tragedy of a society that promises everything and delivers only the hungry ghost of desire. Raw, uncompromising, and devastating in its compassion, An American Tragedy remains the definitive American novel about class, aspiration, and the fatal cost of wanting more.
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“what matter it if a man gaineth the whole world and loseth his own soul?””
— Theodore Dreiser
“Who were these people with money, and what had they done that they should enjoy so much luxury, where others as good seemingly as themselves had nothing? And wherein did these latter differ so greatly from the successful?””
— Theodore Dreiser
“She turned; she bruised under her heel the scaly head of this dark suspicion-as terrifying to her as his guilt was to him. 'O Absalom, my Absalom! Come, come, we will not entertain such a thought. God himself would not urge it upon a mother.””
— Theodore Dreiser
“She merely beamed a fatty beam. She was almost ponderous, and pink, with a tendency to a double chin.””
— Theodore Dreiser
“...the past was so painful at any point. It seared and burned.””
— Theodore Dreiser
“What a wretched thing it was to be born poor and not to have any one to do anything for you and not to be able to do so very much for yourself!””
— Theodore Dreiser
“For these local families of distinction were convinced that not only one's family but one's wealth was the be-all and end-all of every happy union meant to include social security. And in consequence, while considering Clyde as one who was unquestionably eligible socially, still, because it had been whispered about that his means were very slender, they were not inclined to look upon him as one who might aspire to marriage with any of their daughters.””
— Theodore Dreiser
“It was that old mass yearning for a likeness in all things that troubled them, and him.””
— Theodore Dreiser
“And they were always testifying as to how God or Christ or Divine Grace had rescued them from this or that predicament”
— Theodore Dreiser
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read An American Tragedy, V. 1 by Theodore Dreiser free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read An American Tragedy, V. 1 by Theodore Dreiser free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802Cite this book
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Dreiser, Theodore. An American Tragedy, V. 1. Lex, lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802.Dreiser, T. (n.d.). An American Tragedy, V. 1. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802Dreiser, Theodore. An American Tragedy, V. 1. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/an-american-tragedy-v-1-0f9acc1c-a8f2-443f-ad14-dbd8a5836802.
