dreiser, theodore

Diary of the American writer's travels through the Soviet Union in 1927-28, revealing his impressions, discussions, and dialogues with leading Soviet citizens including Bukharin and Eisenstein.

Examination of Theodore Dreiser's writings arguing that his life is woven into his novels and placing Dreiser at the brink of the naturalist tradition.

Literary Masterpieces is one series of the trio that makes up the Gale Study Guides to Great Literature (the others are Literary Topics and Literary Masters). Each Literary Masterpieces volume chooses a book by one of the authors covered in Literary Masters and offers a discussion of themes, characters, comparisons with social events of the era when the book was written and a critical analysis. Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, written in 1900, broke with the tradition of the time of sentimental romance in favor of a realistic approach. The novel shocked its publisher, the critics and the public with its themes of the rejected family, the struggle against poverty, the desire for wealth, the illusion of limitless opportunity and the conflict between personal desire and conventional restraint. In many ways, Carrie's story anticipates the radical change in social values that took place in twentieth-century America.

Literary Masters is one series of the trio that makes up the Gale Study Guides to Great Literature (the others are Literary Masterpieces and Literary Topics). Each Literary Masters volume introduces a significant author and covers basic biographical information. Theodore Dreiser grew up in dysfunctional family with an overly strict, religious father and a mother who could always find "the silver lining". As a result, many of Dreiser's novels signal the diminished role of religious belief among most Americans at the time (1911-1940).

Presents the 1925 novel about Clyde Griffiths, an impoverished young man whose dreams of self-betterment lead him to commit a horrible murder.