An America Tragedy Author:Theodore Drieser On one level,"An American Tragedy" is the story of the corruption and destruction of one man, Clyde Griffiths, who forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, however, the novel represents a massive portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's tawdry ambitions and seal his fate: it is an unsu... more »rpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and the dark side of the American Dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, "An American Tragedy" stands as the supreme achievement of a write who ranks, in the words of Irving Howe, "among the American giants, one of the very few American giants we have had." As Mr. Howe goes on to declare: "Reading "An American Tragedy" again...I have found myself greatly moved and shaken by its repeated onslaughts of narrative, its profound immersion in human suffering, its dredging up of those shapeless desires which lie, as if in fever, just below the plane of consciousness....It is a masterpiece, nothing less."« less