The greatest American novel of the twentieth century.
Named one of The Atlantic‘s Great American Novels, Dreiser’s 1925 masterpiece captures the dark side of ambition and class in America. A young man torn between love and social climbing makes a choice that leads to tragedy—unflinching, psychologically complex, and devastatingly relevant today.
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One of The Atlantic‘s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Some books capture a moment. Others define an entire era. Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 masterpiece does both—offering a searing examination of ambition, class, and the dark underbelly of the American dream that feels as urgent today as it did nearly a century ago.
Inspired by a real murder case that captivated the nation, An American Tragedy follows Clyde Griffiths, a young man born into poverty who glimpses a different life when his wealthy uncle offers him work at a shirt factory. What begins as opportunity soon becomes entrapment. Clyde finds himself caught between Roberta, the earnest factory worker who loves him, and Sondra, the dazzling socialite who represents everything he’s ever wanted. When Roberta announces her pregnancy, Clyde’s carefully constructed future begins to crumble—and he conceives a plan that will lead to devastating consequences.
This is Dreiser at his finest: unflinching, psychologically complex, and deeply humane even as he chronicles moral collapse. The novel’s influence echoes through American literature and cinema—most notably in the acclaimed 1951 film A Place in the Sun starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor.
More than a crime story, this is an essential American novel that asks uncomfortable questions about desire, social mobility, and the price we’re willing to pay for acceptance. Dreiser’s prose pulls you into Clyde’s world with such intimacy that you’ll find yourself understanding—if not condoning—each fateful choice.
A landmark work that belongs on every serious reader’s shelf.
The greatest American novel of the twentieth century.
An American Tragedy is the greatest American novel I have ever read... It is at the same time chilling and compassionate, meticulously factual and yet visionary, at once a human document and a work of art.
One of the great American novels, An American Tragedy is a work of tremendous force, with characters who live and breathe.
Dreiser's great novel... is as moving and contemporary today as when it was first published in 1925.
An American Tragedy is not just the greatest of all American novels, but one of the most ambitious undertakings in all of world literature.
An American Tragedy is the work that Dreiser was born to write... It is a masterpiece.
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