Other Fiction Dreiser, Theodore: The Financier. v1. 26 Dec 08

[Dr. Drib]

A work of genius. This and the novel "An American Tragedy," ranks up there with the best American literature of the early 20th Century.

Here's what one reviewer wrote:

"Theodore Dreiser writes a towering novel in The Financier. It would be a grave oversimplification to state that this is a novel about "business". Rather, he is among the very first American writers that dealt with realism. Frank North [sic] was certainly another. Between them they mark an inflection point in writing. They wrote about the world as they saw it, somewhat akin to journalism. They didn't mind, but rather relished, getting "dirty" in the world of commerce. Men toiled in this world - why not write about it and the troubles and ethical delimas created therein?

"This work is about a man's drive, his inability to satisfy himself, relationship destruction, identity loss and society. It demonstrates in very real terms how high one can climb and then fall. It is a book that deals with ethics and ponders about whether needs can ever be truly met by the most driven.

"This book clearly belongs up there with the great ones. It shows a writing style and a mind of a genius. It also began to set the pace for some great writing in the 20th Century."

The author Nelson Algren had this to say about Theodore Dreiser's work:

"At the height of his success, when he had settled old scores and could easily have become the smiling public man, he chose instead to rip the whole fabric of American civilization straight down the middle, from its economy to its morality. It was the country that had to give ground." (Nelson Algren, in Nation, 16 May, 1959)

Like all the books I assemble on MobileRead, this too was assembled to reflect human intervention and artistic judgment.

I hope you enjoy it.

Don

NOTE: This is actually the first book of a trilogy, of which the other two I will attempt to make available. This novel, however, can be read on its own.

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