An American Tragedy. A Young Man Claws His Way Toward the American Dream and Destroys Someone to Keep It

Clyde Griffiths escapes a poor, religious upbringing and lands in his wealthy uncle's orbit, where money, status, and a glamorous woman all suddenly seem within reach - as long as he can get rid of the pregnant factory girl who's now in his way. Based on a real 1906 murder case, Dreiser builds a slow, relentless case study of ambition curdling into something monstrous, one compromise at a time. A landmark of American literary naturalism - less interested in whether Clyde is guilty than in exactly how an ordinary, insecure young man convinces himself that a monstrous act is the only reasonable option left.