Dec 25, 2009

An American Tragedy | Critical Overview

At every moment from the publication of An American Tragedy to the present, the novel has had both staunch supporters and vocal detractors. Consistently, supporters have noted the importance of the novel's themes and the power of the story, while detractors have criticized the philosophy that underlies the story and the author's prose style.

When An American Tragedy debuted in 1925, it was a bestseller and a critical success. Even some critics who had panned Dreiser's previous novels praised this one. Stuart Sherman was a critic of the New Humanism school, which held...