An American Tragedy in 2 Volumes

Clyde Griffiths, «a typical young American with a typical American outlook on life», the nephew of wealthy industrialist Samuel Griffiths, is striving to establish himself in high society at any cost. He begins a romance with his cousin's friend, 17-year-old Sondra Finchley, — a wealthy heiress of another local manufacturer, beautiful, spoiled, and narcissistic representative of the «golden youth» of the city. Burdened by his ongoing love affair with the simple factory worker Roberta Alden, Clyde decides to end his relationship with her in one blow — which will prove fatal for himself...
«An American Tragedy» (1925) — based on real events, a criminal-judicial story, a psychological drama, and at the same time a harsh rebuke of the «American Dream» — became the most famous novel by Theodore Dreiser and the plot basis for several feature films: from the classic Hollywood adaptations by Joseph von Sternberg (1931) and George Stevens (1951) to a loose interpretation in «Match Point» (2005) by Woody Allen.