Conventions

Theodore Dreiser gained fame as a great novelist, but his literary legacy also includes several dozen stories in which the author's talent unfolded to its full potential. Dreiser managed to package ideas worthy of a larger form into a compact format, fully revealing the theme, deeply working out the characters' personalities, and showing their inner experiences.
Among the skyscrapers of New York and in the backwater towns of the Midwest, Dreiser's heroes attempt to break free from poverty or achieve high social status, to liberate themselves from societal pressure or burdensome relationships, to resolve the moral dilemmas or conflicts with others that arise before them, but time and again they are unable to break free from the chains that bind their circumstances.
This edition includes "Conventions," "The Trap," "Old Rogham and His Teresa," and other stories from the collections "Liberation" (1918) and "Chains" (1927).