Joseph Griffin
Published: 1985
Total Pages: 188
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This is the first book-length study of Dreiser's short fiction oeuvre, comprising 31 stories. These include those collected in Free and Other Stories and Chains, and five uncollected ones. Most of them deal with the theme of success in American life and dramatize the excessive preoccupation with success, and the psychological tension experienced. Arguing for a serious consideration of Drieser, the novelist, as a skillful writer of short fiction, Griffin begins with an examination of Dreiser's theory of the short story and the circumstances that turned his interest away from newspaper work and toward artistic expression. He analyzes the publication and compositional history of each story and early reviews, and sets forth the layer patterns of theme and imagery unifying them. ISBN 0-8386-3217-5: $24.50.