An American Tragedy.

DREISER, Theodore.

Item Number: 117542

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925.

Signed limited first editions of Dreiser’s epic tragedy. Octavo, 2 volumes, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine, original slipcase. In very good condition. Housed in the rare original slipcase.

Based on a notorious 1906 criminal case, Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy tells the story of the ambitious, handsome, yet ill-educated Clyde Griffiths and his gradual descent. A tragedy in the strictest sense, Clyde's destruction begins with seduction and ends with a death sentence. The novel has been adapted several times for film, stage and radio, although not always attributed. Critics and commentators have compared elements of Woody Allen's film, Match Point (2005), to the central plot of the novel as well as the 1951 Paramount Pictures film A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens and starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters. Listed by Modern Library as one of 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century.