Life and Work of Thedore Dreiser

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Thedore Dreiser

• An American novelist and journalist

• An outstanding representative of American naturalism

Thedore Dreiser

Life

Works

Life

• Family background • Educational experience• Marriage experience

Family Life

• Theodore Dreiser (August 27, 1871-December 28, 1945) was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.

• He was the ninth of ten surviving children (three others died as infants) of Säräh Schanab and John Dreiser.

• Dreiser's childhood coincided with the family's hard times.

John Dreiser

• He was a German immigrant; • He was a catholic farmer.• He treated children severely,

only to make them distant from him.

Säräh Schanab

• She was from a farming community,

• She was illiterate.• She was earnest a christia

n, but disowned for marrying John and converting to Roman Catholicism

Brother and Sisters

• Two of his sisters were seduced.• Paul Dresser was a songwriter.

Educational Experience

• He attended Indiana University but dropped out one year later.

• He was independently reading and thinking

• He graduated from high school and worked on his own.

Before 1889

1889-1890

From 1892

Marriage (love affairs)

• Sara White:She was a school teacher. Their marriage was unhappy. Dreiser separated permanently from her in 1909, but never earnestly sought a divorce.

Thelma Cudlipp

• She was an American artist and book illustrator.

• They exchanged letters with each other until Dreiser's death.

Kyra Markham

• Dreiser lived with her.• She was an actress and painter, and mu

ch younger than him.

Helen Richardson

• She was the cousin of Theodore Dreiser.

• She became his mistress from 1919 until in 1944.

• After his first wife died, she married him.

Works

• Sister Carrie (1900)• Jennie Gerhardt (1911)• The Financier (1912)• The Titan (1914)• The Genius (1915)• An American Tragedy (1925)• Dawn (1931)• The Bulwark (1946)• The Stoic (1947)

Trilogy of Desire

An autobiographical work

• His first novel, Sister Carrie, was published in 1900.

• The book has since acquired a considerable reputation.

• It has been called the "greatest of all American urban novels."

Sister Carrie

An American Tragedy

• His first commercial success was An American Tragedy, published in 1925.

• In 2005, the book was placed on Time Magazine's list of the top 100 novels.

Jennie Gerhardt

• His second novel Jennie Gerhardt , was published in 1911.

• Jennie Gerhardt, the character, was influenced by Dreiser's sisters, Mame and Sylvia.

Plot

• Jennie Gerhard meets Senator George Brander, while working in a hotel. He declares his wish to marry her. Jennie agrees to sleep with him, but Senator dies, leaving her pregnant. She gives birth to a daughter, Vesta.

• She moves to Cleveland where she finds work as a lady's maid. She meets Lester Kane. Jennie falls in love with him.

• Kane wishes to marry her, but his family disapprove. But Kane does not yield to his family's pressure to leave Jennie.

• Kane's father died. He will not inherit a substantial part of the family business unless he discards her.

• Kane, marries Letty and resumes his former social status.

• Kane becomes ill. He tells Jennie he still loves her, and she tends him until his death, mourning secretly at his funeral.

Jennie Gerhardt

Jennie Gerhardt

Senator George Brander

sleep with him

Vesta

Lester Kane

become his mistress

Letty Gerald

get married

Thedore Dreiser

• Dreiser has been a controversial figure in American literary history.

• It is in Dreiser’s works that American naturalism is said to have come of age.

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