For nearly eighty years, Dreiser’s novel, written in 1900, was only available in a basically censored version. The Pennsylvania Edition goes back to his original manuscript and presents this tale of a young woman, on her own, and the two men who love her as the author intended. Why was this American classic not published in its original form? Because Dreiser’s wife and his friend Arthur Henry, along with the publisher, felt it was filled with too much sex and was too dark. With that in mind, the reader of this version must remember that the novel was written in 1900 and given our norms of today, seeking the lurid sexuality which was censored (by the author at the instance of the publisher, his wife and friend) will be hard pressed to find anything to stimulate the senses.
This excellent novel will give the reader an excellent idea of Chicago in 1900; a time of rapid growth and opportunity, when job seekers with no skills could find work which would give them some skills, when many of those same workers could be exploited by their employers and a time of a strict moral code. In this time, two men love a young woman who gradually learns the ways of the world. One of the men will leave and survive, the other will be destroyed. In effect, this is the American version of a novel by Balzac or Zola who so outraged the staid establishment of their time. Even though the United States has a First Amendment and did not have a national censor as in France, given the time, the novel in its original form would have created a major furor.
The characters are well developed, and one can sense the emotions as they progress through the novel. I first read this novel forty years ago and probably once a decade, I re-read it, picking up more from each reading. It is though, a melancholy book and the reader should be prepared at the end, to set the novel aside and put one’s emotions back in order. You will also find that the human condition has not changed very much over the past one hundred plus years.
