Based on a real-life murder case, An American Tragedy is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who longs to escape the impoverished life of his fanatically religious parents and achieve financial and social success. On a more profound level, the novel is a masterful portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's ambitions and seal his wretched fate; it is an unsurpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and of the dark side of the American dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, An American Tragedy stands as Theodore Dreiser's supreme achievement.