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The Titan Theodore Dreiser 9781492292159 Books

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The Titan Theodore Dreiser 9781492292159 Books

Theodore Dreiser clearly was a great writer at the beginning of the 20th Century. He, along with few others, dared challenge conventional writing styles and TD did it quite boldly. Critics have long argued about the merits of his writings - it is for the reader to decide. He is certainly heavy and dense but he had arguments he wanted to make and, rest assured, he made them with a sledgehammer.

The Titan has the same central theme as The Financier with our Mr. Cowperwood out to conquer the world of business and of women of society. The destruction brought to all is readily apparent but the realism brough to the reader, along with a wonderfully unique style of writing is worth the efforts of his works.

I rated this one star lower than The Financier but think whichever is read first is going to be the one the reader prefers. Perhaps his themes wear on one and the second time around (with a third waiting to be read, The Genius)his premise and social and economic criticisms become a bit redundant. That said, if you like one, you are going to like the other. Also, it is great to see nascent protestations of a growing industrial economy and the obvious implications in today's corporate world.

Product details Paperback Publisher Createspace Language English ISBN-10 149229215X

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The Titan Theodore Dreiser 9781492292159 Books Reviews

THE TITAN is Dreiser's sequel to THE FINANCIER, which was about the rise and fall and sudden rise again of Frank Cowperwood, streetcar tycoon of Philadelphia, who at the end of that first volume was leaving Philadelphia with his mistress for Chicago. THE TITAN traces his business success (and personal failings) in Chicago. Through unscrupulous business practices Cowperwood achieves the financial and political power he's always craved, but social acceptance is denied him. He blames this on his beautiful though crude mistress (now wife) Aileen, who adds to her shortcomings by taking to the bottle; their marriage is a disaster, and both have affairs. Cowperwood falls in love with the very young and na?ve Berenice Fleming; seeing herself being pushed off the scene, Aileen attempts suicide. Seeing a chance to seize total control of all the streetcar lines in Chicago, Cowperwood does everything in his power to win the necessary city council approval, but reform groups mobilize and defeat him. He leaves Chicago with Berenice for Europe.

Dreiser's power as a novelist, his left-to-the-jaw, tell-it-like-it-is style captures Cowperwood and the financial dealings of a large city perfectly. His blunt approach was relatively new at the time and offended many readers, but to a modern reader it seems the only way such a story could be related. The novel is sweeping and relentless, and the reader can't help but be caught up in its flow. Although THE TITAN was published only two years after THE FINANCIER, the third volume (THE STOIC) would not appear until another 30 years had passed. Cowperwood's character was based on the real streetcar tycoon Charles T. Yerkes.
The Titan (1914) is a really, really good and original novel for readers who like Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire, as he called it, the second in a series that began with The Financier (Penguin Classics) (1912) and ended with the Stoic (1947). But to me, it's not quite as good as the Financier. Because the Titan loses a bit of the personal in favor of business details. Still, it's so original, interesting, and vintage Dreiser in showing humans as thinking and feeling yes, and also, the animal species homo sapiens, and the acquisitive impulse of wealth accumulation. Dreiser really knows how to pack history, society, and drama into a complex story.

One of my favorite moments of powerful drama in fiction anywhere -- whether politics, business, or gangs -- in the movies, tv, on stage, or in the pages of a novel, is here in the Titan. Frank Cowperwood is based historically on the real-life financier and convicted white collar criminal, Charles Yerkes, who moved from Philadelphia to Chicago in the 1880s. Cowperwood wheels and deals his way into controlling a large share of Chicago's street railway system, as did Yerkes in real life. Cowperwood amasses an empire in transportation through innovation and cunning, and in so doing, he horns in on established business purviews of local notables. He moves in on some of the women in local society too, and leaves some behind.

Eventually, a collection of Cowperwood's financial foes come to feel cornered, belittled, and embarrassed. They whip up a frenzy of indignation and decide to call some loans they're holding to Cowperwood, looking to knock him off his perch and loosen his grip on their city.

Little did they know, Cowperwood had socked away a pile of government bonds in a vault, to cushion himself in the event of just such a financial attack as this. The foes summoned Cowperwood to the firing line. To their surprise, he spoke confidently (p. 425)

"A fine night for a conference, gentlemen,' he said, walking toward a chair indicated by Mr. Arneel. 'I must say I never saw so many straw hats at a funeral before. I understand that my obsequies are contemplated. What can I do?

"He beamed in a genial, sufficient way, which in any one else would have brought a smile to the faces of the company. In him it was an implication of basic power which secretly enraged and envenomed nearly all those present. They merely stirred in a nervous and wholly antagonistic way. A number of those who knew him personally nodded--Merrill, Lawrence, Simms; but there was no friendly light in their eyes.

"Well, gentlemen?' he inquired..." (p. 426)

For the time being, Cowperwood was secure.

It's not so easy to see where moral "right" lies in this chapter. Dreiser puts the question in view, tangled in social trajectories. A mob scene of entitled, local luminaries with money from who knows where, take on an upstart entrepreneurial conquistador, Cowperwood, who also is an art collector, philanthropist, and the story's protagonist who Dreiser portrays empathically and rather neutrally. Cowperwood has shored up the city's transit system, but also, he has seduced a number of women and tries to corrupt the Illinois governor to lock in his railway fortune under state monopoly protection. Whatever the "right," or lack of it, Dreiser shows that "might" -- money, looms large in affairs both public and private.

The Audible.com reading by Stuart Langton is just okay. A European accent or maybe a 1920s attempted upper-crust northeast American accent is way out of place, and the reading too often is stilted. Langton's reading is not terrible, however -- it's just not as good as it could be. I've had the experience of reading this both on paper and listening. Thanks to the novel's contents, excellence comes barreling through either way. I'm apt to read this again someday.
Dreiser is still one of the best American writers.
I returned it immediately. Each page had large blanks spots, making it unreadable. There was no copyright or publisher information, so it certainly looks like an unauthorized copy job. Very surprising that would get involved with selling books like this.
The book is good! But very small font;(
A little slow going in parts. Apparently you have to read the third book in the trilogy to find out how he gets what's coming to him.

Interesting as a historical piece and to see how American English and, of course, social values have changed.
I had read "The Financier" and was anxious to know the continuation of the Frank Cowperwood story. Dreiser has written a gripping novel, a real classic story for our time.
Theodore Dreiser clearly was a great writer at the beginning of the 20th Century. He, along with few others, dared challenge conventional writing styles and TD did it quite boldly. Critics have long argued about the merits of his writings - it is for the reader to decide. He is certainly heavy and dense but he had arguments he wanted to make and, rest assured, he made them with a sledgehammer.

The Titan has the same central theme as The Financier with our Mr. Cowperwood out to conquer the world of business and of women of society. The destruction brought to all is readily apparent but the realism brough to the reader, along with a wonderfully unique style of writing is worth the efforts of his works.

I rated this one star lower than The Financier but think whichever is read first is going to be the one the reader prefers. Perhaps his themes wear on one and the second time around (with a third waiting to be read, The Genius)his premise and social and economic criticisms become a bit redundant. That said, if you like one, you are going to like the other. Also, it is great to see nascent protestations of a growing industrial economy and the obvious implications in today's corporate world.