The Financier

24 hrs. 24 min.

Classics

Language Russian

Author Theodore Dreiser

Narrator Yury Zaborovsky

“The Financier” is the first book of T. Dreiser’s outstanding American writer’s “Trilogy of Desire” (1871–1945). The novel begins with the young years of the American capitalist Frank Cowperwood and ends in the period of the main character’s life when, feeling the power of the capital he has accumulated and his professional experience, he proclaims his life motto—the one that gave its name to the entire trilogy, “My Desires First of All.”

Philadelphia, where Frank Algernon Cowperwood was born, at that time had more than 250,000 residents. The city was rich in beautiful parks, grand buildings, and ancient monuments. Many things that we know—and that Frank later found out—did not yet exist then: the telegraph, the telephone, home delivery of goods, the city mail network, and ocean steamships. There weren’t even postage stamps and registered letters. The horse-drawn tramline (the “conka”) had not appeared yet. Countless omnibuses ran within the city, and for long journeys there was a slowly developing network of railways, still closely connected with shipping channels.

Frank was born into the family of a small bank clerk, but ten years later, when the boy began to look at the world around him with curious, sharp attention, the bank’s board chairman died; all the clerks were accordingly promoted, and Mr. Henry Worthington Cowperwood “inherited” the position of assistant cashier with a brilliant, by his then standards, annual salary of three and a half thousand dollars. He immediately joyfully informed his wife of his decision to move from the house at 21 Batnwood Street to the house at 124 New Market Street: the neighborhood was less out-of-the-way, and the house—a three-story brick townhouse—was in no way comparable to the Cowperwoods’ current dwelling. They had every reason to believe that eventually they would move into an even more spacious place, but for now even this was not bad. Mr. Cowperwood thanked fate wholeheartedly.

Henry Worthington Cowperwood believed only what he saw with his own eyes, and was quite satisfied with his position—because it gave him the opportunity to become a banker in the future. At that time he was a presentable man—tall, lean, well-built, with a thoughtful look and well-groomed, short sideburns reaching almost to his earlobes. His upper lip, oddly far from his long, straight nose, was always cleanly shaved, as was his pointed chin. Thick black eyebrows set off his greenish-gray eyes, and his short, neatly combed hair was divided by a careful part. He always wore a frock coat—considered “good form” in those financial circles—and a top hat. He kept his nails impeccably clean. The impression he made was somewhat severe, but his severity was only put on.

1. The Financier 2. The Titan (narrated by Alexander Kotov) 3. The Stoic (narrated by Alexander Kotov)