The idea for “The Opot” came to Theodore Dreiser as early as 1912. Believing the book to be extraordinarily significant and personal, the author could not achieve the desired perfection. Again and again, rewriting the text, he worked on the manuscript almost up until his death. In the end, the novel was published only in 1946, a few months after the writer passed away.
Solon Barnes, a bank treasurer, was raised in a Quaker family—members of a radical Protestant movement. Having inherited his father’s strict religious views, Solon tries to raise his own children with the same severity. But the new generation already refuses to live by their ancestors’ teachings, preferring to find their own path in life.