Convention

Theodore Dreiser is best known as the author of large novels, but his short stories are a true treasure: in terms of impact, each of these tales can stand alongside “An American Tragedy.” His characters—ranging from the world of New York skyscrapers to remote towns in the American Midwest—strive for love, money, and freedom, only to find themselves, again and again, trapped by circumstances from which there seems to be no escape.

Although Dreiser is known primarily as a major novelist, his legacy also includes dozens of stories in which the writer’s craft is fully on display. Ideas worthy of a grand canvas, he knew how to compress into a concise form without losing depth: he carefully built characters, developed the theme to the end, and conveyed the characters’ inner experiences with precision.

On the streets of New York and in the provincial depths of the American Midwest, Dreiser’s heroes try to break free from poverty or climb the social ladder, free themselves from the pressures of society or from exhausting relationships, find answers to moral questions, or overcome clashes with those around them—but time and again they run into the very chains that hold them more firmly than any desire.

The book includes “The Stooge,” “A Trap,” “Old Rogaum and His Teresa,” and other stories from the collections “The Liberator” (1918) and “Chains” (1927).