| Chapter : | Introduction |
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assessment is that the edition published in 1911 by Harper and Brothers was not the novel Dreiser originally submitted. During the editorial process, the editors deliberately softened and in some cases cut or severely blunted the novel's social and moral commentary. More than likely, the changes were initiated to make the novel palatable to a larger, more conservative reading public. The overall effect, however, was that the characters became stereotypical, flat, and static, and the story predictable, sentimental, and morally conventional. As a result, critics have seen Jennie Gerhardt as a strange anomaly in the Dreiser canon. The 1992 edition of Dreiser's original novel, however, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press and edited by James L. W. West III, restores Dreiser's original manuscript essentially unchanged. The restored novel compares favorably with Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). It is also quite unlike any other Dreiser novel because it has strong romantic as well as realistic, even naturalistic, elements.
Dreiser's status as a writer has been erratic at best. From the republication of Sister Carrie in May of 1907 until the late 1930s, his work was heavily discussed, even though critical opinions of it differed considerably. When An American Tragedy was published, “[f]ifty thousand people bought copies in the first few years, many more read the book, and still more read of attempts in Boston to have the book banned” (Gogol, “Intro” vii). During these early years, many believed that Dreiser's bold thematic concerns would set the pace for the future of American novels, but others argued that his choppy and verbose rhetorical style would keep him from ever being considered a great novelist. For instance, John W. Crawford writes in his review of An American Tragedy that although Dreiser can be recognized as a “pioneer” in the field of realism, “he writes as badly as ever….There are the same slipshod sentences, the bulky paragraphs, the all but unleavened chapters” (454). Stuart Sherman adds: “I will not quarrel with any one who contends that ‘An American Tragedy’ is the worst written great novel in the world” (440).
The controversy over Dreiser's place in the American literary canon continued into the 1940s, when the topic of critical conversation turned from Dreiser's style and subject matter to his personal politics. His