Theodor Dreiser published his novel-challenge in the 1900's. It is a story of 18-year-old girl who moves from her native country to Chicago and becomes there a woman maintained by a man as his mistress. This is because of that it becomes prohibited. The publisher was afraid to release the work as it was, so he changed something in it. After years the masterpiece by Dreiser can be read as it was planned originally.
The novel shows how acute, wise and accurate the author was in his views. He was perhaps the first to depict a woman - crafty, with the behavior beyond the moral norms, with the limited freedom of actions. For sanctimonious America of 19th century it was like ribaldry. Dreiser shows how dangerous for every human being hesitating in finding one's position in life, not deciding and not making own choice; and how dangerous waiting for the fate's sign and not doing anything by oneself. Such choices in the book leads it's characters to the end or to the glory, to the happiness or to the abyss. This masterpiece is full of detailed analysis of the heroes, deep immersion into their psychology. Being followed for the author through all this plot turns attentive reader will be rewarded by the author's talent to reflect the deep psychology of the images.