Financier

The Financier (1912) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Followed by The Titan (1914) and The Stoic (1947), The Financier captures the greed at the heart of the Gilded Age, a time when tycoons rose with total impunity to take over swaths of American industry. The first installment of Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire, The Financier has endured as a classic of naturalist fiction and remains a powerful example of social critique over a century after its publication.

Born the son of a banker, Frank Cowperhood comes of age in a rapidly changing Philadelphia. Based on the life of Charles Yerkes, an influential businessman who funded the development of railway systems in Chicago and London, The Financier is a masterpiece of twentieth century American literature that continues to resonate today. Determined to make something at himself, he discovers his