Word: cowperwood
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Stoic" simply does not reach the stature of "The Financier" or "The Titan," its predecessors in "The Trilogy of Desire." In concluding what Parrington called "a colossal study of the American businessman," Dreiser tells those familiar with the earlier volumes little they do not already know about Frank Algernon Cowperwood, his hero. As for the reader with a casual interest in the business mind, he would do better to sample "The Financier" or "The Titan...
...this does not deny "The Stoic" its merits. As a story it is often good Dreiser, which is very good fiction indeed. Marked by the vitality and massive documentation typical of Dreiser, this extension of Cowperwood's activities into the London financial world at times hits with undeniable power. Although Dreiser never completed "The Stoic" he did live long enough to polish it far beyond the raggedness of "The Bulwark." This superiority inheres in the book's construction. Cowperwood--his business and his philanderings--occupies the stage at all times; hence there is none of the diffusion of energy that...
Despite the concentration on Cowperwood, "The Stoic" paradoxically achieves its major significance only after Dreiser has interred him in his lavish mausoleum. Strictly speaking, the closing section is extraneous both to this novel and to the trilogy as a whole. But as an epitaph to Cowperwood-and in fact to Dreiser himself--the long search into Brahmanism by Cowperwood's last mistress Berenice assumes a weight completely disproportionate to its length. In her study of the Yoga discipline Dreiser furnishes an acute insight into his own final outlook on life...
...book is an improvement on its forerunners: Dreiser is no longer content to draw a caricature with his fist; he attempts to paint a portrait, and regards his villain with some compassion. Cowperwood is loyal to the wife he does not love, and sincerely devoted to his mistress. He never repents his deeds, or sees a need to, but he makes a futile attempt at good works by endowing, in his will, a charity hospital. This escape-hatch from hell is closed, however, when the ill-gained wealth is dissipated by executors, lawyers and heirs...
Hankering for Meaning. The Stoic closes on the same note of spiritual hankering which pervaded The Bulwark (TIME, March 25, 1946). After Cowperwood's death his mistress travels to India, seeks a religious meaning in life by studying Yoga. But she cannot reconcile spiritual claims with the poverty she sees around her, and is condemned to the old Dreiserian materialist world. In notes for a final chapter, which he did not live to write, Dreiser indicates that the mistress, with the money left her by Cowperwood, realizes his dream of subsidizing a hospital. Seldom has Dreiser allowed himself such...