SOURCE: "The Dream of Success in Dreiser's A Gallery of Women" in Zeitschrift Fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1979, pp. 236-46.

In the following essay, Hakutani examines Dreiser's treatment of women characters in A Gallery of Women, paying particular attention to the character's dream of success.

I

Although Theodore Dreiser is often regarded as a pioneer among modern American novelists for the characterization of woman, very little critical attention has been paid to A Gallery of Women (1929). Upon its publication, this collection of fifteen semifictional portraits was compared to his Twelve Men (1919), a well-received volume of biographical portraits. Despite his disclaimers to the contrary, Dreiser did not have the same intimate knowledge of his women as he did of his men. Undoubtedly Dreiser portrayed women whom he had come across in his career, but his portraits lack conviction. Critics agree that the best portraits in Twelve Men are...