Fulfilment and Other Tales of Women and Men

Sherwood Anderson, commenting on Dreiser’s short stories, said that “if there is a modern movement in American prose writing, a movement toward greater courage and fidelity to life, then Theodore Dreiser is the pioneer and the hero of that movement.” For this collection, noted Dreiser scholar T. D. Nostwich has chosen the thirteen tales that he considers Dreiser’s best. If a common theme unites these stories, says Nostwich, it is that “all the characters share an intense hunger for life and for the fulfilment of the promises, however humble, that life seems to hold out.”