A man, a real man, must never be an agent, a tool, or a gambler -- acting for himself or for others -- he must employ such. A real man -- a financier -- was never a tool. He used tools. He created. He led.
Theodore Dreiser, The Financier (1912, Harper and Brothers).
Dreiser had few predecessors (only Frank Norris comes to mind) and no successors. We could use someone like him now: a journalist who turned to writing intelligent novels about finances and society. The Financier is a compelling story of Frank Cowperwood's rise to wealth in Phildelphia just after the Civil War and his downfall after he was unable to meet his obligations because of the Chicago fire of 1871. He served a year in prison for looting the city treasury, although he claimed, with some justification, that he was just doing what other financiers did and was only prosecuted because the daughter of a powerful man was his secret mistress.
The hangings, wall-paper and floor coverings were to harmonize --not match-- and the piano and music-cabinet for the parlor, as well as the etargere, cabinets and pedestals for the reception rooms, were to be or buhl or marquetry, if Frank cared to stand the expense.
Furnishings and clothes (and their social importance) are described in fascinating detail by Dreiser and the change in these when Cowperwood goes to jail are considerable. But Cowperwood does not lose confidence and is eventually pardoned, after a year, during which his money buys considerable luxuries and visiting-time not given to other prisoners. And he continues to conduct his business, as best he can, through an intermediary.
I find Dreiser's style quite effective in its objectivity; he describes in detail how financiers made their money. Dreiser is careful not to draw moral or political conclusions for us, allowing one to do this for oneself. And he does not so much condemn the chicanery or moral failings of his characters as the system that makes it all too easy.
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