The Financier

Focusing on the life of Frank Cowperwood, a ruthless businessman, the narrative explores themes of ambition, greed, and moral decay within the American dream. Cowperwood's unscrupulous rise to wealth, marked by marrying a wealthy widow and embezzling funds, leads to his eventual downfall amid a stock market crash. As he navigates betrayal and scapegoating, the story serves as a stark social critique of ambition gone awry. This novel, the first in Dreiser's "Trilogy of Desire," showcases naturalism and the haunting reality of a corrupted success story.