The Genius

as first among the novels of Theodore Dreiser was Theodore Dreiser," literary historian Larzer Ziff observed.His fifth published novel, The "Genius" was actually the third novel Dreiser began work on and, as his most autobiographical work, remained the novel closest to his heart.He worked on it in stages over a four-year period. The credit he felt he deserved for his honesty about sexual urges and damaged relationships and his original publisher's decision not to stand by the novel in the face of criticism contributed to his lifelong feeling that the book had never been given its due. After An American Tragedy, it is his longest book; the final draft ran to over 700 pages in a close-set type.