Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Drieser's intellectual affinities and contemporary literary movements. 2. Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt - search for a theory of existence. 3. The financier, the Titan and the stoic-survival of the strongest. 4. The "Genius" and other works the novel of power. 5. An American 'Tragedy - the role of social and biological determinisms. 6. Emergence of his theory of existence. Conclusion. Select bibliography. Index.

"The question of "who am I" has been addressed by man from time immemorial and every individual at different phases of his life has responded to this in his own experiential manner. Theodore Dreiser, the renowned American Writer, who made his mark with his famous novels, Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, and An American Tragedy has similarly left tell tale marks of his spiritual growth in the course of his novels.

The book The Quest for Belief deals with the various stages of experience in life which lead to the spiritual transformation of Theodore Dreiser from being an agnostic to one of a believer. The book brings our parallels from The Gita and Dreiser's quest for a meaning of life and how he finally arrived at it from his readings of Vedic philosophy." (jacket)