There are novels that seem designed to be considered together. Such as Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Theodore Dreiser's American Tragedy.

Both authors were inspired by real criminal cases. "American tragedy" is based on the story of a certain Chester Gillett, who in 1906 killed his girlfriend Grace Brown. According to investigators, he lured her for a walk on the lake, stunned her with an oar on the head and drowned her. Gillette was subsequently electrocuted.

But another source of inspiration was definitely the novel Crime and Punishment. It is well known that Theodor Dreiser admired Dostoevsky and the skill with which he describes the psychology of the murderer from the very beginning of the origin of the idea of a crime.

Novels have quite a few points of intersection, but more differences.

Clyde and Raskolnikov are both young men with no money. But Raskolnikov is a law student. An educated young man from an educated noble family. Even the idea of his crime grew out of a desire to test his own philosophy. Clyde is the son of a poor street preacher. From an early age, he and his siblings were forced to sing psalms in the streets. None of the children received a full-fledged school education due to constant moving.

Clyde didn't approve of his parents ' occupation – and especially didn't approve of their poverty. He wanted to be rich. I dreamed of an easy life, money and entertainment. This is not our idealist Raskolnikov with philosophical reflections. Clyde is pretty basic. A self-centered young man who lives on emotions rather than reason. He is amorous, and every time he falls in love, he loses his head so much that he is ready to step over everything and everyone. After falling in love with Hortense Briggs, he steps over his mother and sister, and then, after falling in love with a rich girl, Sondra Finchley, he steps over Roberta.

By the way, here is another difference between Clyde and Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov's other motive (apart from the desire to find out whether "he's a trembling creature or has a right") was to save his sister from marrying Luzhin.

Another difference is the portrayal of faith in both novels. In Crime and Punishment, the hero comes to rebirth precisely through faith – which, as we remember, comes to him in the form of Sonechka Marmeladova. Dreiser cannot give his hero such a rebirth, because unlike the deeply religious Dostoevsky, he is an atheist.