An American tragedy
(Book)

Based upon the actual incident, this is the story of Clyde Griffiths, an ordinary boy driven by passion and ambition into a tragic conflict with the conventions and inequities of society. Rising steadily toward his goal of wealth and social prestige, Clyde unexpectedly learns that Robreta, a factory girl with whom he had had an illicit love affair, is pregnant. Desperately entrapped, he kills her. He is arrested and brought to trial in a climax of memorable tension and drama.