Genius · Theodore Dreiser

082 - Book 3 - Revolt - Chapter 9

·29 min·2 clips

Angela shames Suzanne for the affair in her own home, declaring this is just an old story of Eugene's infidelity.

The meetings are dangerous from the start. Eugene and Suzanne use calls, notes, a hired car, and guarded visits, and every small convenience adds to the disorder under Eugene's editorial and publishing life. Bliss keeps beating caution. The ice-house, Blue Sea, and the Riverside Drive apartment turn into charged places, sweet for a while, but always close to exposure. Suzanne is pulled closer. Her visits look innocent enough, though the narration leaves little doubt that Eugene is the reason she comes. Angela's anger lands hard. She faces Suzanne as a rival and as a young woman who accepted the household's welcome, then betrayed it. Shame is the weapon she reaches for. Angela brings up mother, brother, marriage, innocence, and repetition, telling Suzanne that Eugene has done this before and will do it again. Suzanne looks to Eugene, helpless and searching. In that look, Angela's accusation stops being just a speech and becomes a question about the man Suzanne loves. Eugene nearly backs away. For a moment, he thinks about giving Suzanne up and returning to the old arrangement, dreary as it is. Angela's voice changes that. Its severity, set against Suzanne's fear and beauty, pushes him into defense. He denies the larger charge. He admits earlier women, but says his life with Angela is only a shell now, without love or meaning. Angela fires back. The scene becomes a fight over betrayal, love, and the wreckage of their marriage. Suzanne stays terrified but brave. When Eugene holds her and calls her flower face, the tenderness feels like relief and a bad decision made permanent. They cling to love. He asks her not to give him up, and she promises truth before she knows what that promise will cost.

As heard by us

A clandestine affair is pushed into the open, and the emotional cost lands hard.

Secret meetings give this section its charge: Eugene keeps finding ways to see Suzanne, and each encounter raises both the danger and the strain on his sense of duty.

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Why you'd press play

You want a secret affair strained by danger, guilt, and a very public reckoning.

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