Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. illustrated by Remington, Leyendecker, Hitchcock and Hooper ... Read more

Amazon.com
Something of a cult classic, McTeague was one of the founding works of unflinching realism and naturalism in American writing.McTeague was first published in 1899; this new Modern Library edition brackets the book's 100-year journey through literary consciousness, from its first splash as a rather lurid literary sensation in its retelling of a true-life crime in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, to its renewed popularity among modern readers.Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Where that cliched Death-Valley-handcuffed-to-a-dead-man thing comes from. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

The raw view
I purchased this book because my daughter was reading it in college. I was not familiar with either the title or the author, but a quick web search allowed me to rectify that shortcoming quickly. It is a gut wrenching view into the early city life of San Francisco. Marriage, money, and ignorance are the main charaters presented through names that soon become the face of the story.

Norris, the realist, doesn't waste time on the way the world could be, and he doesn't even speculate on the way things are; he rather cuts to the reality of the time and, like a snapshot, gives us that which an observant eye would see if present. The violent ignorance manifested by the characters stuns, and I was amazed and intrigued by the actions of individuals I had become close to through the events of the story.

Be forewarned, those sensitive to sterotypical descriptions of race will be shocked, and those without patience for the actions of brutally ignorant settlers will be sickened. Nevertheless, for a picture of the probable behavior of the settlers of the west, this is a fine read.

A must read
I agree with the reviewers below.This is a superb read that with stay with you for a long time.I read it on my own as an adult but agree it should be part of a classic literature curriculum.

American parable
H L Mencken believed "McTeague" to be the great American novel and it surely is the principal American parable. A giant golden tooth and a gilded canary cage are just two symbols of greed in this rich novel. Published in 1899 this work by Frank Norris reminds of Emile Zola's writing in realism and artistry. Norris takes the reader from Polk street San Francisco to Death Valley in this brilliant depiction of avarice. Erich von Stroheim's silent film "Greed" is based on McTeague, unfortunately the whole 9 1/2 hour film is no longer extant. The novel is funny at times like when Marcus is pontificating to McTeague: "It's the capitalists that's ruining the cause of labor," shouted Marcus, banging the table with his fist till the beer glasses danced; "white-livered drones, traitors, with their livers white as snow, eatun the bread of widows and orphuns; there's where the evil lies." Stupefied with his clamor, McTeague answered, wagging his head: "Yes, that's it; I think it's their livers." The gentle love story of Old Grannis and Miss Baker shows how simple contentment can be and serves as an an antithesis to the rest of the book. "and the two old people sat there in the gray evening, quietly, quietly, their hands in each other's hands, "keeping company," Early in the book Mcteague has dreams of oral opulence: "It was his ambition, his dream, to have projecting from that corner window a huge gilded tooth, a molar with enormous prongs, something gorgeous and attractive. He would have it some day, on that he was resolved;" Trina his fiancee buys this grand tooth for him and gives it to him as a gift. As the McTeagues descend into financial ruin he clings to this object. When he finally does decide to sell all he can get for it is five dollars, if sown under a large enough pillow the tooth fairy would have left more for this gargantuan grinder. The gilded molar is not only a symbol of his success as a dentist, but also the love he and his wife once shared. The Buddha said desire was the cause of suffering maybe that should be translated greed, the desire for more than you need. Most of the characters in this novel mine the ore of suffering with their cupidity and as they struggle to acquire they become possessed.

McTeague: The World Is A Stacked Deck
One of the reasons that people read novels is to explore why human beings do what they do. These reasons flow in surges that go in and out of vogue.By the beginning of the twentieth century, the current vogue was Naturalism, a philosophy of life that suggests that people are preprogrammed by their environment to such an extent that one can accurately predict the outcome.

In MCTEAGUE, Frank Norris absorbed the biological imperatives of Charles Darwin into the economic choke-hold of Karl Marx and wrote a novel of a hulking unlicensed dentist who goes through life smashing all obstacles with his hamlike fists early enough and often enough so that the reader feels sure that this dentist (McTeague) will wind up at the mercy of the very elements that he tried so hard to conquer.

The novel opens with the revelation that McTeague is a brute who chose dentistry as a profession despite the fact that he barely understood the medical books of his field. He meets and marries Trina, a good woman who mistakes McTeague's size and stupidity for passion and permanence. McTeague's married life is a straight line progression from worse to worst, all of which was eminently predictable from the opening pages. One gets the feeling that McTeague remains a mystery, despite his punishing appearance on nearly every page. Why, one further wonders, does he do things the way he does. Norris provides no ready answers, but he suggests that McTeague is a ubiquitous force of nature, one that is more easily noticed than explained. Sigmund Freud had not yet appeared to offer deeper analyses of the human psyche so naturalistic writers like Frank Norris were left with rationales that equated with the natural world around them. Darwin and his struggle of the fittest made it easier for readers to see McTeague as somehow fitter to survive than the victims of his rage. Marx and his economic determinism made it equally easier for readers to grasp the fact that one's freedom to move was limited by where on the economic pecking order one stood.By the end of the novel, a handcuffed McTeague, alone in the unforgiving desert, was a stark reminder that the power of nature to twist man into a pretzel was one that resonated with Norris' readers such that they could see McTeague's final plight more as a peek into their own future than into his.Today's readers leave MCTEAGUE with much the same morbid thoughts.

Mcteague Review
This book is about a huge man named Mcteague, who is a dentist in San Francisco. Around the time the city was recently founded. His rather boring and routine way of life is drastically changed when his best, and only real friend Marcus Schouler introduces Mcteague to his cousin Trina, Who Marcus is secretly in love with. Over time Mcteague begins to like Trina more and more, and eventually he begins to love her. I wont give away all of the book so you'll just have to read the book.
This story shows some of the deepest human emotions; love, fear, hate, greed, and many others. Most of these emotions can be tracked back to the same source, but I'm not going to give away what the source is. Lets me just say that it turns Mcteague's dull little dentist's world upside down.
This story has a colorful cast of characters, from a gold loving pawnshop owner to an insane maid. Each character is very unique, and some are very unusual.
The story takes place mostly in a small, humble dentists parlor on a somewhat busy residential street that had several small shops in San Francisco, California, when the town was still young. The streets name was Polk Street.
I would recommend this book to pretty much everyone. Even though it takes a while to get into the book. The book takes a look into the deepest emotions of people.
... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of (Benjamin) Frank(lin) Norris, (Jr.), is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2938 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Customer Reviews (3)

Sometimes Forgotten...
I forgot how good an author Frank Norris was. Reading this collection reminded me of reading his longer novels more than thirty years ago. This Ironweed collection is a great introduction (or reintroduction) to an author that might have been the American Zola.

Good Collection of Stories
This book does have a good compendium of Frank Norris short stories. Some of the stories are brilliant and it evident that they were written by the author of "McTeague", "The Octopus", etc... Some of the stories drag a bit. I have read almost all of Frank Norris's books. I have come to expect excellent writing when I see his name as the author. The stories are presented in a chronological order so one can see his evolution as an author. One can not help but wonder what his body of work would have been if he had not died at such a young age.

Sublime, simply sublime!
Frank Norris (1872-1902) regrettably died of peritonitis at the tender age of thirty, permanently robbing America of one of its preeminent naturalist writers. His novels--including McTeague, Vandover and the Brute, The Octopus, and The Pit--constitute his greatest contributions to a genre of American literature that counted giants like Theodore Dreiser as one of its members. Every time I read one of Frank Norris's stories, I bitterly lament his untimely demise. What other wonders would have flowed from this author's pen if he had lived for another three or four decades? We should express thanks for what we do have from this writer, but the sense of genius unfulfilled still lingers. Thankfully, Ironweed American Classics wisely chose to release this slim volume containing several of Norris's lesser known short stories, all of them brilliant little tales full of Norris's trademark prose and eye for detail. Moreover, several of the stories contained within these pages present, in embryonic form, ideas that would later achieve full bloom in his marvelous novels. Fans of the author would do well to pick up this book as quickly as possible.

Do you want Norris the supernatural writer? Look no further than the first story, entitled "The Jongleur of Taillebois." One of Norris's earliest written works was an epic poem set in medieval France, territory revisited in this incredibly short tale about a vicious murder and revenge sought from beyond the grave set in the twelfth century. I have read similar tales in modern day horror anthologies written by modern authors, but few express the richness of detail found in this story. Further eerie hijinks take place in the grim "The Guest of Honor," where a group of men who met once a year to celebrate their fallen comrades has now dwindled to its final member. The man, who fears death more than anything else, grits his teeth and shows up to the annual meeting to celebrate alone the memory of his deceased pals. Norris masterfully contrasts the visit of a very special guest with the vibrancy of life flowing in the streets outside the banquet hall.

Do you want Norris the humorist? Check out the farcical "Buddy Jones, Chef de Claque," about a group of men who will do anything to promote the career of a female opera singer. The men, all of them smitten with this gal, are unhappy that the head of the best opera house in Paris possesses the power to make or break a performer with a nod of the head or the crossing of his arms. In order to mitigate his influence, the men manage to discover a list of codes the opera house owner uses to send signals to the audience. If he smoothes his hair, select members of the audience clap and cheer. If he bends over, as an example, the audience remains silent and the performer bombs. Hilarity ensues when the men lose the code sheet and promptly forget which signals to send to the audience. Moreover, one of our heroes is a German who promptly launches into a loud anti-French, pro-Kaiser tirade when the opera owner pops in to restore order. The theater explodes into chaos, further exacerbated by a belief that a fire has broken out. Other humorous stories, mainly "Shorty Stack, Pugilist," "The Dual Personality of Slick Dick Nickerson," and "The Passing of Cockeye Blacklock" tell of the disastrous consequences associated with mixing spoiled potato salad with boxing, what happens when an amnesiac regains his memory, and the dangers of a dog retrieving a lit stick of dynamite, respectively. So much of Norris's writing delves into the dark recesses of humanity that it is great to see what an amazing sense of humor the man had.

Do you want Norris the political commentator? Anyone who has read "The Octopus" knows this author slung acid in the face of big business interests and corrupt politicians. "A Deal in Wheat" looks closely at the far ranging effects of rampant capitalism from various viewpoints. We watch the wheat farmer from Kansas ruined by the machinations of market traders in Chicago before seeing that raising and lowering crop prices is merely an amusing game to the powerbrokers. "A Deal in Wheat" ran as a serial in a magazine between publication of "The Octopus" and "The Pit," the first two parts of Norris's projected "Epic of Wheat" trilogy. The author died before completing the saga, but "A Deal in Wheat" provides additional commentary about this proposed project. Critics of the period attached the label "muckraker" to authors like Norris in order to emphasis the sensationalistic aspects of these exposes on unregulated capitalism. I dislike the term because it probably came from newspapers owned by the very same plutocrats who exploited laborers. Norris--along with Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair--called attention to the horrific conditions in our country's factories and farms, ultimately forcing the government to launch regulatory bodies and legislation aimed at curbing these grotesque excesses.

There are other stories here, not a dull one among them, which continually reinforce my belief that Frank Norris was a titan of American letters. I even liked the picture on the front cover, a snapshot of the author sitting over a few sheets of paper with pen in hand and staring into the distance as though he is thinking about where he wants his next story to go. I will never be able to adequately convey my adoration for this writer's work. The only chance I have is to convince other people to read his books and short stories. Look for the Library of America volume containing several of Norris's novels, then follow up with this book. You will not be disappointed. ... Read more

Book Description
But Laura, preoccupied with looking for the Cresslers, hardly listened. Aunt Wess', whose count was confused by all these figures murmured just behind her, began over again, her lips silently forming the words, "sixty-one, sixty-two, and two is sixty-four." Behind them the voice continued....Download Description
But Laura, preoccupied with looking for the Cresslers, hardly listened. Aunt Wess', whose count was confused by all these figures murmured just behind her, began over again, her lips silently forming the words, "sixty-one, sixty-two, and two is sixty-four." Behind them the voice continued.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

For love of money . . .

The second novel in an unfinished trilogy (THE OCTOPUS was the initial volume), it's the story of how a man's ruthless business ambitions drive a wedge between himself and the love of his wife. Curtis Jadwin speculates in the Chicago wheat market; his successes propel him into wanting to "corner the market," which he proceeds to do. In the wake of all that "desire of the moth for the star," as Shelley put it, is the detritus of ruined men committing suicide, failed health, and Jadwin's own crumbling marriage due to neglect. Indeed, his wife Laura almost succumbs to the attentions of another man, Sheldon Corthell, but is brought back to her husband's side when he becomes ill. The scenes with Laura are the least successful because they are the most melodramatic. Norris felt the need, of course, to put things on an even keel again before the story's close; thus Jadwin loses all his money on a poor gamble regarding a banner wheat harvest that sends the market reeling, which brings on his illness and the loyal Laura. All's well that ends well, as the couple head West to start a new, though financially poorer, life (in 1903 it was still possible to do that). Norris is at his best in the wheeling and dealing that occurs in the Chicago exchange: the writing there is exciting and crisp. This tale of greed vs. marital love is a good one, though not as powerful as THE OCTOPUS.

A happy ending, sort of
After reading through Norris' melodic novel McTeague, and through the novel The Octopus, Norris' Pit details the second of his "Triology of Wheat" chronicling the trade of wheat on the stock market.

The Pit, like Norris' previous novels is not without irony, we come to except that there is always a limit to how much wealth, or power someone can have, and it can never be finite. Unlike The Octopus where Norris obviously wrote himself in as the wondering poet, The Pit is perhaps his most objective novel, removing himself from the story, each character seems like it was modeled off of someone he might have known in real life.

There was very little, if any kind of tragedy in this story. Not in the same sense of a Shakespeare play or better yet, like two of Norris's previous novels.

As a novel, it has better use as a historical perspective on the trading of commodities in the stock market. Norris payed a lot of careful attention to how it works, detailing how commodity trading worked, and how people made their living by it.

Norris presents both sides of the debate, when the price of wheat shoots up, farmers wrote letters of thanks to the Wheat Czar for helping their economic situation, meanwhile bakers and the poor who could only afford bread as the cheapest source of sustanence send him hate mail.

If people are already familiar with globalism, and the idea of Durkheim and Weber, then it is a good read because this novel was written at a time when these ideas where first being fleshed out. Norris shows his understanding of this concept with tact, and finess. It is only disappointing that he died before writing The Wolf, readers can only get a faint idea as to what it is about from the preface to The Pit, and from the short story titled A Deal in Wheat.

Anachronistic but topical
The Pit was obviously not written recently. With its dated language and pre-PC attitudes toward sex and gender roles, it portrays a simpler time. However, when it describes trading and the risks of falling in love with a position and believing that the market is "wrong", it is as topical as the internet bubble.

While reading it, I couldn't help but compare it to Arthur Hailey novels like "Wheels" or "Airport", because this is the story of an industry told through the eyes of real people with their own foibles, loves, and idiosyncrasies. Laura Jadwin, nee Dearborn, tells most of the story. Her inner conflict between self-centered materialism and desire for "perfect" love forms the backdrop to the financial saga enmeshing her husband, Curtis. All in all, this is a good read but may move too slowly for some people--except for the climax of Jadwin's corner of the wheat market, which is as fast-paced as a Clancy novel.

Historical Novel on Chicago
The Pit is a story about the Chicago Wheat market during the early 1900's.Norris writes a historical / romance book in which Laura Dearborn finds herself in Chicago from Boston.Almost immediately, she is beset by a variety of suitors.However, she is most taken by Curtis Jadwin, a sophisticated businessman who is influential on the Chicago Board of Trade.

After marrying Laura, the conservative speculator, after making a nice profit on the wheat market, becomes obsessive over controlling it.As the story unfolds, his wealth grows in a short period of time and for a while he captures the market.Ultimately, though, the market corrects itself and he must save his fortune as well as his wife, Laura, whose love begins to flee from lack of attention from Jadwin.

I found this book very slow at the beginning.However, once the market traps Jadwin, the book becomes exciting and the pages fly by.Laura is a realistic character, although I didn't have a lot of sympathy for her - she come off rather spoiled and hapless.Norris's point about the addictiveness of speculating on wheat futures and the power that it has over the rest of the world is evident.A solid book and worth reading by those who like that period of time or are interested in Chicago's history.

ooops! I went long
norris thrilled me as a junior in high school with realism. "The Pit"my recent read some 17years after highschool can only be understood by someone that has gone through trading on some level. It wasn't so much greed but lust to trade. go downtown ny or chi right now andwatch the faces of the boys/men /women and this novel will transcend timefor anyone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb collection.
An excellent, must-have collection for all who study Norris, this collection of early work has an informative introduction.It should be read in conjunction with McElrath's _Frank Norris and 'The Wave'_.Readers would appreciate an index (there isn't one) but the book is well worth the price just as it is. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A remarkable man from a literary family
who wrote some of the 20th century's most important books before he died at 32.

Frank Norris
As a third generation native San Franciscan pushing 80, I am fascinated with what went on in my native city before me. ... Read more

Book Description
Harbingers of a Century: The Novels of Frank Norris represents a major reassessment of the California writer's long fiction.Lawrence E. Hussman argues persuasively that Norris should be viewed as a life-long philosophical materialist who developed an existential ethic of love for "another" and compassion for "the other."His novels rehearse many of the themes of Norris's American fiction-writing successors, including desire and disillusionment in national context.Along the way, Hussman proves to be a knowledgeable guide through the thicket of previous Norris criticism. ... Read more

Book Description
Reading the Symptom is concerned with naturalism; it is also necessarily concerned with capitalism as the complex-structuring whole within which naturalism operates and from which it cannot be disengaged. Tightly connected with this polemic assertion is a methodological proposition: naturalism-and by extension capitalism-is characterized not only by its logic, but also by its asymmetrical dynamism. Focusing on Frank Norris's McTeague (and its companion piece Vandover and the Brute) and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, this study argues that naturalism puts into question the very system it exemplifies. Naturalism has a transgressive element at its core, the appreciation of which calls for a special attention to the role and consequence of the emergent, the aleatory, and the stochastic. To explore the interplay between the systematic and the asystematic is not only to come to the conclusion that naturalism is an open, creative system, but also to realize that uneven development is the basic law of social formations. ... Read more

Book Description
Frank Norris, a contemporary of such famous American authors as Jack London and Theodore Dreiser, has long been grouped with them into the category of naturalism. Only recently have these writers been examined outside the confinements of this category. This study expands on the view of Norris as more romantic than naturalist by discussing the natural man and refined woman types in his works. West also connects Norris and his novels to Carl Jung's archetypes of the Great and Terrible Mother and the punishing Superego-like Father. ... Read more