Books with author FRANK NORRIS

Frank Norris was a late 19th century American novelist writing in the naturalist genre. His most famous works include McTeague (1899), The Octopus: A California Story (1901), and The Pit (1903). His works show socialistic tendencies and were influenced by Darwin and Huxley. His work often includes depictions of suffering caused by corrupt and greedy turn-of-the-century corporate monopolies. This story begins in the frozen north. At four o'clock in the morning everybody in the tent was still asleep, exhausted by the terrible march of the previous day. The hummocky ice and pressure-ridges that Bennett had foreseen had at last been met with, and, though camp had been broken at six o'clock and though men and dogs had hauled and tugged and wrestled with the heavy sledges until five o'clock in the afternoon, only a mile and a half had been covered. But though the progress was slow, it was yet progress. It was not the harrowing, heart-breaking immobility of those long months aboard the Freja. Every yard to the southward, though won at the expense of a battle with the ice, brought them nearer to Wrangel Island and ultimate safety.

“One of the great works of the modern American imagination. The novel glows in a light that makes it the first great tragic portrait in America of an acquisitive society. McTeague’s San Francisco is the underworld of that society, and the darkness of its tragedy, its pitilessness, its grotesque humor, is like the rumbling of hell. Nothing is more remarkable in the book than the detachment with which Norris saw it–a tragedy almost literally classic in the Greek sense of the debasement of a powerful man–and nothing gives it so much power." -Alfred Kazin “Strong, virile pictures of San Francisco’s underworld…The story of the sinister degeneration of a Polk Street couple brought about by the sudden possession of money….Unadulterated truth.” -Neale's Monthly, Volume 3, January, 1914 “Frank Norris is a realist by instinct and by creed…It has often been pointed out how each of Zola’s novels is dominated by a central symbol, some vast personification, which is constantly kept before the reader. Similarly, to take but one of Mr. Norris’ novels, the symbol is McTeague is the spirit of greed represented by gold.” -The Bookman, November, 1899 “The central figure is the heavy, sluggish dentist, McTeague, immensely strong, docile and stupid. Into his vegetating existence comes Marcus Schouler, the excitable, loud-talking political heeler, with his pretty blue-eyed little cousin Trina. Upon this tiny young girl, with the marvelous heaped coils of black hair, the dentist bestows an animal love. With chivalrous rococo Marcus gives up Trina, the dentist marries her; and then, in an overwhelming presentation of the modern curse of money, the theme of the book begins to work itself out…Even the minor characters of the story are haunted by the desire for money: the language of the slums is in terms of money. One by one the great curse drags them down to destruction.” -G. H. Montague, The Harvard Monthly, July 1901 “A mine of inexhaustible riches of observation.” -Hamlin Garland First published in 1899, this graphic depiction of urban American life centers around McTeague, a dentist practicing in San Francisco at the turn of the century. While at first content with his life and friendship with an ambitious man named Marcus, McTeague eventually courts and marries Trina, a parsimonious young woman who wins a large sum of money in a lottery. The greed of the majority of the characters in the novel creates a chain of events that lead to many painful, gruesome deaths. Norris' work, so strikingly different from that of his contemporaries, is an admirable example of social realism, which provided America with a shocking reflection of its sordid sense of survival. From the opening description of San Francisco to McTeague's final desperate flight far from his 'Dental Parlors,' this novel examines human greed in a way that still causes readers to pause and reflect over one hundred years later.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The Octopus: A Story of California is a 1901 novel by Frank Norris and the first part of a planned but uncompleted trilogy, The Epic of Wheat. It describes the raising of wheat in California, and conflicts between the wheat growers and a railway company. Norris was inspired by the role of the Southern Pacific Railroad in events surrounding the Mussel Slough Tragedy. It depicts the tension between the corrupt railroad and the ranchers and the ranchers' League. The book emphasized the control of "forces" such as wheat and railroads over individuals.

Ross Wilber went to the docks to meet a friend. There he made the mistake of accepting a drink from a friendly sailor. He never dreamed that he- a member of San Francisco's high society-could end up drugged, sold to an unscrupulous captain, and shipped off for the Orient . . . in a word, shanghaied! By a series of strange twists of fate, his new-found employment proves anything but drudgery . . . between a derelict ship, a mutiny, and a female sailor named Moran, his adventures off the California coast are nothing short of extraordinary!

An alphabet book with a difference! Who said A is for Apple? Why not A is for Acceptance?! Let's learn the alphabet using words that will inspire and empower everyone to thrive in life! Packed with fun illustrations and thoughtful quotes and themes, The Alphabet For Life is a unique children's book the whole family can enjoy and learn from for a lifetime.

The unabridged classic on MP3 audio, narrated by Anais 9000. Three playback speeds on one disk; etext edition included. Running time: 20.2 hours (slow), 18.4 hours (medium), 16.8 hours (fast). Epic novel about the railroads' strangehold on California farmers and ranchers; probably the only famous 'realist' novel with a subplot featuring telekinesis.