Frank Norris 1870—1902
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague, The Octopus: A Story of California, and The Pit. Norris’s work often includes depictions of suffering caused by corrupt and greedy turn-of-the-century corporate monopolies. In addition to Zola, Norris’s writing has been compared to that of Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, and Edith Wharton.
Available eBooks
A Deal in Wheat (1903)
The time was late in the summer the place a ranch in southwestern Kansas and Lewiston and his wife were two of a vast population of farmers wheat... read more »
A Man's Woman (1900)
Our heroine is a girl decidedly out of the ordinary. Dramatic, and containing some tremendous descriptions of the daring of the men who are trying to... read more »
Blix (1899)
This short romance was based on Norris's courtship of his wife. It features a San Francisco journalist, Condy Rivers, who falls in love with the... read more »
McTeague (1899)
This graphic depiction of urban American life centers around McTeague, a dentist practicing in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century. While at... read more »
Moran of the Lady Letty (1898)
This is to be a story of a battle, at least one murder, and several sudden deaths. For that reason it begins with a pink tea and among the mingled odors... read more »
The Octopus (1901)
The Octopus: A Story of California is a novel about wheat growers who are in conflict with a railroad company during late 19th century California. The... read more »
The Pit (1903)
The story of Frank Norris's The Pit could be taken from today's headlines: a businessman begins speculating in the commodities market on a small scale... read more »
Vandover and the Brute (1914)
The setting of the story is San Francisco in the 1890s. Vandover, fresh out of college and the son of a wealthy owner of slum properties, has dreams of... read more »