Frank Norris

First published in 1899, this graphic depiction of urban American life centers around its title character, 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 frugal 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...

Inspired by The Mussel Slough Tragedy, an 1880 dispute over land titles between California settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad, Frank Norris' 1901 novel, "The Octopus: A California Story", is the first part in the unfinished trilogy, "The Epic of Wheat". The novel depicts the conflict between wheat farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and the Pacific and Southwestern railroad. When the railroad attempts to take possession of land leased to and...