Like his more famous contemporary Upton Sinclair, American author BENJAMIN FRANKLIN NORRIS, JR. (1870-1902) also highlighted the corruption and greed of corporate monopolies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries... themes that continue to make his work riveting reading more than a century later. The Pit, first published in 1903, is a fictional narrative of the dealing in the Chicago wheat pit, focusing on speculator Curtis Jadwin, who is so addicted to his own greed that it becomes his downfall. The second part of Norris's projected "Trilogy of the Epic of the Wheat," *The Pit is preceded by 1901's The Octopus, also available from Cosimo. (Norris died before he could write the third volume, The Wolf.)
Based on an actual bloody dispute in 1880 between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad, this tale of greed, betrayal, and a lust for power is played out during the waning days of the western frontier.
Regarded as the first important naturalist writer of the United States, Frank Norris wrote modern masterpieces such as ‘McTeague’ and ‘The Octopus’, adopting a humanitarian ideal and utilising the novel as an agent for social betterment. Norris strove to free American fiction from the prevalent historical romance of his times, seeking instead more serious themes, while presenting an authentic and highly readable picture of life in turn of the century California. For the first time in digital publishing, this comprehensive eBook presents Norris’ complete works, with numerous illustrations, informative introductions and a treasure trove of Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Norris’ life and works * Original introductions to the novels and other texts * ALL 7 novels, with individual contents tables * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories * Rare short stories from ‘The Wave’ and other periodicals, appearing in digital print for the first time * Easily locate the short stories you want to read * Features the rare verse saga YVERNELLE – available in no other collection * Includes Norris’ non-fiction - spend hours exploring the author’s varied articles and sketches * Special ‘Contextual Pieces’ section, with contemporary articles, reviews and essays evaluating Norris’ works * Features a bonus biography by the author’s brother - discover Norris’ literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Novels MORAN OF THE “LADY LETTY” MCTEAGUE BLIX A MAN’S WOMAN THE OCTOPUS: A STORY OF CALIFORNIA THE PIT VANDOVER AND THE BRUTE The Shorter Fiction A DEAL IN WHEAT AND OTHER STORIES OF THE NEW AND OLD WEST A JOYOUS MIRACLE THE THIRD CIRCLE AND OTHER STORIES UNCOLLECTED SHORT STORIES The Short Stories LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Poetry YVERNELLE The Non-Fiction THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NOVELIST: AND OTHER LITERARY ESSAYS ARTICLES AND SKETCHES The Contextual Pieces LIST OF ARTICLES, ESSAYS AND REVIEWS The Biography FRANK NORRIS by Charles G. Norris Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks
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The Pit: A Story of Chicago is a 1903 novel by Frank Norris. Set in the wheat speculation trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade Building, it was the second book in what was to be the trilogy The Epic of the Wheat. The first book, The Octopus, was published in 1901. Norris died unexpectedly in October 1902 from appendicitis leaving the third book, The Wolf: A Story of Empire, incomplete. Together the three novels were to follow the journey of a crop of wheat from its planting in California to its ultimate consumption as bread in Western Europe.
McTeague is an enormously strong but dim-witted former miner now working as a dentist in San Francisco towards the end of the nineteenth century. He falls in love with Trina, one of his patients, and shortly after their engagement she wins a large sum in a lottery. All is well until McTeague is betrayed and they fall into a life of increasing poverty and degradation. This novel is often presented as an example of American naturalism where the behavior and experience of characters are constrained by “nature”—both their own heredity nature, and the broader social environment. McTeague was published in 1899 as the first of Norris’s major novels.
