Frank Norris Remembered is a collection of reminiscences by Norris’s contemporaries, friends, and family that illuminate the life of one of America’s most popular novelists. Considering his undergraduate education spent studying art at Académie Julian in Paris and creative writing at Harvard and his journalism career reporting from the far reaches of South Africa and Cuba, it is difficult to fathom how Frank Norris also found time to compose seven novels during the course of his brief life. But despite his adventures abroad, Norris turned out novels at a dizzying pace. He published Moran of the Lady Letty in 1898, McTeague early in 1899, Blix later that year, A Man’s Woman in February 1900, and The Octopus, the first in his ultimately unfinished “Epic of the Wheat” trilogy, in 1901. By informing his novels with his own experiences abroad, Norris composed works that were politically charged and culturally relevant and that made considerable contributions to the character of American literature in the twentieth century. Frank Norris died at the age of thirty-two in 1902 from peritonitis resulting from a burst appendix, leaving behind a wife, a daughter, and an unfinished series of novels (two of which, The Pit and Vandover and the Brute, were published posthumously). The aim of Frank Norris Remembered, edited by Jesse S. Crisler and Joseph R. McElrath Jr., is to re-create the short, spectacular life of this American author through the eyes of those who knew him best. The fifty reminiscences included in this book feature the voices of Frank N. Doubleday; William Dean Howells; Hamlin Garland; Norris’s wife, Jeannette; and many others who were lucky enough to form a relationship with this vital twentieth-century American author, artist, and adventurer.

Vol. 33.

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.)

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.

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

A Study Guide for Frank Norris's "The Octopus," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

Frank Norris (1870-1902) has long been recognized by cultural historians as a "touchstone" figure, clearly signaling in 1899 the emergence of an Amer. school of Literary Naturalism. "McTeague: A Story of San Francisco" secured this honor for him that year as it registered more fully than any previous Amer. novel the Darwinian view of life that is the essential characteristic of all subsequent Naturalistic fictions. It thus marked as well the rejection of the Victorian Era's habitually idealistic representations of human nature and its basically religious world-view, offering instead a post-metaphysical portrait of the human condition that has remained popular in 20th-cent. literary and intellectual circles. Includes all of the known writings of Norris published between 11 April 1896 and 1897. Illus.

Born in Chicago in 1870, Frank Norris led a life of adventure and art. He moved to San Francisco at fifteen, spent two years in Paris painting, and returned to San Francisco to become an internationally famous author. He died at age thirty-two from a ruptured appendix. During his short life, he wrote an inspired series of novels about the United States coming of age. The Octopus was a prescient warning about the threat of monopolies, and The Pit exposed the intrigues and dirty dealings at the Chicago grain exchange. Extensively reprinted, Norris's works have also found their way into popular consciousness through film (Erich von Stroheim's Greed), and even an opera based on his portrait of the huge, dumb, and murderous dentist, McTeague.Interest in this dynamic writer was wide and sustained, but Frank Norris and his family did biographers no favours. Norris burned most of his correspondence, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire devoured more, and his brother and widow dispersed his surviving papers as gifts. As a result, it was thought impossible to assemble enough material to surpass the single existing biography, published in 1932. Authors Joseph R. McElrath Jr. and Jesse S. Crisler, acknowledged as the leading experts on Norris, have spent have spent over thirty years overcoming these obstacles, devotedly amassing the material necessary to at last fashion a truly full-scale portrait of the artist. Anyone familiar with the breezier existing accounts of the man and hungering for the real story will agree that Frank Norris, A Life was worth the wait.