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| Genre/Form: | Fiction |
|---|---|
| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Norris, Frank, 1870-1902. Novels and essays. New York, N.Y. : Literary Classics of the United States : Distributed by Viking Press, c1986 (OCoLC)561352346 Online version: Norris, Frank, 1870-1902. Novels and essays. New York, N.Y. : Literary Classics of the United States : Distributed by Viking Press, c1986 (OCoLC)608170439 |
| Named Person: | Frank Norris |
| Material Type: | Fiction |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Frank Norris; Donald Pizer |
| ISBN: | 0940450402 : 9780940450400 |
| OCLC Number: | 12668527 |
| Notes: | "Donald Pizer wrote the notes and selected the texts for this volume"--Prelim. p. |
| Description: | 1232 p. ; 21 cm. |
| Contents: | Vandover and the brute -- McTeague -- The octopus -- Essays. Vandover and the brute -- McTeague -- The octopus -- Essays -- Theory and reality -- Zola as a romantic writer -- The "English Courses" of the University of California -- An opening for novelists -- Fiction is selection -- Perverted tales -- Frank Norris' weekly letter (June 22, 1901) -- Frank Norris' weekly letter (August 3, 1901 -- Frank Norris' weekly letter (August 24, 1901 -- The true reward of the novelist -- Novelists of the future -- The need of a literary conscience -- The mechanics of fiction -- A plea for romantic fiction -- Fiction writing as a business -- "The literature of the West" -- The great American novelist -- The frontier gone at last -- Story-tellers vs. novelists -- The novel with a "purpose" -- A neglected epic -- The responsibilities of the novelist. |
| Series Title: | Library of America, 33. |
| Other Titles: | Works. Vandover and the brute McTeague Octopus |
| Responsibility: | Frank Norris. |
Abstract:
In his brief career -- he died at 32 -- Frank Norris introduced fresh and sometimes shocking elements into American fiction. Inspired by the naturalistic "new novel" developed in France by Zola and Flaubert, he adapted it to American settings, adding his own taste for exciting action and a fascination with the emerging sciences of economics and psychology. Vandover and the brute, set in a vividly described San Francisco, captures with harsh realism the dissipation and decline of a fashionable playboy into virtual bestiality. McTeague (source for Erich von Stroheim's classic film Greed) was a radical departure for its time in its frank treatment of sex, domestic violence and pathological obsession, revealing the dark underside of San Francisco's new middle class. The octopus depicts the epic struggle of strong, ruthless California ranchers with the railroad monopoly and its political machine. Twenty-two essays address theories of literature, the state of American fiction, and the social responsibilities of the artist. The New York Times said, "An opportunity to read, or re-read, in an authentic new edition, the work of one of the trailblazers in American literature.
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