Frank Norris's 1899 novel follows McTeague, a San Francisco dentist whose descent into violence and obsession reflects the brutal realities of late 19th-century American life. This naturalist fiction explores how economic pressures and primitive instincts can destroy ordinary people trapped by circumstance.
It was Sunday, and, according to his custom on that day, McTeague took his dinner at two in the afternoon at the car conductors' coffee-joint on Polk Street. He had a thick gray soup; heavy, underdone meat, very hot, on a cold plate; two kinds of vegetables; and a sort of suet pudding, full of strong butter and sugar. On his way back to his office, one block above, he stopped at Joe Frenna's saloon and bought a pitcher of steam beer. It was his habit to leave the pitcher there on his way to dinner. Once in his office, or, as he called it on his signboard, “Dental Parlors,” he took off his coat and shoes, unbuttoned his vest, and, having crammed his little stove full of coke, lay back in his operating chair at the bay window, reading the paper, drinking his beer, and smoking his huge porcelain pipe while his food digested; crop-full, stupid, and warm. By and by, gorged with steam beer, an…Continue reading →
A pioneering American naturalist writer of the late 19th century, this California-born novelist exposed the brutal realities of industrialized America through unflinching social criticism. His masterpiece "The Octopus" revealed corporate corruption in agriculture, while "McTeague" explored urban poverty's psychological toll. His work helped establish American literature as a serious force for social change. All works by Frank Norris →
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