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Title: Novels and Essays (Library of America, 33) by Frank Norris, Donald Pizer ISBN: 0-940450-40-2 Publisher: Library of America Pub. Date: October, 1986 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Grim tales well-told
Comment: This collection consists of three novels -- "Vandover and the Brute," "McTeague," and "The Octopus" -- and a series of essays.The novels are all grim, compelling stories. Another reviewer's remarking on the similarity between "The Octopus" and Zola's "Germinal" is apt. Unlike that reviewer, I found "The Octopus" most compelling. This is a grand tale with numerous subplots. The central theme is the struggle between the railroad (the octopus) and wheat farmers. I found it difficult to put down. And I found myself tearing up at points, somewhat disconcerting as I read most of this on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). All three novels are set in California with a least some if not most of the action taking place in San Francisco. These stories are excellent reads if you're not too squeamish.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant overlooked works
Comment: The Library of America (LOA)is a not for profit publisher dedicated to keeping great American writing in print. In this volume (number 33 in the series that currently has 140 volumes) LOA publishes three novels and twenty-two essays by Frank Norris. While this is not all of his writing, this is the only currently available source for some of these works within the budget of most readers. I purchased this volume simply because of the LOA. I had never heard of Frank Norris. My only expectation was great writing. I was not disappointed.
The first novel, Vandover and the Brute, was written while Norris was a student at Harvard. It was published after his death and appears to have been altered by his brother who found parts of the novel and its then strong language objectionable. Even with this, I found it to be an interesting story of a indolent young man's moral slide. It is a story of the perfidy of a good friend, rationalizing bad moral decisions, and playing poorly the hand that the main character, Vandover, has been dealt. Good intentions never last long. Vandover takes advantage of a girl in his set. Her subsequent suicide sets in motion his slide. All along he takes the path of least resistence; he makes slopy, lazy, irresponsible choices that contribute to the inevitable outcome.
McTeague, the second novel, was also begun while Norris was at Harvard and published in 1899. While not as lurid a subject as Vandover, parts of the book were quite controversial at the time. The book notes indicate that a passage describing incontinence was rewritten for its second printing due to pressure from the publisher. This LOA printing of this novel contains the original passage. I think that McTeague is the most enjoyable or the three novels. The writing is so clear and realistic. I think that it influenced some of the great realistic writers to follow.
The last novel in this volume was titled The Octopus, and was an ambitious undertaking. It was to be the first part of a never completed trilogy, THE EPIC OF THE WHEAT. It has a hugh cast of characters and reminds me of both the novel and movie "GIANT". (Of course, the Octopus is better written.) Missing is the second part of the trilogy called the Pit. (Norris died suddenly in his early thirties before he wrote the third book.) For some reason LOA chose to include some of Norris'essays instead of the Pit. Regardless...
This is a wonderful volume of extraordinarily well written works. Discovering the writing of Frank Norris was one of readings great pleasures. I highly recommend this book. I also encourage you to check out some of the other volumes published by the Library of America.
Rating: 5
Summary: Frank Norris, Zola's American Disciple
Comment: Of all the Naturalistic writers on the American literary scene during the years 1890-1930 (Dreiser, London, Crane, etc.) it was Frank Norris, I believe, who was closest in spirit to the Emile Zola of novels like "L'Assomoir." This volume includes Norris' 2 best novels--"McTeague" and "Vandover and the Brute"--as well as his much longer (and, I think, much less effective) novel "The Octopus" which is an installment in the unfinished "wheat" trilogy (which is closer to the spirit of Zola novels like "Germinal" and "La Terre").
Whereas "The Octopus" and "The Pit" (not included in this volume, but available in paperback from Penguin) are panoramic views of class struggle (foreshadowing the Steinbeck of "Cannery Row" and "Grapes of Wrath"), both "McTeague" and "Vandover" tell the story of one individual's downfall--in the former, that of a dim-witted dentist; in the latter, that of a spoiled son of a business tycoon. Many people, myself included, prefer the Norris of "McTeague" and "Vandover." Whereas, with the "wheat" trilogy, you get the feeling that Norris maybe bit off more than he could chew--that the project was too ambitious--these other two novels are minor masterpieces of decadent fiction. "Vandover," I believe, is ultimately the more affecting of the two. McTeague is simply an idiot; there is little to like about him. The story is wonderfully told with irony and dark humor, but McTeague's downfall probably affects us less than Vandover's because his stupidity and crudity distance him from us. His predicament is more laughable than anything else. "Vandover," however, is much more human than McTeague, much more like us. I wouldn't say he's a character protrayed in completely sympathetic terms, because he does some pretty mean-spirited things, but it is not very difficult to put ourselves in Vandover's place.
What is most frightening about "Vandover" is that it so vividly dramatizes the way in which a series of seemingly minor events combined with certain circumstances, lack of self-discipline or self-control, and bad habits can utterly ruin someone. "Vandover" is a warning to all of those people with artistic (and I use "artistic" in its broadest sense) ambitions who lack the self-discipline necessary to fulfill them. Alcohol, drugs, and other carnal pleasures are your greatest enemies.
If you like "Vandover," be sure to read F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned," which is a very similar story of a spoiled playboy's decline and fall (no doubt heavily influenced by Norris's novel). Alcohol is the primary culprit in many a Naturalist novel's protagonist's downfall. Yet the great thing about the Naturalists was that they were able to tell such stories without sliding down into didactic temperance fiction.
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Title: Saul Bellow: Novels 1944-1953: Dangling Man, The Victim, and The Adventures of Augie March (Library of America, 141.) by Saul Bellow ISBN: 1931082383 Publisher: Library of America Pub. Date: 11 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Democracy in America (Library of America) by Alexis De Tocqueville, Arthur Goldhammer, Alexis de Tocqueville, Olivier Zunz ISBN: 1931082545 Publisher: Library of America Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death by D. B. C. Pierre ISBN: 1841954608 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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