McTeague - Paperback

by Frank Norris (Author)

Although otherwise ignorant and ineffectual, McTeague has managed to eke out a meager career as an unlicensed dentist. His dreary existence rapidly improves upon meeting and marrying Trina, whose possession of a winning lottery ticket further brightens their lives. But Trina's lust for money and parsimonious habits arouse a latent brutishness in her husband, as the couple's happiness gradually curdles into a quagmire of suspicion, jealousy, and corruption.
Inspired by a real-life crime that the San Francisco tabloids eagerly exploited, McTeague created a literary sensation upon its initial 1899 publication. Frank Norris's riveting depiction of avarice and moral degeneration ranks among the earliest works in American literature to offer a compelling, realistic view of human nature at its most basic level. Critic Alfred Kazin praised the novel as "one of the great works of the modern American imagination," and it was the inspiration for Erich von Stroheim's groundbreaking 1924 silent film, Greed.

Author Biography

Like Zola and the European naturalists, Frank Norris (1870-1902) focused on writing realistic fictional explorations of the effects of heredity and environment. In the course of his tragically brief career, he came to view the novel as a mode of social betterment. Works such as McTeague, The Octopus, and The Pit offer authentic and highly readable portraits of California life at the turn of the 20th century.