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1McTeague

By Frank Norris

McTeague is a simple dentist who becomes infatuated with Trina, the cousin of his friend Marcus. Trina then buys a winning lottery ticket worth $5,000, and McTeague announces his plans to marry her. But their marriage quickly falls apart as greed consumes them both, and Marcus' jealousy toward McTeague boils over. (Summary by Jeff Robinson)

2Mother

By Kathleen Norris

With seven children and a home to take care of, Margaret wondered how her Mother could be so happy living a life that seemed all drudgery. As Margaret has new experiences, she comes to realize that "her mother was not only the truest, the finest, the most generous woman she had ever known, but the happiest as well". (Summary by Megan Kunkel)

3Way of the Wind

By Zoe Anderson Norris

From the comfort of the hills of Kentucky traveled Celia and her husband Seth to the desolate prairies of Kansas, where cyclones, tornadoes, and endless wind were to greet them. Always, there was the wind cutting across the plains as the young couple builds their home while working the soil, while Seth awaits the wise men of the east to begin building the magic city where he has staked his territory on the plains.<br/><br/> But sometimes life plays cruel tricks upon us. Sometimes our hopes are dashed by happenstance. Sometimes our greatest dreams born of purest intentions become our deepest tragedies. All too often we seek the calmness and serenity in life only to learn that we have inadvertently walked directly into The Way of the Wind.<br/><br/> (Introduction by Roger Melin)

4Octopus

By Frank Norris

Frank Norris based his 1901 novel The Octopus (A Story of California) on the Mussel Slough Tragedy of 1880, a bloody conflict between ranchers and agents of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The central issue was over the ownership of the ranches, which the farmers had leased from the railroad nearly ten years earlier with intentions of eventually purchasing the land. Although originally priced at $2.50 to $5 per acre, the railroad eventually opened the land for sale at prices adjusted for land improvements; the railroad’s attempts to take possession of the land led the ranchers to defend themselves as depicted in the book. (Summary by Wikipedia and Delmar H. Dolbier)

5Vandover and the Brute

By Frank Norris

Vandover is a student who succumbs to a gambling addiction. This addiction causes him to divest himself of his cherished possessions and to lose his status in life, whilst his friends prosper. Eventually he is transformed by a strange degenerative lycanthropy, reduced to running back and forth across his apartment, naked, on all-fours. The novel was Norris' first, though published posthumously. Characteristically, it explores the themes of habit and addiction in a heightened "naturalistic" style. (Summary by Sprocket)

6Eight Harvard Poets

By E. E. Cummings, S. Foster Damon, Robert Hillyer, R. S. Mitchell, William A. Norris, John Dos Passos, Dudley Poore and Cuthbert Wright

<I>"I will wade out<BR> till my thighs are steeped in burn-<BR> ing flowers<BR> I will take the sun in my mouth<BR> and leap into the ripe air<BR> Alive<BR> with closed eyes<BR> to dash against darkness<BR> in the sleeping curves of my<BR> body<BR> Shall enter fingers of smooth mastery<BR> with chasteness of sea-girls<BR> Will I complete the mystery<BR> of my flesh<BR> I will rise<BR> After a thousand years<BR> lipping<BR> flowers<BR> And set my teeth in the silver of the moon."<BR></I> -- E. Estlin Cummings in Crepuscule<BR><BR> Eight Harvard Poets is a anthology of poetry by E. Estlin Cummings, S. Foster Damon, J. R. Dos Passos, Robert Hillyer, R. S. Mitchell, William A. Norris, Dudley Poole, and Cuthbert Wright. These older poems remain inspiring and timeless. (Summary by Woolly Bee and Wikipedia)

7Third Circle

By Frank Norris

Sixteen short stories by the American novelist Benjamin Frank Norris Jr (1870-1902) who wrote predominantly in the naturalist genre. He lived and worked in San Francisco. His writing has been compared to Emile Zola, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, and Edith Wharton. His writings sometimes contain an anti-Semitic element. - Summary by Wikipedia and david wales

8Deal in Wheat and other Stories of the New and Old West

By Frank Norris

This collection of Frank Norris' stories was published after his death in 1902. These stories range in topic from the machinations of the commodities market in Chicago in "A Deal in Wheat" to a desperate race for love in "The Riding of Felipe." "A Deal in Wheat" contains the kernel of Norris' last novel <u>The Pit</u>. - Summary by Don W. Jenkins

9Treasure

By Kathleen Norris

The Treasure is a story about the Salisbury Family and the trivialities of employing help for the household. Mrs. and Mr. Salisbury see the work of a maid rather differently, especially depending on the level of education. Justine, the latest hired help, is a graduate of the American School of Domestic Science. She has Mrs. Salisbury questioning her ideas of what a maid should be, and considering the more modern approaches that her husband and daughter, Alexandra, seem to embrace. (summary by Kristen Trotter)

10Pit

By Frank Norris

The Trilogy of The Epic of the Wheat includes the following novels: <br> <a href="https://librivox.org/the-octopus-by-frank-norris/ ">THE OCTOPUS,</a>, a Story of California.<br> THE PIT, a Story of Chicago.<br> THE WOLF, a Story of Europe.<br> These novels, while forming a series, will be in no way connected with each other save only in their relation to (1) the production, (2) the distribution, (3) the consumption of American wheat. When complete, they will form the story of a crop of wheat from the time of its sowing as seed in California to the time of its consumption as bread in a village of Western Europe. <br> The first novel, "The Octopus," deals with the war between the wheat grower and the Railroad Trust; the second, "The Pit," is the fictitious narrative of a "deal" in the Chicago wheat pit; while the third, "The Wolf," will probably have for its pivotal episode the relieving of a famine in an Old World community. - Summary by Frank Norris

11Bread

By Charles G. Norris

Bread by Charles G. Norris reads like a working class Great Gatsby with a tragic female main character. The author is said to have influenced F. Scott Fitzgerald. There is a kind of cadence to the writing, and arc to the story where this can be felt in both similarity and contrast. It follows the life of a woman from young adulthood to middle age between the years of 1905 to 1922 in New York City. She is a stenographer, has chosen the then taboo path of a “wage earner” as opposed to that of mother/wife/homemaker. The descriptions of the inner workings of a publishing house in a time when the printed word was still the apex of information technology are vivid. The social and domestic situations are touching and emotionally telling of how, however much things change, they also stay the same. The metaphor of “Bread” is quaintly heavy handed. “Dedicated to the working women of America”, Norris gives us the “straight dope” in this depiction of life in New York City in the early 20th century. - Summary by WildShimmeringPath

12Black Flemings

By Kathleen Norris

The brick New England mansion on the rocky coast had been Gabrielle’s only home. She leaves and returns to find Wastewater Hall a deadly menace filled with evil. As Gabrielle works to uncover the cause of this transformation to terror and hate she comes closer to death as she uncovers the answer. - Summary by kirk202