Frank Norris

An unsentimental look at the lives of farmers and businessmen in the late 19th century, The Octopus details the expansion of the railroad, its tracks spreading out like tentacles across the US. We follow the farmers as they are slowly crushed by the pressures put on them by this new industry, due to the greed and corruption of cold, corporate businessmen, who are willing to go to unsavoury lengths to ensure they do not lose out on the possible financial rewards. Written without any romanticism, The Octopus gives a fascinating insight into the effects of industrialism, and the subsequent avarice that inevitably follows.

Este libro recoge los mejores relatos de Frank Norris: cuentos de gran calidad literaria escritos por el padre del naturalismo americano. A pesar de que fue un escritor del siglo XIX, fallecido tempranamente a principios del siglo XX, su narrativa y los temas tratados en ellos son de una gran actualidad. Sus cuentos tratan sobre el hombre enfrentado a las fuerzas de la naturaleza, pero tambien al progreso, que es el principio de la civilizacion moderna.

La novela negra hunde sus raíces tanto en los relatos de misterio e investigación de Edgar Alan Poe y Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, como en el naturalismo, que tiene su cumbre europea en ZOLA pero alcanzó su mayor desarrollo en la novela norteamericana de la primera mitad del siglo XX, que tuvo su deriva mas popular en el hard boiled mistery, que va de Hammet a Ellroy y de Theodore Dresier a la "Generacion perdida". Frank Norris, como Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Ambrose Bierce, esta en el inicio de ambas tendencias. Los lectores que hoy se entregan a Avaricia conocen, seguramente, a Dashiell Hammett, a James M. Cain, a Horace McCoy o a David Goodis. Todos ellos son sus descendientes. Fue la historia de McTeague la que enamoro al cineasta Von Stroheim; la historia de un hombre corriente. Norris sostiene lo que despues seria casi un lugar comun en la novela negra: ese tipo gris, irrelevante, de segunda categoria, incapaz de matar una mosca segun sus vecinos y familiares, es un asesino en lo mas recondito de su alma y solo necesita un minimo estimulo para mostrar lo peor de si mismo. Lo mejor del personaje es esa nada aparente en la que se mueve habitualmente; lo peor esta por verse. El bien y la sabiduria tienen limites; el mal y la ignorancia, no. Norris, como casi todos los autores americanos del siglo XX, es ante todo un pesimista en lo que se refiere a los seres humanos, y esta magnifica novela es una buena prueba de ello.

Materias: Prosa, no ficción Editorial: Universidad de León

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, guest-edited by Michael Chabon, will take you to places you never knew existed, send delicious shivers down your spine, and have your heart pounding healthily in your chest. The ghost story, the horror story, the detective story; stories of suspense, terror, fantasy and the plain macabre - all can be found gracing the pages within. Such celebrated writers as Neil Gaiman, Rick Moody, Nick Hornby, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Harlan Ellison and Glen David Gold, amongst others, have all put pen to paper in celebration of the art of genre.

In the bustling metropolis of San Francisco, where fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye, a tale of ambition, love, and betrayal unfolds. "The Third Circle" by Frank Norris delves into the lives of three individuals whose paths intertwine in a web of deceit and desire. As they navigate the treacherous waters of high society, their secrets threaten to unravel their carefully constructed facades. With its vivid descriptions and gripping plot, this classic novel transports readers to a world where the pursuit of wealth and power comes at a steep price.

First published in 1899, this graphic depiction of urban American life centers around McTeague, a "dentist" practicing in San Francisco at the turn of the century. While at first content with his life and friendship with an ambitious man named Marcus, McTeague eventually courts and marries Trina, a parsimonious young woman who wins a large sum of money in a lottery. It is not long before the jealousy and avarice of the majority of the characters in the novel sets off a chain of inevitable and increasingly horrific events. Norris work, so strikingly different from that of his contemporaries, is an admirable example of social realism, which provided America with a shocking reflection of its sordid sense of survival. From the opening description of San Francisco to McTeagues final desperate flight far from his Dental Parlors, this novel examines human greed in a way that still causes readers to pause and reflect.

This classic literary critique of turn-of-the-century capitalism in the United States reveals Norriss powerful story of an obsessed trader intent on cornering the wheat market and the consequences of