Frank Norris

First published in 1899, this graphic depiction of urban American life centers around its title character, 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 frugal young woman who wins a large sum of money in a lottery. The greed of the majority of the characters in the novel creates a chain...

This short 1899 romance was based on Norris's courtship of his wife. It features a San Francisco journalist, Condy Rivers, who falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy family that believes him to be very much beneath her. Willa Cather praised the novel as "all wheat and no chaff."