This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.
The story of Frank Norris’s
The Pit could be taken from today’s headlines: a businessman begins speculating in the commodities market on a small scale until, overcome by greed, addicted to the art of the deal, and harboring an ever-increasing appetite for power, he gambles recklessly in the market while the fortunes of farmers and small investors hang in the balance. At the same time, his independent-minded young wife, bored with domesticity and feeling abused by his neglect of her, risks her marriage by contemplating an affair with a former suitor. By interweaving the conventions of the business plot and the romance plot in this manner, Frank Norris broke with the traditions of his time and brought a fresh perspective to the American novel.
Om författaren
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr., was born on March 5, 1870, in Chicago. Around 1896, Norris joined the staff of the weekly literary and general interest magazine the San Francisco
Wave and integrated himself into the local literary community. Besides
The Pit, which is part of ’The Wheat Trilogy, ’ he is the author of
Mc Teague.