Few works have captured the seamy side of American urban life with such graphic immediacy as Frank Norris’ McTeague. Heredity and environment play the role of fate in this portrayal of human degradation in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.

McTeague, a successful but naive dentist, marries Trina, introduced to him by her cousin Marcus Schouler. When Trina wins $5,000 in a lottery, and increases the sum by shrewd investment, Schouler, who had wanted to marry Trina himself, feels cheated. In revenge, he exposes McTeague’s lack of diploma or license. Forbidden to practice, McTeague becomes surly, but the miserly Trina refuses to let him use her money, and they sink into poverty. What follows is a descent into the ultimate crime, murder, and life as a fugitive, in a tale that moves toward its harrowing conclusion with the grim power and inevitability of Classic tragedy.

Like the tentacles of an octopus, the railroad in California reached out across the state, grasping everything of value in the state.

Based on the bloody Mussel Slough Tragedy–a conflict between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad–The Octopus is a stunning novel chronicling the twilight of the frontier West, a depiction of the tensions between the railroad, the ranchers, and the ranchers’ League.

The book emphasizes the control of “forces”–such as the power of railroad monopolies–over individuals. No one was truly innocent, as the farmers employed the same if not similar tactics as the monopolistic railroad companies, such as subversion, coercion, and violence.

Laura Dearborn, a young woman is courted and pursued by three men: Curtis Jadwin, Sheldon Corthell, and Landry Court. She marries Jadwin, who over time loses interest in her as he gets more involved in wheat speculation at the Chicago Board of Trade. As his risky investments start to lead him to ruin, Laura reunites with Corthell, but she eventually rebuffs him. Jadwin’s fortunes turn as he is able to corner the market and ruin even good friends, but in time his luck runs out, and he is ruined. He turns his attention back to his wife, and they leave Chicago, heading West to start fresh.