McTeague's Author Frank Norris was born in Chicago in 1870. He later moved to California in 1884 when he was a teen with his family. Norris was a very talented writer and also quite handsome and strong-willed. He first studied art in Paris but shortly thereafter found his real interest was in writing. He had an interesting, though short life, traveling extensively, even becoming involved in political issues in South Africa and Cuba. He wrote "McTeague" in 1899, "The Octopus" in 1901 and was working on the second in a trilogy called "The Pit" when, at the age of 32, on his way to becoming a great writer, suddenly died from peritonitis.

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I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading McTeague recently. I was assigned to read it in college when I was taking a Special topics course in California Literature. We were assigned to read authors who had written literature about California, such as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and Great Gatsby author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Frank Norris was one of the authors on our list of required reading that, at that time, I had not yet heard of. I realized when I read the introduction on Frank Norris that his life and career had been cut short. If he had lived, I wonder what other treasures he might have produced. McTeague is one of those under-rated literary treasures, in my opinion.


I really relished the picture that Frank Norris paints in the opening pages of this book. It is a detailed vivid picture of what daily life was like for one person living on Polk St. in downtown San Francisco at the turn of the last century. Norris draws a picture with words of 24 hours of life on a couple of street corners. How different life was 100 years ago! Norris also, through his use of words and descriptions, many outdated old-fashioned words and slang, just add more charm to the book. Norris has a rich, enjoyable style and I found myself hanging on every carefully-chosen word.


Our "hero", McTeague (he has no first name) is described as a sort of half-doofus who has fallen into dentistry by sheer fate. He had befriended a 'charlatan' dentist who teaches young McTeague the tricks of the trade. McTeague reads a few books on teeth and next thing you know, he's a real dentist. He's also described as a massively large man with thick gigantic hands and a shock of blond hair. Because of his dull wit, he cannot even manage to hold a real conversation, even with his best friend, Marcus. McTeague's one dream in life is to put a picture up on his "Dental Parlors" shingle outside his office of a Gold Tooth. Needless to say, he has no experience with women at all. Even his few female patients are all old ladies. He never even attempts to talk to them, except to utter a few words about tooth care. His life is very simple and his greatest pleasures come from eating, sleeping and playing a few mournful tunes on his concertina (which I found out is a sort of small accordion type of musical instrument).


This is a story of the downfall of human nature. What starts out so promising, ends up so terribly. Two young people, who are both very naïve and completely inexperienced in love, believe they have fallen in love, when it is merely the awakening of their attraction toward one another that is realized.


I read this book slowly and enjoyed every page. When I first read it for my class several years ago, I read it quickly. We had to read quickly to stay caught up in the class. This time I savored the writing and the book. I truly enjoyed Norris' writing style, detailed, yet not so detailed as to drag out, but rich in style as well. His writing style flows along easily and holds the reader's interest.

Below describes a portion of McTeague's Dental Parlors:

"Three chairs, a bargain at the secondhand store, ranged themselves against the wall with military precision underneath a steel engraving of the court of Lorenzo d' Medici, which he had bought because there were a great many figures in it for the money."


This is a description of two of McTeague's shy neighbors, Ol' Grannis and Miss Baker:

"Ol' Grannis bought "The Nation" and "The Breeder and Sportsman". In the latter he occasionally found articles on dogs which interested him. The former he seldom read. He could not afford to subscribe regularly to either of the publications, but purchased their back numbers by the score, almost solely for the pleasure he took in binding them."

"That day Miss Baker had been doing a bit of washing; two pocket handkerchiefs, still moist, adhered to the windowpanes, drying in the sun."


An excerpt from when McTeague first meets Trina:

"The two shook hands dumbly, McTeague slowly nodding his huge head with its great shock of yellow hair. Trina was very small and prettily made. Her face was round and rather pale; he eyes long and narrow and blue, like the half open eyes of a little baby; her lips and the lobes of her tiny ears were pale, a little suggestive of anemia; while across the bridge of her nose ran an adorable little line of freckles. But it was to her hair that one's attention was most attracted. Heaps and heaps of blue-black coils and braids, a royal crown of swarthy bands, a veritable sable tiara, heavy, abundant, odorous. All the vitality that should have been color to her face seemed to have been absorbed by this marvelous hair. It was the coiffure of a queen that shadowed the pale temples of this little bourgeoise. So heavy was it that it tipped her head backward, and the position thrust her chin out a little. It was a charming poise, innocent, confiding, almost infantile."


Not only is there the story of McTeague and Trina, but there are other characters introduced as well, the friends and neighbors in their building and block. Each portion of the book weaves their lives together, the good, the bad and the ugly. Ol' Grannis and Miss Baker, rent rooms next to each other, they are each up in years, painfully shy, yet in love with one another. They spend years sitting on their own side of the wall, each in their own room, knowing just what the other is doing, "keeping company" with each other. Maria Macapa and Zerkow, two unlikely thieves, marry each other for nothing more than the sake of discussing gold.


McTeague, in his simple wants and needs, decides he must have Trina as his wife. They begin "courting" and attend a sort of variety show at the Orpheum Theatre with Trina's Swiss mother with the thick German accent and little brother 'Owgooste' (August). They get along well and have a great time out, but when they come back that evening, they learn that Trina has won $5,000 in a lottery drawing. $5,000! (How much would that be today... $100,000?) To Trina and everyone else, including McTeague, it is an incredible good fortune. But after all of the excitement wears down, Trina realizes that they must hold onto the money and never spend a cent of it. Trina and McTeague do marry and at first, things go well for them and they have a happy home-life.


"Trina was sitting on McTeague's lap in the bay window, and had looped back the Nottingham curtains so the two could look out into the darkened street and watch the moon...Trina cuddling herself down upon McTeague's enormous body, rubbing her cheek against the grain of his unshaven chin, kissing the bald spot on the top of his head, or putting her fingers into his ears and eyes..."


Through a bad turns of events, with an old bitter rivalry going on between McTeague and Marcus Schouler, an emotional and excitable cousin of Trina's, the City learns that McTeague has never actually obtained his dental degree and has been practicing dentistry all these years with no license. McTeague is forced out of work and he has to turn away his patients and close up his practice. McTeague and Trina must sell all of their belongings, except their canary "in its little gilt prison", and go live in a one room hovel. Author Norris describes the conditions of the room the two are forced to rent in rich, vulgar detail, down to the smells of the place.


"The one room grew abominably dirty, reeking with the odors of cooking and of nonpoisonous paint. The bed was not made until late in the afternoon, sometimes not at all. Dirty, unwashed crockery, greasy knives, sodden fragments of yesterday's meals, cluttered the table, while in one corner was the heap of evil-smelling, dirty linen. Cockroaches appeared in the crevices of the woodwork; the wallpaper bulged from the damp walls and began to peel. Trina had long ago ceased to dust or to wipe the furniture with a bit of rag. The grime grew thick upon the windowpanes and in the corners of the room. All the filth of the alley invaded their quarters like a rising, muddy tide."


Through all of their hardship, Trina becomes even more and more stingy, not daring to spend even a nickel for a trolley ride on a rainy day. She is the consummate miser, and truly begins to worship money, even burying her face in it. The two begin to bicker viciously about the $5,000 lottery money, with McTeague growing more and more disgusted with his greedy little wife. The former gentle giant begins drinking whiskey and also begins a series of cruel attacks on his petite wife. When she lies to him about not having enough money for this or that, he pinches her and even crudely bites her fingertips.

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This book shows the tragic downward spiral of the lives of its characters into an abyss of misfortune they cannot recover from. What starts out so promising and so full of hope slowly and sadly disintegrates. The descriptions of life in the City of San Francisco at this time of about 100 years ago are very interesting and detailed. It could be a depressing book, but it is so fascinating and full of bits of California places and history, such as the Panamint Valley and Placer County, that it never feels truly completely bogged down with morbidity. Norris tells this story, surprisingly enough with the various characters apparently feeling no guilt over their greedy and extremely cruel behavior, unusual for the "Victorian Era".



You can buy a copy of this book, new or used, from Amazon.com. for hardly any $$$$$$$$$$$$ at all.



~Thanks for reading~



©: gkm.






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Recommended: Yes