Frank Norris and American Naturalism

Description

Frank Norris is a seminal figure in the history of American literary naturalism despite the brevity of his career. Frank Norris and American Naturalism brings together in one volume Donald Pizer's lifelong exploration of the naturalist's work, ranging from his 1955 discussion of point of view in The Octopus to his 2010 essay on the thematic unity of that novel. The essays in Frank Norris and American Naturalism as a whole seek to demonstrate both the coherence of Norris's thought and his contribution toward the establishment of a specific form of naturalism in America. The collection's principal focus is Norris's most enduring works, the novels McTeague and The Octopus, though his other fiction and literary criticism are also discussed.

Donald Pizer has had a distinguished career as a critic and editor of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literature and as an interpreter of the history and nature of American literary naturalism. Among his most well-known works are Realism and Naturalism in Late Nineteenth Century American Literature and The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism. Pizer's books about Frank Norris include a critical study The Novels of Frank Norris and editions of The Literary Criticism of Frank Norris and McTeague; he has also edited the Library of America volume, Frank Norris: Novels and Essays.

Consistently embracing and interrogating the complexity that makes literature so compelling, Pizer's critical work, like the fiction of Norris, occupies an indisputable place of prominence in our understanding of literary naturalism and American literature, and this volume reminds us why. -John Dudley, Studies in American Naturalism, Winter 2019, Vol. 14, No. 2