
1899
CONTENTS
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
At dawn on a San Francisco hill, the Bessemer household awakens to a lazy Sunday breakfast. The patriarch, a bald, round‑bodied man with a penchant for clocks and homeopathy, drifts through the morning in a half‑spoken monologue, more comfortable with his watch than with his family. Through a bay‑window that frames the entire Bay Area, the world outside seems both majestic and indifferent to the domestic rituals inside.
His children, ten‑year‑old Howard and his older sister Snooky, clash in a constant, spirited rivalry—Howard’s fierce independence and love of baseball pitted against Snooky’s tentative steps toward womanhood. Their mother‑figure, Victorine, attempts to keep the household moving, while the enigmatic Travis, tall and striking, looms as the eldest daughter whose presence hints at deeper family secrets. As the breakfast concludes, the uneasy balance of affection, expectation, and rebellion begins to surface, setting the stage for the conflicts that will shape their lives.
Language
en
Duration
~4 hours (286K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
1996-01-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1870–1902
A pioneering American naturalist, his fiction turned California and the modern marketplace into places of raw struggle, ambition, and ruin. Best known for "McTeague" and "The Octopus," he helped shape a harsher, more modern kind of American novel.
View all books
by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris

by Frank Norris