Review: McTeague by Frank Norris

McTeague: A Story of San Francisco [1899] – ★★★★ Perhaps better known as the silent film Greed (1924) and based on a real murder case that shook San Francisco in 1893, McTeague is Frank Norris’s naturalistic novel about a sham dentist named McTeague and his “prim” wife Trina Sieppe, who at first have all the attributes of becoming members of the respectable middle class, but who then slowly spiral into degeneracy and destitution. ASan Franciscostory through and through, McTeague first focuses on one unlikely romance and one equally unlikely marriage before transitioning into a dramatic tale of a fight for survival. The story starts almost too quietly and ordinarily, unfolding with the pace of a lazy Sunday afternoon. We are transported to San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century. The city is a bustling one, but it nevertheless gives the air of a tight-knit community, a feeling felt in particular on Polk Street, where immigrants rich and poor rub their shoulders as they come into contact through trade and leisure. The proximity of the ocean expands the residents’ vision and ambition, and the cable car, the city’s proud symbol, further emphasises the cosmopolitan, connected...