Library

"McTeague: A San Francisco Story" is Frank Norris's masterpiece. It was published in 1899 and is known as the "Manifesto of American Naturalism." This book is based on real events. In 1893, a San Francisco man, Patrick Collins, murdered his miserly wife in an extremely brutal way and was eventually sentenced to hanging. Norris drew inspiration from the murder and wrote the classic novel "McTeague." The first half of the book truly describes the life of the lower class people in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century. The second half attributes the tragedy of the protagonist McTeague to a physical defect. The author describes his "kind appearance as an undercurrent of evil flowing from generation to generation." However, this work was once fiercely attacked by the American literary circle because of its bloody plot and comprehensive expression of the depravity of human nature. In the 1920s, the study of Norris experienced a renaissance. "McTeague" began to receive widespread attention again.