The Octopus: A Story of California

New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901. First edition, first printing. Publisher's full red cloth, illustratively stamped and ruled in gilt. Octavo. 652. Lightly pressed corners, moderate edge-wear, cloth starting at corner tips, lightest foxing on ffep, faint scratches to top edge block, still a very good copy.

The Octopus, published just a year before Frank Norris' unexpected death at the age of 32, was the first book of a planned trilogy titled The Epic of the Wheat. "These novels, while forming a series, will be in no way connected with each other save only in their relation to (1) the production, (2) the distribution, (3) the consumption of American wheat. [...] 'The Octopus,' deals with the war between the wheat grower and the Railroad Trust." (prefatory note). The second in the series, The Pit, was published posthumously, where as the third and final, The Wolf, was never started.

This book serves as a foundational text of American literary naturalism, an expose of corporate monopolies, and an examination of modern capitalism.

Confirmed first printing by the misprint on page 526 where the line "prolonged, rasping sound of breathing, half choked." is repeated at the bottom of the page (BAL 15036).