The Pit: A Story of Chicago (Twentieth Century Classics)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
But Laura, preoccupied with looking for the Cresslers, hardly listened. Aunt Wess', whose count was confused by all these figures murmured just behind her, began over again, her lips silently forming the words, "sixty-one, sixty-two, and two is sixty-four." Behind them the voice continued....
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Frank Norris (1870-1902), an American novelist and journalist, born in Chicago, Illinois. An avid reader of Emile Zola and Edgar Allan Poe, most of his works belong to the naturalist genre. As a reporter, he wrote about the Boer War and the other conflicts of South Africa, as well as the upheavals in Cuba. Although he never voiced his socialist views, they are reflected in his fictional works. He continued his career as a journalist while writing fiction frequently and was successful in both pursuits.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This story of the Chicago commodities is quite shocking. The central characters, the Jadwins, let greed and self pity ruin their once happy marriage. The amount of money that these characters waste and then lose is mind blowing. It shows that greed has always been the driving force in our American economy.
Format:Paperback
Except for the language and gender roles, which date this book from its publication in 1902, The Pit could have been written about any form of speculation to which greedy executives have succumbed. The Pit happens to be about the speculation in wheat at the turn of the last century, which is appropriate given the agrarian nature of the American economy at that time. However, you could exchange any number of commodities for wheat in this story - oil, mortgages, stocks, dot-coms, and you would see the very timely similarities.
Curtis Ladwin is a man who already has more money than he could ever use or need, but he's addicted to the art of the deal, and thrill of thinking two steps ahead of his competitors. To the detriment of his health, his family and his finances, he continues to chase long after the tide has turned. "I haven't cornered the wheat. The wheat has cornered me."
Frank Norris is one of my favorite novelists from this time period because his stories are still amazingly readable and relevant. Some authors from the early 1900s are almost impossible to read now, so ridden are their books with linguistic acrobatics. Aside from some melodramatic histrionics in the domestic scenes, the language that Norris uses is remarkably plain-spoken and contemporary in feel.
I've only reduced the book from five stars to four because I believe it is melodramatic in the domestic scenes. I understand that these over-the-top dramatics are commonplace in novels from this period, but I have seen domestic scenes of this type written better, and I know that Frank Norris was capable of a lighter touch.
Curtis Ladwin is a man who already has more money than he could ever use or need, but he's addicted to the art of the deal, and thrill of thinking two steps ahead of his competitors. To the detriment of his health, his family and his finances, he continues to chase long after the tide has turned. "I haven't cornered the wheat. The wheat has cornered me."
Frank Norris is one of my favorite novelists from this time period because his stories are still amazingly readable and relevant. Some authors from the early 1900s are almost impossible to read now, so ridden are their books with linguistic acrobatics. Aside from some melodramatic histrionics in the domestic scenes, the language that Norris uses is remarkably plain-spoken and contemporary in feel.
I've only reduced the book from five stars to four because I believe it is melodramatic in the domestic scenes. I understand that these over-the-top dramatics are commonplace in novels from this period, but I have seen domestic scenes of this type written better, and I know that Frank Norris was capable of a lighter touch.
Format:Paperback
`The Pit' is a story of speculation on the price of wheat in the Chicago wheat exchange (the `Pit') at a moment when agriculture was the main industry in the world.
As Frank Norris tells us: speculation `is a matter of life and death', not for the speculators (`the fellows in the Pit don't care about the grain'), but for the farmers and the world population, because the speculators `say just how much the peasant shall pay for his loaf of bread. If he can't pay the price, he simply starves.'
The price is also vital for the world economy: `Because of some sudden eddy spinning outward in the middle of the Pit's turmoil, a dozen bourses of continental Europe clamored with panic, a dozen Old-World banks trembled.'
An `Unknown Bull' succeeds in cornering the wheat market sending the price to dizzying heights. But his greed is also his fall. The high prices attract farmers all over the world to grow a bumper crop: `It was as if the Wheat, Nourisher of the Nations, as it rolled gigantic and majestic in a vast flood from West to East, here, like a Niagara, finding its flow impeded, burst suddenly into the appalling fury of the Maëlstrom.'
The rough and tumble of the `Pit' is paralleled by a story about an innocent maiden. She also chooses the speculator, `always cruel, selfish, pitiless, the fighter, rigorous, panoplied in the harness of the warrior', instead of the artist `and his cult of the beautiful, soft of hand and speech, refined, sensitive and temperamental.'
This novel, whose subject is still very topical, is sometimes not without a certain sentimentality and theatricality. But it should not be missed.
As Frank Norris tells us: speculation `is a matter of life and death', not for the speculators (`the fellows in the Pit don't care about the grain'), but for the farmers and the world population, because the speculators `say just how much the peasant shall pay for his loaf of bread. If he can't pay the price, he simply starves.'
The price is also vital for the world economy: `Because of some sudden eddy spinning outward in the middle of the Pit's turmoil, a dozen bourses of continental Europe clamored with panic, a dozen Old-World banks trembled.'
An `Unknown Bull' succeeds in cornering the wheat market sending the price to dizzying heights. But his greed is also his fall. The high prices attract farmers all over the world to grow a bumper crop: `It was as if the Wheat, Nourisher of the Nations, as it rolled gigantic and majestic in a vast flood from West to East, here, like a Niagara, finding its flow impeded, burst suddenly into the appalling fury of the Maëlstrom.'
The rough and tumble of the `Pit' is paralleled by a story about an innocent maiden. She also chooses the speculator, `always cruel, selfish, pitiless, the fighter, rigorous, panoplied in the harness of the warrior', instead of the artist `and his cult of the beautiful, soft of hand and speech, refined, sensitive and temperamental.'
This novel, whose subject is still very topical, is sometimes not without a certain sentimentality and theatricality. But it should not be missed.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
