Full Description
Written circa 1894-95 but published posthumously in 1914, Frank Norris's Vandover and the Brute presents an unflinching portrait of unconventional sexuality, moral dissolution, and physical degeneration. In the setting of turn-of-the-century San Francisco depicted in Vandover, disaster encompasses far more than the vivid accounts of shipwreck or earthquake that appear in the novel. The slow wasting away of characters who contract syphilis, the suicide of a young girl, and the murder of a man clinging to a lifeboat fascinate readers today as much as they did a century ago, when this scandalous novel was first published. The most complete wreck is Vandover himself, whose artistic talents and constitution collapse after orgies of drink and sexual abandon.
Russ Castronovo's new edition gathers historical materials on literary naturalism, gender and criminality, and the visual culture of the late nineteenth century.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Frank Norris: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
Vandover and the Brute
Appendix A: Norris, Naturalism, and the Novel
Frank Norris, "Zola as a Romantic Writer" The Wave (27 June 1896)
From Émile Zola, "The Experimental Novel," The Experimental Novel and Other Essays (1893)
From Frank Norris, "The Responsibilities of the Novelist," The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903)
From Frank Norris, "The Novel with a 'Purpose,'" The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903)
Appendix B: Gender, Evolution, and Degeneration
Frank Norris, "Western City Types: The 'Fast' Girl" The Wave (9 May 1896)
From Joseph Le Conte, Evolution: Its Nature, Its Evidences, and Its Relation to Religious Thought (1899)
From Max Nordau, from Degeneration (1895)
Appendix C: Visual Contexts
Luis Ricardo Falero, Witches Going to the Their Sabbath (1878)
Philippe-Jacques Van Bree, The Harem Bath
Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Great Bath at Bursa, Turkey (1885)
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Thirst (1888)
Images of Gibson Girls
Select Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading
