Read4MaxClassics Browse library
Cover of The Pit

Classic Fiction

The Pit

by Frank Norris

A couple in turn-of-the-century Chicago navigates the murky waters of greed, ambition, and loss against the backdrop of the Board of Trade’s wheat speculation pits.

Read online Download EPUB
First published
1903
Length
125,282 words
Reading time
About 8 hr 43 min
Language
English (UK)

About the book

Laura Dearborn says she’ll never marry. Living with her sister and aunt in turn-of-the-century Chicago, she’s content with her comfortable, studious life. But with three suitors eager to win her love, Laura must decide between the disparate futures each could provide her—and as speculators struggle for control of the market in the wheat pits of the Chicago Board of Trade, each of those futures hangs in the balance.

Frank Norris intended The Pit to be the second installment in his Epic of the Wheat , a trilogy of novels describing the journey of a shipment of wheat from its harvest in California, through the speculation pits of Chicago, and finally to its consumption in famine-stricken Western Europe. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to complete it; he died in 1902 and The Pit was published posthumously in 1903, leaving the trilogy unfinished.

First published 1903; the Read4Max reading text contains approximately 125,282 words arranged in 15 navigable sections.

About the author

Frank Norris

Frank Norris (1870–1902) is described by Wikidata as American journalist and novelist (1870-1902), with citizenship or national association recorded as United States.

Recorded occupations include writer, novelist, and journalist. Languages recorded for Frank Norris include English. The structured record associates Frank Norris with naturalism. Wikidata lists McTeague and The Octopus: A Story of California among Frank Norris's notable works. Open Library identifies The Pit as a leading work in its author record. Open Library catalogs 125 works under this author record. The Read4Max catalog currently includes McTeague, The Octopus, and The Pit under Frank Norris's authorship.

1870–1902

Reading options

  • A complete text with direct section navigation in the browser reader.
  • A downloadable EPUB for phones, tablets, desktop reading apps, and compatible ereaders.
  • Book and contributor metadata are checked against the source edition before indexing.

Themes and ideas

  • Didactic fiction
  • Psychological fiction
  • Domestic fiction
  • Married people
  • Chicago (Ill.)
  • Wheat trade

Table of contents

Open reader
Show all 15 sections
  1. Dedication
  2. Principal Characters in the Novel
  3. Preface
  4. The Pit
  5. I
  6. II
  7. III
  8. IV
  9. V
  10. VI
  11. VII
  12. VIII
  13. IX
  14. X
  15. Conclusion
View the full library