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The Octopus: A Story of California (The Epic of the Wheat) Paperback - 1994
by Norris, Frank
- Used
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Details
- Title The Octopus: A Story of California (The Epic of the Wheat)
- Author Norris, Frank
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Reissue
- Condition Used - CollectibleAcceptable
- Pages 688
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Adult Hc/Tr, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
- Date 1994-08-01
- Bookseller's Inventory # 1M5000006M6M_ns
- ISBN 9780140187700 / 0140187707
- Weight 1.46 lbs (0.66 kg)
- Dimensions 7.75 x 5.06 x 1.38 in (19.69 x 12.85 x 3.51 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Library of Congress subjects Western stories, Allegories
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 85031463
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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Summary
Like the tentacles of an octopus, the tracks of the railroad reached out across California, as if to grasp everything of value in the state Based on an actual, bloody dispute between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880, The Octopus is a stunning novel of the waning days of the frontier West. To the tough-minded and self-reliant farmers, the monopolistic, land-grabbing railroad represented everything they despised: consolidation, organization, conformity. But Norris idealizes no one in this epic depiction of the volatile situation, for the farmers themselves ruthlessly exploited the land, and in their hunger for larger holdings they resorted to the same tactics used by the railroad: subversion, coercion and outright violence. In his introduction, Kevin Starr discusses Norris's debt to Zola for the novel's extraordinary sweep, scale and abundance of characters and details.
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