Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read. This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter. - Reading time of the complete text: about 10 hours - Reading time of the summarized text: 24 minutes **"McTeague:** A Story of San Francisco" is a novel by Frank Norris, published in 1899, depicting the descent of a couple into poverty and violence due to jealousy and greed. The story revolves around McTeague, a dentist, and his infatuation with Trina, leading to their marriage and subsequent financial struggles. Trina's refusal to use her lottery winnings and McTeague's loss of his dental practice intensify their hardships. The situation worsens as McTeague becomes abusive, leading to Trina's death and McTeague's escape to a mining community. The novel's dramatic conclusion takes place in Death Valley, where McTeague is left stranded and handcuffed to a corpse. Frank Norris wrote the novel in the 1890s, drawing inspiration from the local setting of San Francisco and real-life events. "McTeague" has been adapted into films, radio dramas, and an opera, showcasing its enduring impact and influence.

An unsentimental look at the lives of farmers and businessmen in the late 19th century, `The Octopus' details the expansion of the railroad, its tracks spreading out like tentacles across the US. We follow the farmers as they are slowly crushed by the pressures put on them by this new industry, due to the greed and corruption of cold, corporate businessmen, who are willing to go to unsavoury lengths to ensure they do not lose out on the possible financial rewards. Written without any romanticism, `The Octopus' gives a fascinating insight into the effects of industrialism, and the subsequent avarice that inevitably follows. Frank Norris (1870 - 1902) was born Benjamin Franklin Norris, in Chicago. Widely hailed as the first American `naturalist' writer, he was the son of a self-made businessman and an actress. After the death of his brother, Norris went to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian. While there, he was introduced to the novels of Émile Zola, who was to profoundly influence his work. His later studies at the University of Berkeley exposed him to the works of Charles Darwin, which would heavily impact his writing. It was at university, via the `San Francisco Wave´, that he first published his stories. When he left Berkeley to go to Harvard, he was persuaded to pursue a literary career by fellow author, Lewis E Gates. Many of Norris' works deal with how corporate corruption affects those at the lower end of the financial spectrum, and further act as fantastic documents of American life in the late 19th century and the early 20th century.

« La Bretagne est mieux qu'une province : elle est un peuple, une nation véritable et une société parfaitement distincte dans ses origines, parfaitement originale dans ses éléments constitutifs. » Ainsi s'exprimait Arthur de la Borderie, le 4 décembre 1890, en inaugurant son cours d'histoire de la Bretagne à la Faculté des lettres de Rennes. Et il est de fait que, dès la fin du IXe siècle - donc bien avant la France - la Bretagne était un État à part entière. Il est de fait aussi qu'après avoir longtemps lutté pour le maintien de son indépendance totale, la Bretagne ne consentit à se marier avec la France qu'à la condition expresse qu'elle demeurerait une entité régie selon ses lois propres et gouvernée par des Bretons. La lutte des Bonnets rouges contre l'autoritarisme de Louis XIV, celle des Chouans contre le centralisme jacobin manifestèrent en leur temps la volonté de maintenir l'identité bretonne contre les excès du pouvoir central. Cette même volonté se retrouve dans le combat mené entre les deux guerres par les militants de Breiz Atao et, de nos jours, par les hommes du F.L.B. Au moment où partout en Europe s'établissent des structures fédérales destiné