13 h 0 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 0 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a lottery win brings not freedom, but a hunger that nothing can satisfy?
McTeague wants little beyond his dental practice on Polk Street, his beer, and his concertina. Then his friend Marcus Schouler brings Trina Sieppe to his chair. Courtship and marriage promise a new kind of comfort. But when Trina wins a small fortune, money begins to change what these people want from one another.
In McTeague: A Story of San Francisco, Frank Norris sets affection against jealousy, appetite, and the fierce wish to possess. Trina clings to her winnings while Marcus nurses his resentment. Around them, a crowded neighborhood of shops and dental parlors gives their struggle a concrete setting. What happens to an ordinary life when chance offers more than it can bear?
What you’ll discover
- A dentist's fragile comfort Meet a quiet, powerful man whose steady habits leave little room for change.
- The weight of gold Watch Trina's careful thrift turn into a consuming attachment to the coins she keeps.
- Friendship under strain Follow Marcus as jealousy makes another person's good fortune feel like his own loss.
- A crowded city neighborhood Enter Polk Street's small shops and rooms, where private desires press against everyday life.
- Forces beyond good intentions Explore how Norris brings greed, heredity, class, and chance to bear on human choices.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like vivid city portraits, stories where money and luck pull people apart, and characters so sharp you can hear them talk.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- McTeague lives a simple life above Polk Street
- Love wakes a brute inside a gentle man
- Marcus steps aside and McTeague wins Trina
- A lottery ticket drops a fortune on Trina
- Envy breaks a friendship before the wedding
- Two quiet stories run beside the main one
- Marriage settles, then the money tightens its grip
- Gold changes everyone who longs for it
- Instinct, chance and the brute drive the plot
- Details, repetition and symbols carry the telling
Who’s who
- McTeagueA huge, slow-witted dentist who loves eating, beer and his concertina, and who dreams of a golden tooth for his window.
- Trina SieppeA small, pale young woman with magnificent hair, thrifty to the bone, who wins five thousand dollars and cannot let it go.
- Marcus SchoulerMcTeague's loud, jealous friend, an amateur politician who gives up Trina in a grand gesture and regrets it for years.
- Maria MacapaThe flat's maid of all work, who collects junk, sells lottery tickets and tells of a dinner set made of solid gold.
- ZerkowA red-haired ragman whose only passion is gold, and who is ready to believe anything about a lost golden service.
- Old GrannisA timid, gentle Englishman who binds old pamphlets and loves Miss Baker through a thin wall.
- Miss BakerA retired dressmaker with little false curls who sits close to the same wall and shares his quiet romance.
- Mr. SieppeTrina's father, a small, self-important man who runs every family outing like a military campaign.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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McTeague: A Story of San Francisco
by Frank Norris · 1899
A hulking dentist, a lottery ticket and a giant golden tooth pull a Polk Street marriage toward ruin.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEspañol
Excellent
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In short
Picture a Sunday afternoon on Polk Street in San Francisco. A huge dentist named McTeague eats dinner at two, drinks a pitcher of steam beer, falls asleep in his operating chair, and wakes to play six mournful tunes on a concertina.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
McTeague lives a simple life above Polk Street
The book opens on a quiet Sunday. McTeague eats dinner at the car conductors' coffee shop, collects steam beer from Joe Frenna's saloon, and sinks into his operating chair.
He was once a car boy at a mine in Placer County, under a father who was a steady shift boss for thirteen days and a raging drunk every other Sunday. His mother wanted her son to rise. When a traveling dentist came to the mine, she sent the boy to learn the trade by watching. He is built like a draft horse, with hands as hard as wooden mallets, yet nothing about him is vicious.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1899
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 8 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Norris, Frank. McTeague: A Story of San Francisco. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/mcteague-a-story-of-san-francisco.
Norris, F. (2026). McTeague: A story of San Francisco. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/mcteague-a-story-of-san-francisco (Original work published 1899)
Norris, Frank. McTeague: A Story of San Francisco. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/mcteague-a-story-of-san-francisco.
@book{norris2026mcteague,
author = {Norris, Frank},
title = {McTeague: A Story of San Francisco},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/mcteague-a-story-of-san-francisco},
note = {First published 1899}
}
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What is McTeague about?
It follows a San Francisco dentist named McTeague, who marries Trina Sieppe after she wins a lottery prize. Greed, jealousy and old instincts slowly pull their marriage apart, and the story moves from city streets toward a wider landscape.
Who is the Other Dentist in McTeague?
He is a rival dentist on Polk Street, a dandy in loud waistcoats who bets on greyhound races. McTeague envies him early on, and he returns later, offering to buy McTeague's big golden tooth.
Why does McTeague want a golden tooth?
A gilded molar hanging from his window is his one ambition, a sign of success and style for his Dental Parlors. Trina gives him one as a birthday present, and it becomes a symbol of his pride.
The author
Frank Norris
1870–1902 · American novelist and journalist
Frank Norris was an American novelist and a pioneer of literary naturalism who died at just thirty-two; McTeague, his unflinching story of greed and ruin in San Francisco, remains one of the era's defining novels.
More by Frank Norris
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