421 pages
English language
Published July 4, 2003 by Dover Publications.
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Nominally, a fictional story of the disputes between a railroad and ranchers in California, it was actually a stern critique of the Central Pacific Railroad based on the famous "Mussel Slough Tragedy" where a shootout occurred between railroad men and citizens of a small California town. The Octopus was originally planned to be part one of a three part trilogy, The Epic of the Wheat. Part two, The Pit, was published later but Norris died before completing the third novel.
Subjects
- Mussel Slough Tragedy, 1880 -- Fiction.
- Wheat farmers -- Fiction.
- Farm life -- Fiction.
- Farmers -- Fiction.
- San Joaquin Valley (Calif.) -- Fiction.
- California -- Fiction.