The Wife of Chino and Other Stories

Benjamin Franklin Norris (1870-1902) was an American novelist during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. Although he did not support socialism as a political system, his work nevertheless has evinced a socialist mentality and influenced socialist/ progressive writers such as Upton Sinclair. Like many of his contemporaries, he was profoundly influenced by the advent of Darwinism, and Thomas Henry Huxley's philosophical defense of it. Through many of his novels, notably McTeague (1899), runs a preoccupation with the notion of the civilized man overcoming the inner "brute," his animalistic tendencies. His peculiar, and often confused, brand of Social Darwinism also bears the influence of the early criminologist Cesare Lombroso. His notable works include: Moran of the Lady Letty (1898), Blix (1899), A Man's Woman (1900), The Octopus: A Story of California (1901), The Pit (1903) and The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903).