The Pit: A Story of Chicago

by Frank Norris

Book Overview

The Pit deals with the rough and tumble world of the commodity trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade Building. This was originally written as the second volume in a planned trilogy; the first... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140187588
• ISBN13: 9780140187588
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The Wheat cornered me

`The Pit' is a story of speculation on the price of wheat in the Chicago wheat exchange (the `Pit') at a moment when agriculture was the main industry in the world. As Frank Norris tells us: speculation `is a matter of life and death', not for the speculators (`the fellows in the Pit don't care about the grain'), but for the farmers and the world population, because the speculators `say just how much the peasant shall pay for his loaf of bread. If he can't pay the price, he simply starves.' The price is also vital for the world economy: `Because of some sudden eddy spinning outward in the middle of the Pit's turmoil, a dozen bourses of continental Europe clamored with panic, a dozen Old-World banks trembled.' An `Unknown Bull' succeeds in cornering the wheat market sending the price to dizzying heights. But his greed is also his fall. The high prices attract farmers all over the world to grow a bumper crop: `It was as if the Wheat, Nourisher of the Nations, as it rolled gigantic and majestic in a vast flood from West to East, here, like a Niagara, finding its flow impeded, burst suddenly into the appalling fury of the Maëlstrom.' The rough and tumble of the `Pit' is paralleled by a story about an innocent maiden. She also chooses the speculator, `always cruel, selfish, pitiless, the fighter, rigorous, panoplied in the harness of the warrior', instead of the artist `and his cult of the beautiful, soft of hand and speech, refined, sensitive and temperamental.' This novel, whose subject is still very topical, is sometimes not without a certain sentimentality and theatricality. But it should not be missed.

For love of money . . .

The second novel in an unfinished trilogy (THE OCTOPUS was the initial volume), it's the story of how a man's ruthless business ambitions drive a wedge between himself and the love of his wife. Curtis Jadwin speculates in the Chicago wheat market; his successes propel him into wanting to "corner the market," which he proceeds to do. In the wake of all that "desire of the moth for the star," as Shelley put it, is the detritus of ruined men committing suicide, failed health, and Jadwin's own crumbling marriage due to neglect. Indeed, his wife Laura almost succumbs to the attentions of another man, Sheldon Corthell, but is brought back to her husband's side when he becomes ill. The scenes with Laura are the least successful because they are the most melodramatic. Norris felt the need, of course, to put things on an even keel again before the story's close; thus Jadwin loses all his money on a poor gamble regarding a banner wheat harvest that sends the market reeling, which brings on his illness and the loyal Laura. All's well that ends well, as the couple head West to start a new, though financially poorer, life (in 1903 it was still possible to do that). Norris is at his best in the wheeling and dealing that occurs in the Chicago exchange: the writing there is exciting and crisp. This tale of greed vs. marital love is a good one, though not as powerful as THE OCTOPUS.

Historical Novel on Chicago

The Pit is a story about the Chicago Wheat market during the early 1900's. Norris writes a historical / romance book in which Laura Dearborn finds herself in Chicago from Boston. Almost immediately, she is beset by a variety of suitors. However, she is most taken by Curtis Jadwin, a sophisticated businessman who is influential on the Chicago Board of Trade.After marrying Laura, the conservative speculator, after making a nice profit on the wheat market, becomes obsessive over controlling it. As the story unfolds, his wealth grows in a short period of time and for a while he captures the market. Ultimately, though, the market corrects itself and he must save his fortune as well as his wife, Laura, whose love begins to flee from lack of attention from Jadwin.I found this book very slow at the beginning. However, once the market traps Jadwin, the book becomes exciting and the pages fly by. Laura is a realistic character, although I didn't have a lot of sympathy for her - she come off rather spoiled and hapless. Norris's point about the addictiveness of speculating on wheat futures and the power that it has over the rest of the world is evident. A solid book and worth reading by those who like that period of time or are interested in Chicago's history.

ooops! I went long

norris thrilled me as a junior in high school with realism. "The Pit" my recent read some 17years after highschool can only be understood by someone that has gone through trading on some level. It wasn't so much greed but lust to trade. go downtown ny or chi right now and watch the faces of the boys/men /women and this novel will transcend time for anyone.

Greed, selfishness and love show here at its worst.

This story of the Chicago commodities is quite shocking. The central characters, the Jadwins, let greed and self pity ruin their once happy marriage. The amount of money that these characters waste and then lose is mind blowing. It shows that greed has always been the driving force in our American economy.