Bread

by Charles Gilman Norris

Norris's novel "Dedicated to the Working Women of America"

Genres: Fiction

511 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1923

About the author

brother of Frank Norris and husband of Kathleen Thompson Norris

Reviews

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read by Charles Norris (the first being SEED, from seven years later) and I find him an outstanding and unjustly neglected author. I SHOULD have been put off by the style of the novel, in that there is much narrative and relatively few scenes, but I found the characters so intriguing that I hardly noticed. And the plot incidents were so skillfully related that I didn't feel as if this was a novel at all but, rather, a chronicle following the lives of real people. There is a brief preachy passage towards the end as the author unsubtly makes his point about the unfair treatment of women in the workplace, but even after that his stance is not entirely clear. The story covers a period of 25 years, and he conveys the gradual changes in attitude in a very subtle fashion. Incidentally, I read the original publisher's (E.P. Dutton & Co.) edition of the book, but Goodreads doesn't acknowledge this edition exists (and readers are no longer allowed to add new editions), so I have to pretend I read the obscure paperback edition that is the only one they list. (Goodreads also seems unaware that Charles G. Norris and Charles Gilman Norris are the same person!)

[Samantha Glasser]

Read this book online for free through Project Gutenberg: https://gutenberg.org/files/65944/659...