The Octopus: A Story of California, chronicles the farmers under the grips of the powerful railroad monopoly. It was the first of Norris' incomplete trilogy, Epic of Wheat. [The Curse of California, published in The Wasp, August, 1882.]
Book I - Chapter I
Book I - Chapter II
Book I - Chapter III
Book I - Chapter IV
Book I - Chapter V
Book I - Chapter VI
Book II - Chapter I
Book II - Chapter II
Book II - Chapter III
Book II - Chapter IV
Book II - Chapter V
Book II - Chapter VI
Book II - Chapter VII
Book II - Chapter VIII
Book II - Chapter IX
Conclusion