Join us to discuss Vandover and the Brute by Frank Norris, Western Neighborhoods Project Book Club’s featured title for January-February 2025.

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Published posthumously in 1914, the Vandover and the Brute has been described as an “unflinching” portrait of 19th-century San Francisco and its publication initially scandalized polite society, although it will read as somewhat demure to modern audiences. It follows a privileged spendthrift named Vandover, the son of a wealthy owner of slum properties in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.

He dreams of being an artist but, lacking self-discipline, succumbs to the many…ahem…distractions the city had to offer in the 1890s. Although it’s often overshadowed by Frank Norris’s more notable (more controversial) works like McTeague: A Story of San Francisco, the descriptions of life in the city presented in Vandover will be of interest to any aficionado of San Francisco history.

And the main character’s trip to the Cliff House, which was still trying to shake off its less-than-savory reputation, is what caught our attention as west side historians.

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Together, we’ll enjoy complimentary light refreshments and chat about the San Francisco we discovered in the novel.

The discussion will be led by Sean Connelly, Humanities lecturer emeritus at San Francisco State University, and WNP’s Executive Director Nicole Meldahl, supported by photographs from the OpenSFHistory archive, related activities and listening experiences, and more.

Even if you didn’t read the book (although we strongly encourage that you do), we bet you’ll enjoy an evening communing with neighborhood bibliophiles.