The Human Touch: A Selected List of Literary Fiction with Business Themes, 1873 – the Present
Compiled by Roye Werner, Business & Economics Librarian
2008

(Find these books in CAMEO, our online catalog.)

The Gilded Age, by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner (1873)

“This rollicking novel is rife with unscrupulous politicians, colorful plutocrats, and blindly optimistic speculators caught up in a frenzy of romance, murder, and surefire deals gone bust.” This is where the era got its name.

The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope (1875)

The machinations of a great financier having a “wild ride through the British establishment” in perhaps the most memorable book by this master of English literature.

The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells (1885)

Called by one critic the “locus classicus novel of American finance,” and by another a “masterpiece,” this is a tragi-comic history of the archtypal self-made millionaire and his family, seeking an elusive foothold in Boston society.

The Pit: a Story of Chicago, by Frank Norris (1901)

Brings to life “the speculative fever that gripped the American economy throughout the 1880s and 1890s, and made options trading the rage.”

The Financier, by Theodore Dreiser (1912)

A dynamic fictional portrait of railway tycoon Charles T. Yerkes; “in the genre of the business novel, where the oppositions tended to be seen in sharply limited patterns of black and white, Dreiser broke through to something more impure and dangerous-- and more alive."

The Big Money, by John Dos Passos (1936)

This is the third volume in the author’s USA Trilogy, a “fable of America's materialistic success and moral decline;" it marks the end of "one of the most ambitious projects that an American novelist has ever undertaken."

Point of No Return, by John Marquand (1949)

“Probes the turbulent inner life of a successful banker searching for identity in his chosen profession.”

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson (1955)

Recently reissued, this novel about a public relations executive was a bestseller of its time; its title has become a watchword for the corporation man.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand (1957)

“The decisions of a few industrial leaders shake the roots of capitalism and reawaken man's awareness of himself as a heroic being” in this monumental paean to individualism.

East Side Story, by Louis Auchincloss (1968)

From a novelist known for his insightful portrayals of the wealthy, this generational saga is “astute in its depiction of a prominent New York family as it, first, makes its fortune, then tries to build on it and protect it in perpetuity.”

Nice Work, by David Lodge (1990)

British comic writer Lodge presents the collision of a trendy feminist academic and the director of an engineering firm, and “spoofs in a nonjudgmental way both the pretensions of academia and the materialism of the upper-middle business class.”

Gain, by Richard Powers (1999)

The author “tackles 170 years of US capitalism as embodied by a single corporation, binding it to the struggle of a midwestern mom…Intellectually dazzling.”

Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (1999)

“A breakneck-paced story that interweaves World War II code making and code breaking with computerized global corporate takeovers.” “Electrifying...hilarious...a sprawling, picaresque novel.”

Turn of the Century, by Kurt Andersen (2000)

“A rollicking tour of Gotham high society, Hollywood studios, Seattle technological start-ups, and Wall Street war rooms.”

A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe (2001)

“Who, besides Wolfe, would have thought that banking and real estate transactions could be the stuff of gripping fiction?”

Bombardiers, by Po Bronson (2003)

“Catch 22 for '90s. Set at the nexus of capitalism, the Information Economy, and high technology, the story chronicles the trench warfare of the bond trading business.”

Jennifer Government: a Novel, by Max Barry (2004)

“Pop-future comedy in which corporations go to war like feudal fiefdoms,” the government is privatized, and everyone’s last name ties them to their workplace.

The Power Broker: a Novel, by Stephen Frey (2006)

Classic thriller - one in a popular series about the intrepid chairman of a giant private equity firm. In this one he – surprise! - becomes the running mate of the first Democratic African-American presidential candidate.

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody, by Daniel Lyons (2007)

“Based on the once-anonymous "Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" that recently swept the Web…razor sharp and utterly delicious.”

Mergers & Acquisitions, by Dana Vachon (2007)

A “fizzy first novel” that is a “dizzying romp through investment banking heaven and hell.”

Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris (2007)

In this “wildly funny debut,” and “masterpiece of pitch and tone, Ferris brilliantly captures the fishbowl quality of contemporary office life.”