SOURCE: "Mammon's Finger in the Novels of Balzac, Zola, and Gide," in Money: Lure, Lore, and Literature, edited by John Louis DiGaetani, Greenwood Press, 1994, pp. 175-83.

In the following essay, Frey discusses money as a metaphor, a medium of exchange, and as a symbol of power and control in the ninteenth-century novel.

No servant can be the slave of two masters; for either he will hate the first and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and think nothing of the second. You cannot serve God and Money.

Matthew: 6,24

Money is a metaphor, a medium of exchange for goods and services; it is also a symbol of power and control. Images on currency denote intentional metaphorical value. Coins are imprinted with representations of presidents, queens, and kings. Religious and political slogans are presented, such as "In God we Trust" or "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity...