the rise of silas lapham by william dean howells

Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Howells is counted among the forerunners of American literary realism, and his novel, The Rise of Silas Lapham, is regarded as exemplifying the burgeoning. As Kermit Vanderbilt points out in his introduction, the novel focuses on important themes in the American literary tradition: the efficacy of self-help and determination, the ambiguous benefits of social and economic progress, and the continual contradiction between urban and pastoral values.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. William Dean Howells richly humorous characterization of a self-made millionaire. and his kindest, see The War of the Critics over William Dean Howells, ed. His greed also causes him to gain and lose a fortune. Silas' life is guided by the words I want. He wants his daughter to marry into the aristocratic Corey family to enhance his position in society. Silas Lapham inherits his father's paint business, from which he makes a great deal of money, and moves his family from rural Vermont to cosmopolitan Boston. Rise of Silas Lapham to appreciate and comment on both vulgarity and up. Silas' determination to be both wealthy and socially accepted is the strongest element in bringing the two stories together. Silas, greedy for wealth as well as prestige, brings his company to the brink of bankruptcy, and the family is forced to return to Vermont, financially ruined but morally renewed. Buy a cheap copy of The Rise of Silas Lapham book by William Dean Howells. This book is Howell's best-known work, and this elegant tale of Boston society and manners is rightly regarded as a subtle classic of its time. After establishing a fortune in the paint business, Silas Lapham moves his family from their Vermont farm to the city of Boston, where they awkwardly attempt to break into Brahmin society. William Dean Howells' richly humorous characterization of a self-made millionaire in Boston society provides a paradigm of American culture in the Gilded Age. William Dean Howells portrait of the self-made millionaire in Boston society gives us an accurate idea of American culture at the time.

The rise of silas lapham by william dean howells