The rise of Silas Lapham

Bibliographic Information

The rise of Silas Lapham

William Dean Howells ; with an introduction by Kermit Vanderbilt

(The Penguin American library)

Penguin Books, 1983

  • : pbk.

Available at  / 3 libraries

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Note

Reprint. Originally published: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1971

Bibliography: p. xxix-xxx

Description and Table of Contents

Description

William Dean Howells' richly humorous characterization of a self-made millionaire in Boston society provides a paradigm of American culture in the Gilded Age. 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. 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. 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.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA24426543
  • ISBN
    • 0140390308
  • LCCN
    82024038
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Harmondsworth, Middlesex ; New York, N.Y.
  • Pages/Volumes
    xxx, 368 p.
  • Size
    20 cm
  • Classification
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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