“The Rise of Silas Lapham” is William Dean Howells’ 1885 novel which tells the story of its title character, who inherits his father’s paint business and subsequently makes a great deal of money. Silas moves his family from their home in rural Vermont to Boston in order to try and improve his social position. The consequences of his ambitions for his family are both humorous and tragic. He attempts to see his younger and lovelier daughter married off to an aristocratic Boston family as a way to gain entry into the higher social strata, but his manipulations do not go as planned. Silas also gets involved in dubious business schemes that result in the loss of most of his fortune and the family is forced to move back to their country home, though Silas is able to preserve his morality even as he loses his wealth. Howells is often considered the father of American realism and he denounced the romanticism so often found in novels of his era. “The Rise of Silas Lapham” shows that Howells earned his reputation fairly in this unflinching portrayal of wealth, social hierarchy, and the vast gulf that can exist between city and country values. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
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