The Rise of Silas Lapham

Written by William Dean Howells

Narrated by Grover Gardner

After establishing a fortune in the paint business, Silas Lapham moves his family from their Vermont farm to the city of Boston in order to improve his social status, the consequences of which are both humorous and tragic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Apr 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781455129331

William Dean Howells

William Dean Howells was a realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for his own prolific writings.

Reviews for The Rise of Silas Lapham

[mahallett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

sort of boring. definitely masculine old style.

[evanroskos_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is worth reading simply because of the structure -- it is perfectly symmetrical. there is an epiphany at the exact center and the opening and closing chapters are two different confessions -- one public, one private. It's an amazing work, though most people don't read it at this point.

[corinneblackmer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 Silas Lapham, a decorated former officer in the Civil War, makes a fortune in the Civil War, but, because of his countrified manners, has difficulties in introducing himself and his daughters (who must marry) into cultivated society in Boston. One daughter does make a match with a wealthy and cultivated son of the Corey family; however, when Lapham has the chance to make another fortune through the sale of his now failing paint company to some English speculators, he refuses to do so, and therefore shows his moral fiber. However, it is pertinent in this regard that the family has a farm in New Hampshire to which to repair, and which Mrs. Lapham prefers to Boston society.

[jimsnopes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Wednesday morning Keele 'Continuing and Professional Education' class today featured The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). Hard going to read this for me, but rewarding on looking back at and through it with the group. I decided Howells - or at least as evidenced in this book - was a bit of a leftie, if not even an armchair Marxist. This last paragraph from the book seems to convey the conditions/consciousness dialectic of Marxism, as Silas reflects on whether he has any regrets: "About what I done? Well, it don't always seem as if I done it...Seems sometimes as if it was a hole opened for me, and I crept out of it. I don't know... as I should always say it paid; but if I done it, and the thing was to do over again, right in the same way, I guess I should have to do it." An excellent study of social class, with observations through his characters' actions and thoughts that are as recognisable in today's society as they evidently were in the Boston of the 1880s.Too long, many thought, but this may be a function of such works being first published in serialised form.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading William Dean Howells' fine novel, The Rise of Silas Lapham, is an enjoyable experience. With a balanced structure in the classical manner, his lucid prose and fine attention to detail almost caress the reader. The deftly woven plot and sub-plots highlight the "rise" of Lapham in a moral sense even while his material fortunes deteriorate. The female characters, especially Lapham's daughter Penelope, are well written and rival portrayals of women by such novelists as Eliot and Wharton. This is the first of major American novels of business, to be followed by those of Norris (The Octopus), Dreiser (The Financier) and Lewis (Babbit) among others. Howells sets his novel apart with his positive view of New England ideals and business itself. It is no wonder that this book has continuously been in print and is considered one the great works of American literature.