The Rise of Silas Lapham

by William D. Howells

Published 31 December 1957
A major American novel centring on a business man, "The Rise of Silas Lapham" (1885), explores the capitalist ethos of the American Gilded Age. It is also a novel of manners that shows the comic confrontation of old wealth and new riches. This edition, reprints the text, and offers the full explanatory notes.