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. Attempting to break into the city's sophisticated society, he becomes bent on the acquisition of both money and social position. An elegant tale of Boston society and manners, Howells contrasts 'old' and 'new' money, presenting the representatives of both sympathetically and portraying the attempts of the self-made man to break into the world inhabited by those from 'established' families with humour and delicacy.

Format: Paperback
Year published: 2005
Pages: 378
Sub-genre: Classics; literary fiction.
Imprint: Nonsuch Publishing