A Hazard of New Fortunes
$42.99
- Paperback
480 pages
- Release Date
1 December 2001
Summary
Set against a vividly depicted background of fin de siècle New York, this novel centers on the conflict between a self-made millionaire and a fervent social revolutionary—a conflict in which a man of goodwill futilely attempts to act as a mediator, only to be forced himself into a crisis of conscience. Here we see William Dean Howells’s grasp of the realities of the American experience in an age of emerging social struggle. His absolute determination to fairly represent every point of view is…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780140439236 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0140439234 |
| Author: | William Dean Howells, Phillip Lopate |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Imprint: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 480 |
| Release Date: | 1 December 2001 |
| Weight: | 369g |
| Dimensions: | 195mm x 130mm x 26mm |
| Series: | Penguin Classics |
You Can Find This Book In
What They're Saying
Critics Review
“No one before Howells had thought to capture the teeming, heterogeneous, multifarious, high-tension city on a single great canvas. Against the variegated backdrop of New York City, Howells dramatizes the intellectual and spiritual conflicts of the democratic future.” —Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
“The exactest and truest portrayal of New York and New York life ever written.” —Mark Twain
“Simply prodigious.”—Henry James
About The Author
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio. His father was a printer and newspaperman, and the family moved from town to town. Howells went to school where he could. As a boy, he began learning the printer’s skill. By the time he was in his teens, he was setting type for his own verse.
Between 1856 and 1861, he worked as a reporter for the Ohio State Journal. About this time, his poems began to appear in the Atlantic Monthly. His campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln, compiled in 1860, prompted the administration to offer him the consulship at Venice, a post he held from 1861 to 1865. He married Elinor Gertrude Meade, a young woman from Vermont, in Paris in 1862.
On his return to the United States in 1865, Howells worked in New York before going to Boston as assistant to James T. Fields of the Atlantic Monthly. In 1871, he became editor-in-chief of the magazine. In this position, he worked with many young writers, among them Mark Twain and Henry James, both of whom became his close friends.
His first novel, Their Wedding Journey, appeared in 1872. The Rise of Silas Lapham was serialized in Century Magazine before it was published in book form in 1885. A Hazard of New Fortunes was published five years later.
His position as critic, writer, and enthusiastic exponent of the new realism earned William Dean Howells the respected title of Dean of American Letters.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.