A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells

A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells

The book, which takes place in late 19th century New York City, tells the story of Basil March, who finds himself in the middle of a dispute between his employer, a self-made millionaire named Dryfoos, and his old German teacher, an advocate for workers' rights named Lindau. The main character of the novel, Basil March, provides the main perspective throughout the novel. He resides in Boston with his wife and children until he is persuaded by his idealistic friend Fulkerson to move to New York to help him start a new magazine, where the writers benefit in a primitive form of profit sharing. Considered by to be author's best work, the book is also considered to be the first novel to portray New York City. In this novel, Howells primarily deals with issues of post-war Gilded Age America, like labor disputes, the rise of the self-made millionaire, the growth of urban America, the influx of immigrants, and other industrial-era problems. Also, Howells here portrays a variety of people from different backgrounds. The book was well-received for its portrayal of social injustice. William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. He was the first American author to bring a realist aesthetic to the literature of the United States. His stories of Boston upper crust life set in the 1850s are highly regarded among scholars of American fiction.

"No one before Howells had thought to capture the teeming, heterogeneous, multifarious, high-tension city on a single great canvasAgainst 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

William Dean Howells (1837-1920) began writing poetry while on the staff of the Ohio State Journal. This was published in Atantic Monthly, which he later edited. He went on to write a biography of Lincoln, and established himself as a prominent literary critic and a successful novelist. Phillip Lopate holds the Adams Chair at Hofstra University, where he is Professor of English. He is the author of several essay collections and two volumes of poetry.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780140439236
ISBN 10	0140439234
Title	A Hazard of New Fortunes
Author	William Dean Howells
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	2001-12-01
Number of pages	480
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.