William Dean Howells

The Rise of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells

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 try and improve his social status. The consequences of which are both humorous and tragic. The novel focuses on important themes in the American literary tradition: the efficacy of self-help and determination, the ambiguous benefits of social and economic progress, and the continual contradiction between urban and pastoral values.