William Dean Howells 
Rise of Silas Lapham 

The classic novel about an ordinary man’s ascent into wealthy Boston circles, and its effect on him and his family.Thanks to hard work and good fortune, Silas Lapham succeeds financially in the paint business. But money and class are not the same thing, and the Laphams struggle to feel they truly fit in amid New England’s social aristocracy. When they move into a luxurious home in the elite Back Bay neighborhood, they soon have a young patrician in their lives, a potential suitor for their daughter. But Tom Corey’s intentions are not quite what they think, and after much upheaval, the Laphams are left to contemplate how their change in status has altered their lives forevermore, in this landmark of nineteenth-century American literature.