5 h 14 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to your place in society when the fortune that supports it begins to turn?
In On the Stairs, Henry Blake Fuller explores an American world where money, rank and ambition shape choices. New fortunes press against older ideas of class. Manners matter: what people say, whom they visit and how they behave in company can reveal what they hope to gain.
The desire to rise meets the uncertainty of keeping one's place. Fuller treats ambition with sympathy as well as doubt, watching a society where fortune can reverse and standing is never entirely secure. His controlled, observant narrator brings dry irony to the pressure of getting ahead—and the fear of slipping back.
What you’ll discover
- The pressure to rise Explore ambition as both an understandable wish and a desire worth questioning.
- Manners with something at stake Look closely at social behavior that reveals hopes of money, rank and acceptance.
- Fortune without firm footing Consider how changing circumstances test the security that wealth and position seem to promise.
- An eye for irony Meet a narrator whose cool, amused observations sharpen the picture of American society.
- New money, older ranks Enter a social world where growing fortunes push against established ideas of status.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love wry narrators, comedy about old money and new money, and sharp character studies in a growing Midwestern city.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two staircases frame fifty years of rivalry
- Two boys grow up in neighboring windows
- Raymond asks for nothing while Johnny asks for everything
- Art pulls Raymond and land pulls Johnny
- Raymond leaves for Europe and keeps his distance
- Johnny climbs at home as Raymond returns
- A Parisian bride meets the man from the stable
- Class, pride, and a narrator who talks back
Who’s who
- Raymond PrinceA bookish heir who loves art and Europe, hates business, and wants to keep his dignity and his distance from the crude world around him.
- John McComasA boy who lives above a stable, learns by doing, loves money, family, and noise, and sets out to climb to the top of his city.
- George WaiteThe lawyer who tells the story, a friend to both men who watches, jokes, and never quite takes sides.
- James PrinceRaymond's kind, careful father, who inherits wealth and worry and hopes his son will learn banking.
- Jehiel PrinceRaymond's grandfather, a gloomy capitalist who builds a monument of a house and fights off poor relations.
- GertrudeA young Parisian-raised bride who wants a livelier, fashionable life than Raymond's quiet house can give.
- Adele McComasJohnny's energetic wife, who enjoys spending and showing off their growing wealth and befriends Gertrude.
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Auf der Treppe
by Henry Blake Fuller · 1918
Two boys meet on a school stair in 1873, and by 1916 they have traded places on another.
Medium level2–5 hours to readDeutsch
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In short
Two boys meet on a school stairway in 1873. The younger one steps aside while Raymond Prince comes down with a crowd around him.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two staircases frame fifty years of rivalry
The book opens with two short scenes set forty-three years apart. In 1873 Johnny McComas, new at Grant's Private Academy, waits against a landing wall while Raymond Prince comes down the main stairway with a few boys around him. Raymond asks how he is, and Johnny says he is pretty well.
In 1916 Johnny comes down the bank stairs while Raymond stands aside. He says McComas will climb the stairs of life from bottom to top, as people generally think, while Raymond will go down from top to bottom, as his critics see it. They will pass each other near the middle of the book.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1918
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 3 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Fuller, Henry Blake. On the Stairs. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/on-the-stairs.
Fuller, H. B. (2026). On the stairs. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/on-the-stairs (Original work published 1918)
Fuller, Henry Blake. On the Stairs. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/on-the-stairs.
@book{fuller2026stairs,
author = {Fuller, Henry Blake},
title = {On the Stairs},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/on-the-stairs},
note = {First published 1918}
}
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What is On the Stairs by Henry Blake Fuller about?
It follows two men from a school stairway in 1873 to a bank stairway in 1916. Raymond Prince, a rich, bookish heir, and John McComas, an ambitious boy who once lived above a stable, move in opposite directions in a fast-growing Midwestern city.
Who tells the story in On the Stairs?
A lawyer named George Waite tells it. He knew both men as a schoolboy, shares his memories with a dry sense of humor, and often interrupts himself to comment on how he is telling the tale.
What do the stairs mean in the novel?
The stairs stand for social position. Characters meet on school, bank, and ballroom stairways, and each time who goes up and who comes down shows who holds power. The narrator also plays with the idea of climbing down.
The author
Henry Blake Fuller
1857–1929 · American novelist
Henry Blake Fuller was an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in Chicago in 1857 and died there in 1929. His novels include The Cliff-Dwellers, published in 1893, and Bertram Cope’s Year, published in 1919. He lived in Chicago and also traveled in Europe.
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