14 h 56 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 14 h 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the fortune that opens doors cannot buy you a place at the table?
Silas Lapham turns a Vermont farm boy's start into a thriving Boston paint business. Proud and generous, he wants his family to belong. A handsome house on Beacon Street promises a fresh beginning, but his wife Persis knows that wealth cannot settle every worry about happiness, manners, or conscience.
When the Laphams meet the Coreys, new money faces an old family name. Tom Corey joins Silas's firm and visits his home, stirring hopes around daughters Irene and Penelope. Meanwhile, cheaper paints threaten profits, and former partner Milton Rogers presses on Silas's conscience. William Dean Howells brings humor to a question with sharp edges: what does success cost?
What you’ll discover
- A place in society Enter a Boston where a full purse does not guarantee a warm welcome.
- A dinner full of nerves Join Silas and Persis as an invitation makes clothes and manners feel suddenly important.
- Two sisters with hopes Meet sweet-natured Irene and witty Penelope as Tom Corey's visits stir the family's expectations.
- The weight of conscience Follow a businessman who wants to stay honest while competition threatens what he has built.
- Humor without easy villains Enjoy quiet irony that reveals ordinary people's weaknesses without turning them into saints or villains.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy family stories with sharp humor, who like to watch money and manners collide, and who care about honest people facing real choices.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Pride shapes the story Lapham tells
- Wealth leaves a social door closed
- An old partnership troubles the house
- Tom chooses work over family standing
- Dinner exposes the gap in manners
- Love unsettles the sisters' shared hopes
- Business losses deepen the family's strain
- Conscience puts profit to the test
- Small choices reveal what people owe
Who’s who
- Silas LaphamA Vermont farm boy turned Boston paint millionaire, proud and blunt, who builds a grand house and longs to see his daughters welcomed by society.
- Persis LaphamSilas's shrewd and loving wife, a former schoolteacher with a sharp conscience, who wants the best for her daughters and still carries guilt over Rogers.
- Penelope LaphamThe elder daughter, small, dark, funny, and well read, who loves reading and teasing and tries to shield her sister's feelings.
- Irene LaphamThe younger daughter, lovely and sweet, who hopes the young man who is kind to her will love her.
- Tom CoreyA well-bred young Bostonian who wants to earn his living and joins Lapham's paint business, believing in the work.
- Bromfield CoreyTom's witty, idle father, an amateur painter who jokes about everything and watches his son's new life with detached curiosity.
- Anna CoreyTom's proud mother, who worries about her son's future and dreads the Lapham connection.
- Milton K. RogersLapham's former partner, a dry, soft-spoken schemer who keeps coming back for money and favors.
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The Rise of Silas Lapham
by William Dean Howells · 1885
A Vermont paint millionaire builds a mansion on Beacon Street to win society, and the house becomes his test.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Would you let a newspaper reporter turn your life into a tale about a paint? That is how The Rise of Silas Lapham begins.
The Rise of Silas Lapham at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 35 min6 h 50 min fast, 10 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 122,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1885by William Dean Howells
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A reporter turns Lapham's life into a legend
The novel opens in 1875 in Lapham's office, where Bartley Hubbard has come to write a piece for a series called Solid Men of Boston. Bartley jokes about birth, poverty, and barefoot boyhood. Lapham bristles, because to him these things are not jokes.
He tells of the Vermont farm and his father, who spent his life failing to sell a reddish mineral as paint. He tells of the bullet at Gettysburg and the business he built into an empire. Bartley listens with private amusement and prints a glowing sketch. Lapham misses the irony completely.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1885
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Howells, William Dean. The Rise of Silas Lapham. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rise-of-silas-lapham.
Howells, W. D. (2026). The rise of Silas Lapham. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rise-of-silas-lapham (Original work published 1885)
Howells, William Dean. The Rise of Silas Lapham. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rise-of-silas-lapham.
@book{howells2026rise,
author = {Howells, William Dean},
title = {The Rise of Silas Lapham},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rise-of-silas-lapham},
note = {First published 1885}
}
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What is The Rise of Silas Lapham about?
It tells of a self-made Vermont paint millionaire who builds a grand house in Boston to win social standing for his daughters. A love story, a family quarrel, and money troubles test his conscience.
Who is Milton K. Rogers in the novel?
Rogers is Lapham's former partner, who put money into the paint business early on. Lapham pushed him out, and his guilt over that act returns again and again.
What does the Persis Brand mean?
It is Lapham's finest paint, named for his wife Persis. It stands for his love and gratitude to her and for the pride he takes in his work.
The author
William Dean Howells
1837–1920 · American novelist and literary critic
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was an American novelist, critic, and playwright. He was born in Ohio and lived in Massachusetts and New York. He edited The Atlantic Monthly from 1871 to 1881. His novels include The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and The Coast of Bohemia (1893).
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