William Dean Howells

A Hazard of New Fortunes follows Basil and Isabel March to New York, where Fulkerson hires Basil to edit the new magazine Every Other Week. Across offices, parlors, and streetcar lines, Howells composes a panoramic social comedy edged with menace: the immigrant socialist Lindau debates the ex-Confederate Colonel Woodburn; the newly rich investor Dryfoos asserts the sovereignty of capital; and a strike erupts, ending in Conrad Dryfoos's death.
In supple, gently ironic realism, the novel blends metropolitan observation and dialogue to anatomize Gilded Age capitalism, labor unrest, and the rise of a modern media culture. Howells, long styled the dean of American realism, drew on his editorial career-from The Atlantic Monthly to his New York work with Harper's-to render the magazine world from within. His outspoken response to the Haymarket affair sharpened his social conscience, and his late-1880s immersion in Manhattan supplied the novel's documentary textures.
Returning to his recurring protagonist Basil March, he tests how markets shape art and citizenship. Readers interested in American realism, labor history, or media studies will find this novel exacting and humane: a bracing, timely inquiry into class, immigration, and the ethics of publishing. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable-distilled, never diluted.
Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.