William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes

Michael Anesko (Penn State University)
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With this novel, published in 1890, William Dean Howells (1837-1920) at last answered the call of his own campaign for literary realism in American letters. For years he had used his editorial powers at the

Atlantic

and

Harper’s

to promote realist theory and technique and to advocate on behalf of novelists who shared his dedication to the “simple and truthful treatment of material”. While his other fictions of the 1880s were all the while building in this direction – from

The Rise of Silas Lapham

(1885) to

The Minister’s Charge

(1886) and

Annie Kilburn

(1889) –

A Hazard of New Fortunes

offered Howells the largest social arena in which to translate his theories into practice. The setting is New York; the moment is the present; the issues are timeless.

Howells’s

908 words

Citation: Anesko, Michael. "A Hazard of New Fortunes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7147, accessed 19 March 2024.]

7147 A Hazard of New Fortunes 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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