Everyone must read this. The Rise of Silas Lapham, 1885, by William Dean Howells. Among the earliest of American realist writers, Howells was a poor boy who made good(ish) and danced on the fringe of the Gilded Age. His two Gilded Age novels are the closest thing we have to Dickens and Trollope in this country (Im a Hawthorne fan, but he didnt really go there). The book is about Col. Silas Lapham, a New England hero of the Civil War, who becomes a millionaire based on paint manufacturing and decides to build a new mansion in Bostons chic new Back Bay. One of his daughters falls in love with the son of an Old Money Boston family from Beacon Hill. This is 1885, folks, this is, I believe, the very first occurrence in American literature of the concept of Old Money. And it means dwindling money. Old Money has good taste, because their old things are from a time when everything was beautiful and gracious. The illogic is the same that Edith Wharton will use when she writes her seminal book on decorating in 1897. New is vulgar, old is good. Old Money resents New Money because theyre richer. So they start talking about taste as a defense against new wealth. Amazingly, it works. As a nation, we totally fall for it. And thats why I work as a curator at an art museum. (No leap there, right?)
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 19:46:00 +0000
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