A Hazard of New Fortunes

 

Business and jobs are the centre of most of our lives, and yet I can think of few, if any, novels set in a business environment before this one. W D Howells' A Hazard of New Fortunes was published in 1890. 

The ostensible plot is the launch and growth of this New-York based periodical, particularly the involvement of Basil March, who becomes its editor, and moves from Boston to New York with his family for the new job. The crux of this long book is, remarkably, just one incident, during a dinner, a celebration for contributors to the literary periodical Every Other Week. 

At the dinner, there is a confrontation between Dryfoos, an unreformed Southerner who has financed the periodical, and Lindau, a socialist who lost an arm fighting in the Civil War. Dryfoos is the owner; Lindau a poor freelancer who lives for his principles. Both men state their political views, and feelings run high. Subsequently, the owner states he does not want Lindau to work any more for the periodical, and commands Basil March, the editor, not to employ him in the future. 

Up to this point, the novel has been what I would describe as gentle in its morals. The husband and wife Marches behave in a predictably liberal way: supporting liberal causes, but without putting themselves out very dramatically for any good cause. However, at this decisive moment in the novel, Basil March decides he cannot accept the power of money to terminate a worker’s job. He stands up to the investor Dryfoos, and states he will resign rather than terminate a worker because of their political opinions. After a slight wobble) Mrs March supports her husband. 

Howells captures very well the middle-class liberal in 19th-century America: doing their job and keeping their nose clean. They support the vague idea of justice for the workers, but at the same time, they prioritise their family and career, leaving any principles, such as supporting strikes, or standing up for work colleagues, as secondary – until this key turning point. 

The contrast of the literate and civilized Basil March, and the vulgar, insensitive Dryfoos family, who need to have a chaperone to introduce the daughters to society and teach them the basic rule of interaction, is very well done. This is one of the “hazards of new fortunes” in the title; I can see the relevance, but it doesn’t make the title any more memorable. 

What I remember of the book is a graceful, flowing style that is very easy to read, and the remarkable, way the novel deepens almost imperceptible from what appears to be a comedy of manners, not as satirical as Diary of a Nobody, but with a similar deftness of touch, to stark political and social issues: the power of money in the United States to destroy lives, jobs, and relationships. A much better piece of writing than, say, Sally Rooney’s Normal People.