# Part First explained — A Hazard of New Fortunes

> Chapter companion for A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells.

## What happens

The Marches, Basil and Isabel, decide to leave their comfortable life in Boston for the uncertain opportunities of New York City. Basil March loses his insurance job and receives an offer from Fulkerson to edit a new literary magazine, Every Other Week, funded by the wealthy natural gas magnate Mr. Dryfoos. The family moves to New York, searching for an apartment and encountering the city's vibrant but overwhelming diversity. March reconnects with his old friend Lindau, a radical German socialist who lost a hand fighting in the Civil War. Meanwhile, the Dryfoos family arrives in New York, and the magazine's staff is assembled, including the artist Beaton and the translator Lindau. The first issue of the magazine is a success, but tensions simmer between the conservative Dryfoos and the radical Lindau, foreshadowing conflict.

## Themes in this chapter

### Urban vs. Rural Life

The Marches' move from Boston to New York highlights the contrast between the orderly, familiar life of a smaller city and the chaotic, diverse, and stimulating environment of the metropolis.

### Capitalism and Moral Compromise

The magazine is funded by Dryfoos's natural gas fortune, built on ruthless business practices, forcing March to confront the moral compromises inherent in accepting such patronage.

## Character check-ins

### Basil March

The protagonist, a middle-aged literary man who moves his family from Boston to New York to edit a new magazine.

### Mrs. March

Basil's wife, who is both excited and anxious about the move to New York and the new venture.

### Fulkerson

The energetic and pragmatic entrepreneur who recruits March to edit Every Other Week.

### Mr. Dryfoos

The wealthy, conservative natural gas millionaire who secretly funds the magazine.

### Mr. Lindau

March's old friend, a radical German socialist and Civil War veteran who becomes a translator for the magazine.

## Key lines

> The city had the effect of a vast, splendid, and yet sordid and vulgar phantasmagoria.

New York struck March as a dazzling but tawdry and chaotic spectacle.

_Reflects March's ambivalent first impressions of New York's energy and materialism._

> He had been offered the place of editor of a new literary periodical to be started in New York.

Fulkerson offered March the editorship of a new magazine in New York.

_Key plot point: the offer that sets the entire story in motion._

> The old man was a natural-gas millionaire, and he had made his money in the oil regions of Pennsylvania.

Dryfoos was a self-made millionaire from the Pennsylvania oil and gas fields.

_Introduces Dryfoos's background as a nouveau riche capitalist._

## Links

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