The Conquest of Canaan
1905
Booth Tarkington captures a small American town at the turn of the century in this sharp, observant novel about a ne'er-do-well who dares to reach above his station. Joe Louden loves the daughter of Canaan's wealthiest judge, but in a town where reputation is currency and gossip is law, a poor young man with ambitions of law school might as well dream of flying. He leaves Canaan in disgrace, returns educated and dangerous, and proceeds to scandalize the entire community by defending cases no respectable attorney would touch. Tarkington writes with wicked humor and genuine tenderness about the absurd rigidity of small-town social hierarchies, the cruelty of respectability, and the quiet victories available to those stubborn enough to challenge them. The elderly philosophers who gather at the National House to debate morality and society provide a wry chorus, watching the younger generation upset their careful conventions. It's a story about honor and greed, about changing times and the people who refuse to change with them, and ultimately about what it takes to conquer a place that never wanted you to belong in the first place.
