The Landlord at Lion's Head — Volume 1
1897
In 1890s New Hampshire, the Durgin family stands at a crossroads. When drought ruins their crops and Mr. Durgin falls ill, they prepare to abandon their ancestral farm for California. Then an artist arrives seeking to paint Lion's Head Mountain, and Mrs. Durgin sees another path: transform the failing farm into an inn. What follows is a quietly devastating comedy of American aspiration and class collision. Jeff Durgin, the youngest son, serves the summer visitors while absorbing the sting of being treated as a lesser being. He climbs to Harvard Law, only to discover that education doesn't purchase entry into polite society. Suspended, he fleeds to Europe to study hotels, returns with new ambitions, and finds himself again caught between the world he was born into and the world he desperately wants to join. Howells, the defining voice of American literary realism, writes with sharp wit and deep compassion about the dreams and disappointments that shape a nation's character. The novel endures because it asks questions we still wrestle with: What does it cost to belong? And can you ever really leave behind the place that made you?
