The Financier vs The Rise of Silas Lapham: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Psychological fiction, Fiction
The Financier
“The Philadelphia into which Frank Algernon Cowperwood was born was a city of two hundred and fifty thousand and more.”
The Financier is a novel by Theodore Dreiser, based on real-life streetcar tycoon Charles Yerkes. Dreiser started writing his manuscript in 1911, and the following year published the first part of his lengthy work as…
vs
The Rise of Silas Lapham
The Rise of Silas Lapham is a novel written by William Dean Howells in 1885 about the materialistic rise of Silas Lapham from rags to riches, and his ensuing moral susceptibility. Silas earns a fortune in the paint…
The verdict
- Readers rate The Financier highest: The Financier 4.3 · The Rise of Silas Lapham 3.4.
- The Rise of Silas Lapham is the quickest read — about 4 hours vs 9 for The Financier.
- The Financier has the widest readership — 8308 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| The Financier | The Rise of Silas Lapham | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.3 (8308) | 3.4 (4433) |
| Hardcover | 4.3 (19) | 2.6 (5) |
| Google Books | 5.0 (1) | — |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (15) | 4.0 (15) |
Reception
| The Financier | The Rise of Silas Lapham | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 8308 | 4433 |
| Editions | 352 | 226 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 8266 | 3355 |
| Reading it now | 1090 | 207 |
| Written reviews | 368 | 342 |
| Wikipedia attention | 926 | 603 |
| Pages | 523 | 256 |