A Hazard of New Fortunes - in References To Other Works

In References To Other Works

Basil March and his wife are characters who were first introduced in Howells's Their Wedding Journey. Basil's age is never given, nor is his role in the American Civil War. It can be inferred from A Hazard of New Fortunes' entirely that he was old enough to participate in the war, based on his conversation with Lindau in the restaurant.

William Dean Howells did not fight in the Civil War, but rather served as American counsel at Venice for President Lincoln in Italy. He earned his position for writing a campaign biography for Lincoln. His time abroad kept him from experiencing the war first-hand.

Conscription, or the act of finding someone to replace you or paying a fee, was used in the Civil War by rich men who did not want to fight. Dryfoos chose conscription, or substitution, to avoid leaving his family. The Civil War also plays a minor role in Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885).

Both The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Hazard of New Fortunes feature self-made millionaires dealing with moral dilemmas. Both novels also contrast class and social differences between these self-made millionaires and upper-class establishment families. The novels both feature romance plots, but in A Hazard of New Fortunes one of the major romance plots (involving Angus Beaton) fails to resolve itself into a marriage.

The title, A Hazard of New Fortunes, is a reference to William Shakespeare's King John. King John portrays the themes of uncertainty, change, and violence, all of which are also important to A Hazard of New Fortunes.