The Vertical City

In the glittering Bon Ton hotel, Fannie Hurst turns modern luxury into a sharp social satire, where beauty treatments, perfume, bridge games, and polished small talk mask loneliness and strain. Amid this theatrical world, the shy broker Louis Latz is drawn to Mrs. Carrie Samstag, a refined widow whose delicacy, practiced sadness, and recurring neuralgic pain awaken in him a tender, almost embarrassing longing. Their flirtation grows into an unexpectedly comic and sincere courtship, each recognizing the other as a "home" person who values domestic comfort, sacrifice, and the hope of being truly understood. But the romance is shadowed by family duty and economic need. Carrie's devotion to her daughter Alma complicates the engagement, and their tense, intimate argument exposes years of poverty, illness, guilt, and emotional dependence. Meanwhile, in another thread, Marylin's yearning for beauty and meaning leads her into a dangerous attraction to Getaway, whose boasts about money, diamonds, and schemes conceal criminal intent. Violence erupts in a gunfight, leaving Marylin overwhelmed by traumatic memories and fainting in fear. In time, however, she begins to heal through the ordinary rhythms of daily life, as grief gives way to fragile companionship and the steady comfort of a settled home. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.