Five and Ten

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. In Five and Ten, Fannie Hurst turns the rise of a retail empire into a sharp, intimate drama of marriage, class, and the cost of success. John G. Rarick, a self-made magnate whose insomnia feeds endless schemes for expansion, has built a world of luxury that cannot quiet his old hunger for growth. Yet the real struggle unfolds at home, where his wife, Jenny, measures wealth by status, inheritance, and power, resenting the fact that her money helped make him famous while he failed to become the man she imagined. As the Raricks move through lavish rooms, business deals, social obligations, and public ambitions, their marriage hardens into a contest of pride, gratitude, and disappointment. Jenny pushes for grand houses and display; John clings to roots, belonging, and a quieter sense of self. Around them, family tensions deepen as their daughter Jennifer becomes entangled in a forbidden romance that threatens scandal and forces painful confessions. Hurst's novel exposes the emotional wreckage beneath prosperity, where fortune multiplies desire but never guarantees love, peace, or fulfillment.