Second Lives: A Novel of the Gilded Age

Second Lives is Richard Wheeler's paean to hope and courage. This sweeping historical novel is set in Gilded Age Denver, a time when mining fortunes were won and lost, and people flocked to the bright city beside the Rockies to make their fortunes.

The novel follows the lives of several people whose lives have been ruined, and who are now struggling to find a worthwhile life amidst the wreckage. There's Lorenzo Carthage, called "Magnificent" by some, who has won and lost gold mines, and suddenly has come to the end of the road. There's Dixie Ball, a big woman who was once the queen of Telluride, and now is a chambermaid struggling to find a new life. There's Homer Peabody, Esquire, a failed lawyer barely earning a living, who sees little hope of happiness in the time he has left but wants to try. There's Cornelia Kimbrough, virtually the chattel of a cold, powerful, indifferent man who has oppressed and imprisoned her, a man she yearns to escape. And Yves Poulenc, tubercular poet, resigned to death only to discover he is doomed to live, and doesn't know how.

These and others struggle to create new lives. Most of them find the inner courage and resources to start over; one or two don't manage it, no matter how they struggle. There's opportunity, and hope, and excitement in early Denver, if only these struggling people can find their niche in life. This is their story, memorably and sensitively told.