establishing St. Botolphs and its Ininhabitants, Cheever has assembled a unique and engaging assortment of eccentrics to serve the thematic purposes of the novel. Clearly the hero of The Wapshot Chronicle is Leander Wapshot, patriarch of the family and unfaltering proponent of tradition. Descended from generations of God-fearing Wapshot men drawn to the sea, Leander is unceremoniously reduced to ferrying passengers across the bay from St. Botolphs to Nangasakit; that is, until an inopportune storm enables his wife Sarah to turn the foundered S.S. Topaze into "The Only Floating Gift Shoppe in New England."

Juxtaposed to Leander is cousin Honora Wapshot, possessor of the family fortune and coupled with Sarah the representation of the steadfast, independent, and emasculating female.

It is Honora who shares Leander's determination to transfer the value of tradition to the new generation of Wapshots, yet by circumstance is also Leander's rival for control...