The book is told in the form of a fictional autobiography of David Levinsky, a Russian Jew who emigrates to America and rises from rags to riches.
The main character, David Levinsky, is born in 1865 in Antomir, a city of 80,000 in the Kovno district of the Russian Empire (present-day Lithuania).
He meets and befriends Reb (Rabbi) Sender who is supported by his wife while he spends sixteen hours a day studying the Talmud.
David begins to feel an inner conflict between the religious instruction he receives and his growing interest in girls.
After mourning, David moves into the synagogue, as was often customary for poorer Talmudic students, and continues his studies.
As was also customary, he "eats days" at the houses of benefactors, who invite Talmudic scholars for one meal per week.
After the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 and subsequent anti-Jewish riots, many Jews flee the Russian Empire for lands free of religious persecution.
Even, a wealthy Jewish man, who gives him money, clothing, dinner, and a haircut—including the removal of his sidelocks.
David spends Even's money on dry goods and begins to work as a peddler, barely getting by.
One Max Margolis tells him he's a "good-looking chap", and recommends he learn to dance, adding that "every woman can be won."
Finally, Dora breaks off the affair and demands David move out and sever relations with the family.
David reflects on how lonely he is and, in spite of his massive financial success, wishes he had led an intellectual rather than commercial life.
He says he is deeply unhappy and though many women desire his hand in marriage, the only woman he can think about is Miss Tevkin.
The novel was made into a musical by Isaiah Sheffer and Robert Paul and performed at the 92nd Street Y in New York City in the 1980s.
New Vista was founded by |Avi Hoffman, who played the role of the younger David Levinsky in the original production.
"[4] Cahan's book is a Rags to riches story that begins with "the metamorphosis" of "arrived .. with four cents in my pocket" to "worth more than two million dollars."
His self view is worded as "inner identity .. precisely the same as it was thirty or forty years ago ... devoid of significance.
An analysis of the book's name says that "Cahan drew the subtitle of his series from The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) by William Dean Howells, the most influential advocate for realism.
"[8][9] The full title of the McClure's Magazine multi-part series upon which the book was built[10][11] is The Autobiography of an American Jew: The Rise of David Levinsky.
To perfect that "Levinsky is a fully realized character in the novel" the use of the name David, in place of Abraham, is needed, to make "relating his candid autobiography" represent "East European Jewish immigrants like himself."
Despite Cahan's impact on what Seth Lipsky calls "newspapering"[12] and various on-stage adaptations and presentations, an 82 page 1983 university thesis concludes by calling The Rise of David Linsky a "somewhat neglected novel novel,"[13] which another thesis labeled a "semi-autobiographical work" both by and about someone "torn apart between the American materialism and his spiritual roots.