Ragged Dick or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks - Brossura

A plucky street boy who smokes, gambles, and speaks ungrammatically, Dick is also honest and hardworking. A quintessential novel of adventure, romance, and coming-of-age, it is also an exhilarating tale of one boy's metamorphosis from dirty street urchin to gentleman. Although many scoff at his work today, Horatio Alger Jr. remains the quintessential boys' author of the 19th century. "Ragged Dick" serves as a model for all his other stories as we follow Dick through his rise from rags to riches (or at least middle class respectability.) Alger's talent as a storyteller cannot be denied as the reader is carried along from page to page, eager to find out what will happen to “Ragged Dick” next. A wonderful example of the late 19th century optimism in between the major depressions that plagued America during those years, this inspirational story for children and early adolescents imparts the values of loyalty, hard work, cooperation, persistence. It also provides a first-hand glimpse of post-Civil War New York City. The struggle of the orphans, the advantages of the privileged class, the thieves, the confidence men, the unforgiving hardness of poverty in the pre-Jacob Riis days are all there. And that's what “Ragged Dick” a double winner: it has something for the young and something for the older. Written in the late 1800's, this classic hit upon the "American Dream"—the idea that everyone, from all walks of life, can come to America and be successful in any way in which they want to so long as they work hard and determine to succeed. “Ragged Dick” fulfilled this "Dream" by making his way up in society, and eventually making a wealthy man of himself.