Book Cover of Ragged Dick

Ragged Dick

by Horatio Alger

Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks is a Bildungsroman by Horatio Alger Jr., which was serialized in The Student and Schoolmate in 1867 and expanded for publication as a full-length novel in May 1868 by the publisher A. K. Loring. It was the first volume in the six-volume Ragged Dick Series and became Alger's best-selling work. The tale follows a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability in 19th-century New York City. It had a favourable reception. Student and Schoolmate reported their readers were delighted with the first instalment, and Putnam's Magazine thought boys would love the novel. The plot and theme were repeated in Alger's subsequent novels and became the subject of parodies and satires. Ragged Dick and Alger's Silas Snobden's Office Boy inspired the musical comedy Shine! in 1982.

Book Details

Language

English

Original Language

English

Published In

1868

Author

Horatio Alger image

Horatio Alger

United States

Horatio Alger Jr. was an American writer of young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through good works. His writ...

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