Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks

When I was in school taking a New York History class, me and my classmates had about ten books assigned to us for the course. My favorite was by far "Ragged Dick". I finished reading Alger's classic in one sitting. I couldn't help but root for Ragged Dick and greatly admired his indomitable spirit and strong sense of morality. Who knows if such a blackboot ever existed in real life. If he did, he'd be very special and very rare. One look through Jacob Riis' seminal book, "How the Other Half Lives" should convince anyone that life for a street urchin, in the Lower East Side during the 19th century, was extremely hard and didn't afford many opportunities for advancement. Food and shelter were of utmost importance. Everything else came second, even clothes, shoes, and an education. Horatio Alger, just like Charles Loring Brace and Jacob Riis to name a few, should be commended for exposing the plight of these orphaned and abused children living in and around the Five Points area of old New York.Still, in a way, it's amusing to read these books and think how Alger firmly believed Capitalism was the way out of poverty but never acknowledged how it also contributed to the dire conditions these ragged children found themselves in. Being poor was considered, during the time of Ragged Dick, a personal flaw, as if there was something inherently wrong with the individual who found himself destitute. The popular thinking in America, at least by those who were comfortable or who had already attained wealth, is best explained by former reverend Russell Conwell (February 15, 1843 - December 6, 1925) in his famous speech entitled, "Acres of Diamonds" where he states: "let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings". Of course, 19th century New York has shown posterity that the issues of poverty were much more complex.The reader should keep in mind, these books were meant for young boys of a different time and were written as a lesson in morality and etiquette. But that's not to say they're not timeless and can't be enjoyed by the modern reader. On the contrary, they are truly a joy to read and will bring hours of pleasure to you.However, there are two points I'd like to bring up, briefly, as to what I didn't like about this Kindle series:+ The conversion to the Kindle format created formatting errors such as sentences separated from their paragraphs.+ Grammatical errors.Aside from that, these classics should be required reading just as much as "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn". Also, bear in mind the books following "Ragged Dick" were not available before and could only be read at certain private libraries. Many thanks to those responsible for the reprinting of "The Complete Ragged Dick Series".

When reviewing a story I think the easiest way to determine how many stars to give is the clarity with which you found the key points of the book and how clearly they are in your mind. This is the reason why ‘The Ragged Dick’ gets 5 stars from me. You aren’t going to find a complex work of literature here. There is no subtle web of deceit and subterfuge. The story is there right in front of you and it’s easy to absorb. Once you are finished though you will be better for the experience. There is also a strong undercurrent of business and work ethic contained in the story too which I will also address.A superficial view of this book would say that it’s a pretty typical ‘rags to riches story’. That’s a fair assessment but there’s a lot more to it. Firstly, because a story is simple doesn’t make it bad. I feel that many novels challenge themselves to be as complex as possible without adding a massive amount to the quality of the story. The author clearly recognises this because there is never any ambiguity. The tale moves at a constant clip and you get a clear mental picture of life in NYC at this time (though I assume for many it was a lot worse than portrayed in this book). A lack of grit surrounding the nature of society at the time comes I suspect from the constant optimism of the protagonist.As mentioned, this book has quite a capitalist story to it. It talks repeatedly about the benefits of self-improvement, saving and moral decency. I think in particular that lessons about spending less than you earn are ones that are forgotten easily – you will be well reminded by the time you finish. You could argue that the story could be a pointer toward political lines that would be comparable to what we see today. Perhaps, but I don’t think this is the key message of the book. I don’t think it impossible though that this book could readily be pointed to as a means of illustrating the benefits of being a shrewd entrepreneur.It’s unlikely to take you long to get through this book – especially if like me you are really taken in by the story. I don’t read a tremendous amount of fiction but I will have fond memories of this story. It also has put several financial fundamentals back into the front of my mind. This alone should make the book very cheap relative to the payoff.

A short read, but nonetheless a fun story. It was bought for school and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

An easy read, main character is likable, and as is common to most books, he has a dastardly protagonist!I had heard of the Horatio books many years ago, but never read one til now.I'm glad I did, if for no other reason than to get first hand knowledge of what they were reading one hundred years ago!

I accidentally found this book and couldn't resist. It took me back to age 10 when a neighbor lent me "Up The Ladder" and I never forgot it.I think these stories are still good for teenagers. This was a fun read and recalled my own thinking as I went from a family on state welfare to a college graduate and a reasonably successful life.Of course the story is very dated; but the good stuff is still there.Norm

What a wonderful success story! This timeless tome has wonderful encouragement to all young people. The 19th century language and general social conditions are a thing to study and compare with our modern day lives.

I’m reading this with my 4th grader. There is a lot of great phrases and vocabulary to teach and help her understand the hidden meaning behind an author’s written words.

As of the times of industrial revolution, poor working class was encouraged to read the book for a "myth of success" popular in those ages. Poorer were getting poorer and richer were getting richer (sounds familiar?).

Ripping yarn with a hidden message

I was surprised by how thoroughly enjoyable that this collection of stories was.Very wholesome and optimistic stories of overcoming adversity.I will be reading more of his works for sure.

Was very happy to find this on Amazon for such a reasonable price.