Ragged Dick

Description

Ragged Dick, written by Horatio Alger, Jr. tells the story of a young orphan boy, Richard Hunter, who lives on the streets of 1860’s New York, making his living as a shoe shiner. Unlike some of his “colleagues”, he has an innate inclination to fine manners, although he occasionally swears, smokes and even drinks.

The boy, better known to his entourage and clients by the name of “ragged Dick”, cannot picture himself living a better life, but he frequently jokes with his clients that he has a large mansion on 5th Avenue, friends in high places and shares at one of the most profitable railroad companies of the time.

However, ragged Dick’s life takes a dramatic turn for the better, once he meets Frank Whitney, a boy of the same age as him, who pays him to be his guide through New York. The little shoe shiner is impressed by Frank’s manners in such a way that he decides to change his lifestyle and become a respectable person.

Mr. Greyson, a client impressed with the honesty Dick proves on a certain occasion and by his humorous nature, offers him a job, and Henry Fosdick, a young man experiencing hard times without any personal fault for the situation, becomes the boy’s tutor. This way, the hero of the book takes his first steps on the road from “rags to riches”.

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born on January, 13, 1832 in the town of Chelsea, Massachusetts. He is still seen as one of the most popular American writers of children’s literature, Ragged Dick being by far his best work.

The main characters of his novels are in most of the cases young boys of a humble origin who succeed in having a superior social status thanks to their own efforts. The author died in 1899 and he is buried in Natick, Massachusetts.

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