Ragged Dick

Dick Hunter is a shoeshiner working and living on the streets of New York City in the mid-19th century. Despite being dealt a bad hand, Dick attempts to extricate himself from his situation and become respectable. But it won't be easy, thanks to the bullies, con men, and thieves that roam the city. Dick has to outmatch them with his wits, his work ethic, his honesty, and a bit of luck. Ragged Dick is Alger's most well-known novel, and it sets the formula for the numerous subsequent rags-to-riches stories for which he became famous. It also introduces the "Alger hero," a character archetype who rises out of poverty through cleverness and hard work, into the American literary canon. Perfect for readers who love inspiring tales of determination and the classic American dream, this timeless story proves that hard work and moral character can overcome any obstacle. Alger's foundational rags-to-riches narrative continues to captivate audiences with its honest portrayal of street life and the transformative power of perseverance and integrity. The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread again from cover to cover. They are also formatted and typeset following a professional-grade style manual, resulting in new editions supporting state-of-the-art ereader technology: automatic hyphenation, popup footnotes, complete and consistent metadata, high-resolution and scalable vector graphics, and ereader-compatible tables of contents. All of this makes the finished ebooks accurate, functional, and beautiful, a pleasure to read. (Waking Lion Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Standard Ebooks.)