About this title: "Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York with Boot Blacks" is canonical as a cultural, rather than literary text. This "Norton Critical" Edition includes maps, photographs and documents showing how Alger addressed the problems of urban poverty, immigration and child labour in mid-nineteenth-century America. Criticism includes contemporary reviews and responses and four recent essays. A chronology and bibliography are included.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: 1st World Library-Literary Society
ISBN-13:9781421815572ISBN:1421815575
Description: Good. 1421815575 GOOD CONDITION, COVERS ARE CLEAN. MINOR NUMBER WRITTEN ON THE FRONT COVER. NO WRITINGS INSIDE. (STOCK#: NOENN-PA5) read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: 1st World Library-Literary Society
ISBN-13:9781421815572ISBN:1421815575
Description: Fair. 1421815575 READABLE CONDITION ALL PAGES INTACT, COVERS HAVE SOME WEAR. AND A TEAR. HAS MANY WRITINGS AND HIGHLIGHTS INSIDE. (STOCK#: NOENN-3D1) read more
Binding: Perfect Bound Paper
Publisher: Collier Books
Date Published: 1974
Description: Good. Mass Market Paperback. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Moderate to heavy wear, old store stamps inside, some water staining. (Store Display-Classic. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Collier Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1968
Description: Good. Pb, light wear/soil, crease at spine/lower front corner, nick at lower spine, name on inside cover, 5th printing (2-in-1); 12mo 7"-7½" tall. read more
Edition: third printing
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: collier books
Date Published: 1966
Description: CLEAN and tight. Softcover 2 story book covers have reading wear stains along fromt cover by spine spine is good with some creases pages are white clean and unmarked MULTIPLE COPIES OF THIS BOOK MAY BE AVAILABLE PLEASE INQUIRE. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2007-10-29
ISBN-13:9780393925890ISBN:0393925897
Description: Very Good. A Great Deal! ! ! ! /Book is in great shape with no underlining or highlighting/ Buy from me and you won't be let down! ! ! / APO/FPO Orders Appreciated! ! ! read more
Binding: green cloth with red, black and blue lettering and pictorial.
Publisher: john c. winston company, Philadelphia
Date Published: 1895 copyright
Description: Very Good. or street life in new york. With the boot-blacks. ragged dick series. No dustjacket. corners are slightly bumped. text is clean and unmarked. read more
Description: Reading copy only. Covers may be soiled or stained, pages may be loose and binding may be cracked inside. The book is complete but only a reading copy. read more
"Question 15: (the whole book) Ragged Dick is the name of a poor boy that his parents are dead when he was seven years old. He shines shoes to earn money for his living. He sleeps in boxes every night. He had a frank, straightforward manner that made him appealing. He always read to joke with customers. One day, he was fortunate enough to get four customers in the morning. Now, he began to think about breakfast with Johnny Nolan who is a boy of fourteen years old like Ragged Dick, a bootblack. In the afternoon, Dick followed Frank to go his house, nephew of Mr. Whitney. Frank is a gentleman who gives Dick a new suit to replace the tattered rags he is wearing. After bathing and dressing, Dick compares himself to Cinderella. During the tour, Frank is impressed by Dick's quick wit and street smarts, and advices Dick should go to school. Throughout the tour, Dick buy a new cap himself and then they keep going to walk and compare some building in New York. In the tour, they have some trouble such as the stranger man is up to them kind of tricks. Also, they go to the Central Park by horse car and sit near a woman. Suddenly, she exclaims the conductor that she lost her purse and point Frank is a person who steals her purse. Finally, everything is fine. The next day, a young bully is Mickey who accuses Dick of trying to rise above his station, bothers him. Dick first confounds Mickey with his wit, but when the situation turns violent; he beats Mickey through physical prowess and chases him away. Furthermore, a boy named Henry is nearby, he has been harassed by Mickey for some time. So Henry's dad usually takes him go to school. Dick sees his own good qualities in Henry offer to let Henry stay in his room in return for nightly lessons in reading, writing, and mathematics. Henry agrees, and the two also go into business together. Next, Mr. Greyson is one Dick's customer, invites the boys to his house for dinner. Dick's nature attracts Grayson's daughter. After the meal, Dick and Henry return to their room to discover that Jim has stolen Dick's bankbook. And then, the next day, Dick goes to the bank quickly to prevent Jim's withdrawal of his savings. Dick tell the clerk about the happen. So, when Jim comes to the bank, he is arrested. Finally, the two boys take a trip on to ferry. Suddenly, a young boy falls into the river. At that time, his dad screams to the rescuer. Dick is a good simmer; he dives off the ferry and saves the boy. The father gives to Dick a good paying job. After that, Dick goes back home. When he enters his room on Mott Street, he discovered that someone has stolen his Washington coat and pants. A few days later, he saw Mikey wearing the missing clothes. Although it was yet only noon, Dick didn't go out again with his brush and polish. He felt that it was time to retire from that business. Question 12: Yes, I had one thing that I confused when I was reading chapter 7 in the story. Because this happen made me couldn't believe. In the chapter 7, when Dick and Frank were walking on the street, a stranger man and he found the wallet. The man cheated them, but I confused that how Dick knew the man will cheat him and changed the fake bill and give it to him. It was not easy to change the bill like Dick did."
"I give this book four stars because for what it is, a moralistic book written for juveniles in 1867 (a version of it was published serially in a youth magazine before Alger turned it into a best-selling book), it contains a great deal of information about New York at that time and reveals much of the Puritanical influences of the earlier colonial era. Self-made men are, of course, part of the myth of the American Dream, and one need only read Rebecca Harding Davis' 1861 novella "Life in the Iron Mills" for the flipside (the protagonist has raw talent and a willingness to improve, but no one consents to help him)."
"As the introduction to the book says this is mostly "bilge" as far as literary quality goes. But the ideals espoused by Algiers are woven into the fabric of our country so deeply that his works cannot be dismissed out of hand. What I wonder when reading it, though, is why the aspect of luck and help from more fortunate strangers is so often left out of the idea of the "Horatio Algiers Success Story" as we know it today? Dick was helped all along the way, and yes, he is hard working, and yes, he is honest, but those qualities alone would have him still on the streets at the end of the story, if not for the many beneficial encounters he experiences with helpful and generous upper class characters. It's almost as though Dick's positive traits create a good "karma" that is paid back to him as he moves through the narrative. The post-modern version of the pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps narrative in my mind eschews help and charity to strangers, especially street type people and tends to look down on them, which is rather unfortunate, as this was once a strength of our culture."
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