Cast Upon the Breakers - Alger, Horatio Jr.

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Résumé :
You look like a good truthful boy. Here are ten dollars for you. Oh, thank you, ma'am! You're a gentleman, said Mike overjoyed. No, I don't mean that, but I hope you'll soon get a handsome husband. My young friend, I don't care to marry, though I appreciate your good wishes. I am an old maid from principle. I am an officer of the Female Suffrage Association. Is it a good payin' office, ma'am? asked Mike, visibly impressed. -from Chapter X: Mike Puts on a Uniform It's entirely possibly that the 20th-century concept of the American dream would not exist without the cheerfully idealistic novels of Horatio Alger, Jr. Enormous bestsellers in their day, Alger's rags-to-riches tales nurtured the nation's faltering idealism during the economic inequities of the Gilded Age. Known as the lost Alger story, Cast Upon the Breakers first appeared under a pseudonym in serial form in Argosy magazine in 1893. The tale of Rodney Ropes and his pals, who transform hard work and integrity pay off in wealth and comfort, it is vintage Alger, a relic of 19th-century Americana that is still an inspiring delight in the 21st century. American writer HORATIO ALGER, JR. (1832-1899) wrote well over 100 novels, among them Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York (1867), Sink or Swim (1870), and Tattered Tom; or, The Story of a Street Arab (1871).

Biographie:
Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) was an American writer best known for his boys' novels of poverty, perseverance, honesty, and social advancement. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Harvard, Alger became one of the most widely read juvenile authors of the nineteenth century. His fiction often follows poor or disadvantaged boys who improve their circumstances through work, education, courage, thrift, and moral conduct, sometimes aided by fortunate encounters with kindly patrons or employers. The phrase Horatio Alger story became shorthand for the American idea of rising from humble beginnings through effort and character.Alger's most famous novel, Ragged Dick, first appeared in serial form in 1867 and was published as a book in 1868. Set among New York City bootblacks and street boys, it established the pattern that made his name famous: the movement from hardship toward respectability, not sudden wealth, through self-discipline and opportunity. His work remains important to the history of American children's literature, boys' fiction, social-mobility narratives, New York street-life fiction, and nineteenth-century popular culture....