"Ragged Dick" is a Bildungsroman novel by Horatio Alger Jr. that follows the story of a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability in 19th-century New York City. The novel was serialized in The Student and Schoolmate in 1867 and expanded for publication as a full-length novel in May 1868 by the publisher A. K. Loring. It was the first volume in the six-volume Ragged Dick Series and became Alger's best-selling work. Alger's novels emphasized the merits of honesty, hard work, and cheerfulness in adversity. The Alger canon is described as "bouncy little books for boys" that promote the idea of rags to respectability. The problems of upward mobility in the Alger novel were never "insoluble", and although luck was a major element in the Alger plot, it was never luck alone that brought the hero success but luck combined with "pluck". The book was Alger's best-selling work and remained in print for forty years. The novel had a favorable reception and became the subject of parodies and satires.
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