Audiobook · read by volunteers
Fame and Fortune
Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832–1899)
Read by Alys AtteWater, Barry Eads · 23 chapters · 4 h 34
About the book
Richard Hunter, once the bootblack known as Ragged Dick, is climbing the ladder of respectability. In Fame and Fortune, Horatio Alger follows him as he moves into a better boarding house with his friend Henry and finds a promising job. But success breeds envy, and a jealous co-worker sets a trap that sends him to jail, wrongly accused of theft. Will his honest character be enough to save him? This is the second volume in the famous Ragged Dick series, full of the optimism, moral lessons and brisk plotting that made Alger one of the most popular American authors of the nineteenth century. Twenty-three chapters, shared by two LibriVox readers, fill just over four and a half hours. It is a cheerful and nostalgic tale of effort and good fortune.
Introduction
Horatio Alger Jr. (1832-1899) was an American author who wrote more than a hundred books, most of them for boys. His stories typically follow a poor but honest young man who rises in the world through hard work, courage and a stroke of good luck, and they made him a household name in the decades after the Civil War. The phrase rags to riches is often linked with his name, although the typical Alger hero usually rises to respectable comfort rather than great wealth.
Fame and Fortune was published in 1868 and is the second book in the series that began with Ragged Dick. Its hero is Richard Hunter, the former bootblack Ragged Dick, who keeps rising thanks to a mixture of good fortune and good character. With his friend Henry he settles into a better boarding house and finds a promising position, only to be falsely accused of theft by a jealous colleague and sent to jail. The accusation is disproved, his place is restored, and he is soon promoted. Along the way, the book offers a vivid picture of New York City life in the years after the war, with its newsboys, clerks, boarding houses and offices.
Modern readers may notice the heavy moralising and the neatness of the plots, but Alger's stories are energetic and good-natured, and they open a window onto the hopes of their time. The books were hugely popular and shaped how many Americans thought about opportunity and effort.
This LibriVox recording is read by Alys AtteWater and Barry Eads. It lasts about four hours and thirty-six minutes and is divided into twenty-three chapter files, from Chapter 1 onwards.
Public domain
Horatio Alger, Jr. died in 1899: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text