Customer Reviews

RAGGED DICK AND MARK, THE MATCH BOY: Two Novels by Horatio Alger

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Reviewer: Dan Gross from New Jersey
Reviews on: Ragged Dick and Mark The Match Boy

Ragged Dick is a story about a boy going from "rags to riches". This story focuses on the life of Richard Hunter, a poor bootblack from New York City. It is a classic story about a young boy without parents who works hard and is honest. The honesty and hard work pays off for him when he does deeds for people in high places.

In Ragged Dick Richard Hunter's honesty brings out the best of people. The wealthy people give him extra attention for his deeds and notice his honesty. For example, he receives money for a shoe and cannot get change so within a few days of the business interaction, he goes to the work place of the man and gives him the change. It also represents respect for his elders.

Story number two of the series is Mark The Match Boy. This too has good morals starting from the youth. This story displays the innocence of a boy coming into the real world. Mark is a boy who is deprived of love. He has no living mother and no family. The purity, which he displays to Richard Hunter, is charming. In this story thievery motivates the conflict. The story display Mark as a by who is similar to The Catcher in The Rye as where Holden Caulfield does not let his sister be corrupted by the real world, Richard is doing this to Mark.

These two stories should be read by not only the youth, but by everyone. They focus on universal morals such as honesty and trust. I can say nothing negative about this book because it is well written, to the point, and very appealing. Not only is it motivating, but also it brings out the best in people and it could change your view on the less fortunate population.

i think everyone should read at least one horatio alger book, since he so helped shape american morals at the turn of the last century. his very name is a constant catch-all for the american rags-to-riches machine. i inherited my grandfather's set, and, even though one can call these books formulaic, moralistic rot, they capture a spirit and a time in simplistic, bold language that is readable, entertaining, and a fresh peek at cultural history through a primary source. Add to this that i am a teacher who is having my 8th grade boys read it (yes, in part for a laugh), but they are digging it. More than i could have anticipated. Read one paired with Nathaneal West's "A Cool Million," which parodies alger, for a real bully debate about americanism.

Elizabeth Anastasi

Mark The Match Boy by Horatio Alger is about a young, poor, orphaned boy forced to make it on his own on the streets. He gets through many obstacles and troubles that come his way with integrity and honesty. Mark shows honesty and integrity throughout the novel. When his friend Ben, who he met on the streets, told him to lie to his customers about the price of his matches to make more money, Mark wouldn't do it. Even if it meant he would go hungry that night,he said he would never accept money if he didn't earn it; that is why he doesn't like begging. Maybe it was fate or pure luck, but Mark catches a break when he learns he has very wealthy extended relatives searching for him. This story will broaden your idea of what is important in life. At the end of the book, you are left with the question; is he just lucky, or is there such thing as fate?
A reason why I liked this book so much was because it was very easy to understand. No matter if you are rich or poor you can appreciate the struggles of being less fortunate or the desire to be wealthy. The characters are realistic and the actions they do are as well. Everything that happens in the book is something that could happen in real life.
Another reason why I liked Mark the Match Boy so much was because it was an easy read. There was no embellishment added to the reading. Because of this, it seemed as though each chapter was its own story. The author speaks to the reader to help them understand and follow the story. Even if you haven't read Ragged Dick, the story that preceded Mark the Match Boy, like I didn't, the author relates back to it so you can understand the entire story better.
I recommend Mark the Match Boy because, Young or old people can be thankful for what they have. This book will open your eyes to what you really need in life and what is really important. After reading this book you will value morality, integrity, and honesty.

Mark the Match Boy is the tale of a young, poverty stricken boy who makes it through life with his good morals and honesty. Mark, the main character, lives with a gaurdian who puts him on the streets to sell matches and make profit for the both of them. When Mark finally works up the courage to run away from his temporary home, a string of good fortune suddenly comes upon him. Mark is taken in by a very nice young man by the name of Richard Hunter, the main character from author Horatio Algers previous novel. The two characters seem to go hand in hand with eachother, and are very easy to relate to. Everything seems to go Mark's way, especially the surprise ending which contains a very good twist.
I would, without hesitation, reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys to read. I would also reccomend this book to anyone who has had some bad luck recently. Mark the Match Boy comes with the life lesson, work hard, mind your business, and treat people with respect, and you shall recieve the same. Possibly a little good fortune to go with it.

I enjoyed reading this book for several reasons, the first being that it was easy reading. I was a junior in college and all the books that I was used to reading were in some sort of foreign language that I could not understand. Ragged Dick was a very simplistic, yet interesting book that I could not put down. The second reason that I enjoyed it was because it talked about real issues during that point in history. Ragged Dick had to struggle in order to get the things that he needed to survive, but in the end it was his manners and his personality that enabled him to prosper as much as he did. I read the book twice and it was still good to me. There are some people that believe that Alger writes about the same things over and over again (depression, poverty) but there are so many other authors that do and still get rave reviews.

This book is so bad, it's good. It's like the novelization of a Dickens movie. However, it's uplifting (especially for starving students like me), easy to read, and a still-contemporary reflection of capitalism and the American dream.

I've been looking for inspirational stories to read to my 12 year old son. I was given an old copy of Alger's "Driven From Home", which turned out to be a serendipity. We have read four Alger novels and, so far, each has been a delight. They are quickly paced, strong in plot and character development, full of witty dialogue and humor and, most importantly, carry the message of the value of hard work, determination and never giving up. My son sits unflinching through every reading-not customary for him! :) As the cliche goes, these are, indeed, timeless classics, which I most highly recommend.

These are the books we have read so far:
Driven From Home
Ragged Dick
Fame and Fortune
Mark the Match Boy

It's doubtful that Horatio Alger's work is readable by a contemporary reader. "Ragged Dick" sounds much more like the title of a skanky porno film than a tale about a boy growing up on the streets of New York.

But "Ragged Dick" was Alger's crowning success, and a highly celebrated and popular work when it was originally published. His later works (such as "Mark the Match Boy") never matched the success of the first of the series, but even at the end of his career (when his books were almost completely formulaic; not that they ever weren't, but they got significantly worse over time) he was still highly regarded as a popular author for juveniles.

These stories have mostly historical interest now, but they may be good for a laugh. (And if you're just curious, several Horatio Alger works are available on the net from Project Gutenberg.) I can't in all honesty recommend that someone just randomly buy an Alger book without already knowing what they're getting, as the stories are awfully trite and filled with the moralizing one would expect from a Victorian-era manual intended for young men. "Work hard and succeed" may be a valid message, but Alger's heroes had far more luck than would ever befall a normal person. [Dick might still be looking for a job if he hadn't happened to save a businessowner's son from drowning... Oops, I just gave the story away. Double oops, I just gave *all* of Alger's stories away.] The plot in all of his stories is identical, they're full to overflowing with coincidence, the dialog is horribly stilted even for the era, etc, etc. And yet...

I'm not quite sure how I got interested in Alger's work, but I've pretty much read everything he wrote--it's rather a morbid fascination with just how *badly* people can write, and yet people will still read it, and worse, think it's good.

As for this specific edition, it's probably one of the few versions of Alger's work that are in print, so what choice do you have?