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Wait and Hope A Plucky Boy's Luck
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- GenresFiction
156 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1877
16 people want to read
About the author
Horatio Alger Jr.
447 books96 followersHoratio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, most famous for his novels following the adventures of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort. His novels about boys who succeed under the tutelage of older mentors were hugely popular in their day.
Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister, Alger entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. Following graduation, he briefly worked in education before touring Europe for almost a year. He then entered the Harvard Divinity School, and, in 1864, took a position at a Unitarian church in Brewster, Massachusetts. Two years later, he resigned following allegations he had sexual relations with two teenage boys.[1] He retired from the ministry and moved to New York City where he formed an association with the Newsboys Lodging House and other agencies offering aid to impoverished children. His sympathy for the working boys of the city, coupled with the moral values learned at home, were the basis of his many juvenile rags to riches novels illustrating how down-and-out boys might be able to achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others. This widely held view involves Alger's characters achieving extreme wealth and the subsequent remediation of their "old ghosts." Alger is noted as a significant figure in the history of American cultural and social ideals. He died in 1899.
The first full-length Alger biography was commissioned in 1927 and published in 1928, and along with many others that borrowed from it later proved to be heavily fictionalized parodies perpetuating hoaxes and made up anecdotes that "would resemble the tell-all scandal biographies of the time."[2] Other biographies followed, sometimes citing the 1928 hoax as fact. In the last decades of the twentieth century a few more reliable biographies were published that attempt to correct the errors and fictionalizations of the past.
Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister, Alger entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. Following graduation, he briefly worked in education before touring Europe for almost a year. He then entered the Harvard Divinity School, and, in 1864, took a position at a Unitarian church in Brewster, Massachusetts. Two years later, he resigned following allegations he had sexual relations with two teenage boys.[1] He retired from the ministry and moved to New York City where he formed an association with the Newsboys Lodging House and other agencies offering aid to impoverished children. His sympathy for the working boys of the city, coupled with the moral values learned at home, were the basis of his many juvenile rags to riches novels illustrating how down-and-out boys might be able to achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others. This widely held view involves Alger's characters achieving extreme wealth and the subsequent remediation of their "old ghosts." Alger is noted as a significant figure in the history of American cultural and social ideals. He died in 1899.
The first full-length Alger biography was commissioned in 1927 and published in 1928, and along with many others that borrowed from it later proved to be heavily fictionalized parodies perpetuating hoaxes and made up anecdotes that "would resemble the tell-all scandal biographies of the time."[2] Other biographies followed, sometimes citing the 1928 hoax as fact. In the last decades of the twentieth century a few more reliable biographies were published that attempt to correct the errors and fictionalizations of the past.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 29, 2020
Wait and Hope was serialized as two separate stories with the same protagonist, stitched together fairly harmoniously for book publication.
The first half is Alger at his most Dickensian, as he trots out a series of eccentrics to fill his stage with either humor or pathos or both. Obviously, Alger’s failure here is part of his charm. The second half focuses more resolutely on the rivalry between our plucky hero Ben and one Sam Archer, who is unusual, as the haughty son of a wealthy “squire”, in that he is 1. explicitly singled out as being intelligent, 2. something of a worthy rival, and 3. redeemed. The other stock players are there, of course: the crooked squire, the inexplicably hostile clerk, the dissolute nephew, the string of benevolent capitalists whose liberality cheers the hero on without materially changing his lot.
The two-story stitch may account for the dropped plot point of ward Emma, suddenly remembered and packed off as an afterthought after no mentions for chapter after chapter – but this is an Alger story, so dropped plot points may just be Alger qua Alger (see, for example, the court date for prosecuting a New York forger).
A relatively early example of a rural Alger hero (although Ben’s actually from a small city); of course, there are trips to Boston, New York, and Montreal. Usually, Alger heroes make their big voyage two-thirds of the way through their book; though the two story-structure of the original complicated things, that fatal trip to Boston is indeed at two thirds of the total.
A really fun book with a ridiculous melodramatic ending.
The first half is Alger at his most Dickensian, as he trots out a series of eccentrics to fill his stage with either humor or pathos or both. Obviously, Alger’s failure here is part of his charm. The second half focuses more resolutely on the rivalry between our plucky hero Ben and one Sam Archer, who is unusual, as the haughty son of a wealthy “squire”, in that he is 1. explicitly singled out as being intelligent, 2. something of a worthy rival, and 3. redeemed. The other stock players are there, of course: the crooked squire, the inexplicably hostile clerk, the dissolute nephew, the string of benevolent capitalists whose liberality cheers the hero on without materially changing his lot.
The two-story stitch may account for the dropped plot point of ward Emma, suddenly remembered and packed off as an afterthought after no mentions for chapter after chapter – but this is an Alger story, so dropped plot points may just be Alger qua Alger (see, for example, the court date for prosecuting a New York forger).
A relatively early example of a rural Alger hero (although Ben’s actually from a small city); of course, there are trips to Boston, New York, and Montreal. Usually, Alger heroes make their big voyage two-thirds of the way through their book; though the two story-structure of the original complicated things, that fatal trip to Boston is indeed at two thirds of the total.
A really fun book with a ridiculous melodramatic ending.
October 30, 2022
In typical Horatio Alger fashion, it’s darkest before dawn. The hero of the story, Ben, has just been laid off from his job at the local mill, which is particularly bad because he’s the only support of his aunt and cousin. Although the title of the book is “Wait and Hope,” this doesn’t mean Ben is going to sit around waiting and hoping for something to turn up. He gets out and hustles up some good luck, and finally comes out on top. This is no surprise–it’s simply Horatio Alger’s regular theme, which doesn’t feel tired, even though he used it in nearly a hundred novels.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews