The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Short Stories

by Bret Harte

In 1870, the young San Francisco–based writer and editor Bret Harte (1836–1902) first compiled a single-volume edition of his rousing stories of life in the Wild West. Entitled The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches, the book propelled him almost overnight from local celebrity to American literary lion. Four of the most famous of those tales are included in this collection: the title story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," "Tennessee's Partner," and "M'liss."
Additional selections include "A Protégée of Jack Hamlin" and "An Ingénue of the Sierras," both written later in Harte's life and featuring lively casts of colorful characters in settings ranging from a stagecoach to a Sacramento River steamer. They display the author's enthralling storytelling style at full strength ― crisply observant, rich in ironic humor, and offering an engaging mix of sentiment and wit. Harte's style exercised a deep influence on the American short story genre and set a future course for writers of Western fiction, including Owen Wister and Zane Grey.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Westerns, American, Historical

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1882

About the author

People note American writer Francis Bret Harte for The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (1870), his best-known collection of his stories about California mining towns.

People best remember this poet for his short-story fiction, featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the Gold Rush. In a career, spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern United States to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but people most often reprinted, adapted, and admired his tales of the Gold Rush.

Parents named him after Francis Brett, his great-grandfather. Bernard Hart, paternal grandfather of Francis and an Orthodox Jewish immigrant, flourished as a merchant and founded the New York stock exchange. Henry, father of the young Francis, changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Later, Francis preferred that people know his middle name, which he spelled Bret with only one t.

An avid reader as a boy, Harte at 11 years of age published his first work, a satirical poem, titled "Autumn Musings", now lost. Rather than attracting praise, the poem garnered ridicule from his family. As an adult, he recalled to a friend, "Such a shock was their ridicule to me that I wonder that I ever wrote another line of verse". His formal schooling ended at 13 years of age in 1849.

Reviews

[John Yelverton]

It is a pretty sad tale that starts off tragically and ends in tragedy as well. I'm not a big fan of stories that make you feel worse than you were when you started reading them.

[Chris]

This collection contains very short stories of Western realism about ordinary folk like miners and gamblers during the California Gold Rush. It's not hard to imagine Brett Harte traveling through most of Northern California, picking up stories as he went along from real locations like Roaring Camp (which is now a tourist attraction). Places like the aforementioned & Poker Flat are the primary focus; familiar locals won't find much of value here. Structured like moral tales without a glimmer of morality, they read more like journalistic accounts of Western life. Even with Christian characters, it seems as though Harte purposefully removed aspects of religiosity for some strange reason. And he generalizes most of the situations and characters, so you don't really feel connected to any particular individual.

[Wayne McCoy]

'The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories' by Bret Harte is a series of stories all set in the Wild West of California during the 1800s.

The title story is one I was familiar with from reading assignments in school. A gruff group of prospectors finds a baby in their midst and names it Luck. Other stories in the collection include stories of rescues and ingenues.

I liked this collection, but it does lean toward the melodramatic and melancholic. I found the stories interesting reads as historic specimens, and I'm glad I read the collection, but I'm not sure it holds up to modern readers.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

[Kathleen]

Harte is a good writer, but all the stories are composed in a cheesy fashion that does not hold up. Like each one is almost effective but falls short, mostly because he sentimentalizes and/or goes for a joke, staying on the surface of his situations and characters rather than going deeper.

“I am aware that something more might be made of this episode, but I prefer to tell it as it was current at Sandy Bar—in the gulches and bar-rooms—where all sentiment was modified by a strong sense of humor” (49-50).

“Hard-faced men and anxious gold-seekers, already at work, ceased their labors and leaned upon their picks, to listen to a romantic vagabond ambling away against the rosy sunshine” (78).

[Hooper Bring]

“I fear I cannot claim, therefore, any higher motive than to illustrate an era of which Californian history has preserved the incidents more often than the character of the actors,—an era which the panegyrist was too often content to bridge over with a general compliment to its survivors,—an era still so recent that in attempting to revive its poetry, I am conscious also of awakening the more prosaic recollections of these same survivors,—and yet an era replete with a certain heroic Greek poetry, of which perhaps none were more unconscious than the heroes themselves. And I shall be quite content to have collected here merely the materials for the Iliad that is yet to be sung.”

[janet wakefield]

This book is so-so compared to stories written by Mark Twain (he projects a lot of wit).
I chose to read Bret Harte because as a child I vacationed in Twain Harte (hence named after the two authors) and always wondered about Harte's writings.
Twain Harte is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California where many of the stories were written about the Gold Rush.
It still is worth the read.

[Annette Ridenour]

These classic reads are always an interesting time and I had to do some research to find what was happening here. Although the stories didn’t really stick with me, I love that he was an author giving voice to early American stories and the gold miners that then inspired mark twain and others. It’s interesting to hear all the European influence since at this time in history it feels like the European influence on American is mostly forgotten and we have our own stories.

[Sarandah chrysalis]

Short fiction written during the Gold Rush era in the American West. Intriguing, funny, occasionally offensive due to viewpoints of the time, very colorful

[Sheila Koons]

Loved the story about the woman and her baby rescued after the rains washed their cabin built on the floodplain away. I wasnt expecting a happy ending story by Harte.

[David]

A set of stories about the old West, all tongue in cheek.

[J. David Thayer]

Yawn. Stick to Mark Twain.

[Denvse]

Great.

[Keisha]

vraiment sympa!
Mais certaines histoires sont parues en français chez Ginkgo, et comme je ne sais pas insérer un bouquin dans la base (comme d'hab')...

[Carol]

The last batch of short stories I read must have been in high school - required reading, of course. I'd never much paid attention to the genre because, like poetry, I wanted something longer, substantial, filling. Not to say short stories and poetry don't have merit - Edgar Allen Poe can keep me spellbound, and "The Lady of Shallot" still reminds me of Anne Shirley. I have a poet friend whose work delights me, and who can forget Shakespeare's sonnets?
Point being, I usually read novels. "The Luck of Roaring Camp" came into my possession by happy accident; my mother brought a pile of books to sell at our local used bookstore, and she let me sift through them first to see if I wanted any. I took three - two mysteries set in Medieval Wales, and one collection of Western short stories. The short stories book intrigued me only because the introduction mentioned the author, Bret Harte, while American, lived in London for many years and was "greatly influenced by Dickens." I love several of Dickens' books, and anyone influenced by his writing needed to be read.
Oh yes, Harte was definitely influenced by Dickens. His language, sentence structure, exposition, and dialogue all reflect that master of satirical commentary, but distinctly in a wild West setting. I think this might be the first time I found a Western story "enchanting."
The only fault I could find with his stories, is, of course, some of them were too short (ten pages long), and he had a habit of killing people off at the end. But then, I supposed that happened a lot in pioneer California.
This little book has awakened an interest in the short story genre as a whole, both as something to read and as something to write. I could see myself writing a collection of short stories.
To conclude, if you love the classics, you'll at least enjoy this romp through dusty, backwater villages. Support your local bookstore with this one - it might cost you a couple bucks. Dover Thrift books tend to be very inexpensive.

[John]

I’ve been curious about reading Bret Harte pretty well just because I love Mark Twain so much (even though they evidently didn’t think much of one another) and they’re often compared to one another. Finally, I was inspired to tackle this little collection of some of Harte’s most famous stories. Reading Harte, however, was sort of an odd experience for me, filled with quite a mixture of responses.

I, first of all, just enjoyed Harte’s writing. In fact, that’s the chief comparison I think you could make between he and Twain; both have an incredibly charming and folksy wit and style. Reading Harte’s prose was what I’ll certainly take away from reading these stories--I copied down about a page of quotations and passages. He creates interesting characters, sets them in unlikely and humor-filled situations, and conveys his world with an irresistible style.

The frustration I had with the stories, however, was the plotting. Over and over, Harte creates his cast of characters in what seems to be a rather big-hearted way, for instance setting up a group of underdogs at the task of living through a blizzard, or making a miners’ camp try to raise an infant, etc. He gets you rooting for these characters, nearly delivers them to a satisfying (not necessarily happy) ending, and then seems to kill the story and/or the characters either prematurely or just absurdly.

These stories’ endings made me think again of Twain--though this time for contrast. Both Harte and Twain have a dark side to their writings. But Twain’s vision seems to me to be of realism tempered by humor and a touch of hope (more or less, depending on the book you’re reading). Harte has the realism and the humor, but if these stories are any indication, he was a fatalist. Harte’s a very good writer, but I’d rather read Twain.

[Justin Tyler]

The edition I have of this book only contains three stories: The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, and Tennessee's Partner. I think that these stories are very well written, and very easy to read. They're very short (around 5000 words each). It took me one hour total to read all three of them, and I read at an average pace.

Contrary to the statements of one reviewer, these stories are not sad; they are realistic. They are, in fact, touching in how real such things as love, innocence, and friendship are portrayed.

Tennessee's Partner is the story of a friendship between a man sentenced to death (Tennessee) and his partner. There are some real moments of brilliance in this story, especially towards the end, when Tennessee's partner really shines as a character with depth and true love for his friend.

The Luck of Roaring Camp is the story of an orphan born into a hopeless town. For me, it's ultimately a story about innocence, and how something very simple and pure can change even the darkest hearts. Moreover, it is a story of how easily that bond that connects the corrupt man to life can be broken.

All of these stories, though, are a celebration of the human spirit, and a celebration of the sacrifices that people make for one another. With this in mind, the reviewer who argued that the stories were depressing has missed the heart of these stories.

These stories are essential for anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of American short story writers, but they're also really great stories that are enjoyable to read.

[David]

December 11, 2010 I had forgotten that I had read this collection of 6 stories. My first review was a one star. My review today is 5 stars. The difference is me. I found the writing to be riveting. The stories are not fast paced but they do hold the reader's attention. The stories have a certain humor to them based upon the human condition and the settings of the story. I started with M'lissa this time instead of the first story. That I think gave me a new avenue into Brete Harte. I found myself rooting for the school teacher and for M'lissa. That change of perspective altered how I read the other short stories.


This part of the review was written April 14, 2009.
I am in my often revisited phase of reading those book I was supposed to read in school or as an educated young man. To do that I have purchased over the years about 50 Dover Thrift Editions. These I highly recommended since there is no sense in spending a lot of money to get edumacated.

Bret Harte I will never pick up again. There are certainly more enjoyable stories out there. The stories are extremely depressing which is probably how the Ole West really was. To read this man is like trudging through molasses in the dead of winter. No more.

It took me 5 days to read 90 pages or 6 stories. And I love short stories.

[Humphrey]

For a reason I'm not quite sure of, optimisitc-romantic fiction is scoffed at when pessimistic-romantic fiction is embraced. Compare Harte's short fiction to Hawthorne's: the contest won't be so uneven. For another reason I'm not quite sure of, American optimisitc-romantic fiction is scoffed at when British optimistic-romantic fiction is embraced. Compare Harte's style to Dickens': there's a strong reason why the latter is quoted on the back of most editions of Harte. It seems like literary studies, then, has a hard time dealing with romantic aspects of postbellum fiction; perhaps because of the outmoded belief that such aspects have no place in the period's self-proclaimed realism. Nonetheless, Harte is both realist and romantic, and - in his best work - self-consciously so, bringing the two together under different circumstances to prod at them with irony or humor or hopefulness. In this sense, Harte's work is all about the issue that continues to inspire prejudice against him: how and where do the real and the romantic meet?

[KatieSuzanne]

I read this because I grew up close to Roaring Camp and wanted to hear some stories about the place, even if they were fictional. Not bad, but not too exciting. I can see how Bret Harte influenced and sometimes even created the exciting sterotypes of gold miners and other kinds of California settlers, but I think I had my hopes set too high for the actual story content.

[Charles]

A college library had a twenty five volume collected works edition of Harte's work. I read most of that collection and found a number of stories I thought were great little gems, but were unknown to anyone save a Harte scholar - a being I never found.

[Mark]

I discovered Bret Harte's stories as a mid-teenager in mid-late 1960s and they have stuck with me ever since. They were among my favorites in that era. I was an insatiable reader throughout summer vacations.

[Grady]

Read book before motorcycle trip through gold country and Calaveras County. This book was good preparation. Harte, in his day, was far more famous and popular than Twain. These stories of part of the reason.

[Ed]

Six short stories written in the 1800's. They include "The Luck of Roaring Camp", "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", "Tennessee's Partner", "M'liss", "An Ingenue of the Sierras", & "A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's".

My favorite two were M'liss & A Protegee...

[Erin]

Wish there were negative stars.

[Allie]

A surprisingly good collection of Western stories with many enjoyable twist endings. Read it for the character descriptions alone.

[John]

Writing this 6years after reading the book but i do remember liking it.Also remember the luck was a child. So it must have been pretty good to remember that about novel.

[Sylvia]

Light, wonderfully colorful stories of old California, classic American lit. I'd only ever read a few of these stories..they are all good.

[Charron]

Only read a couple stories from the whole book.

[Erin]

I listen to a lot of audio books. The narrator did not catch my attention.