What do you think?
Campaign #2
Paul Prescott's Charge
Excerpt from Paul Prescott's Charge: A Story for Boys
"Paul Prescott's Charge" is presented to the public as the second volume of the Campaign Series. Though wholly unlike the first volume, it is written in furtherance of the same main idea, that every boy's life is a campaign, more or less difficult, in which success depends upon integrity and a steadfast adherence to duty.
How Paul Prescott gained strength by battling with adverse circumstances, and, under all discouragements, kept steadily before him the charge which he received from his dying father, is fully told; and the author will be glad if the record shall prove an incentive and an encouragement to those boys who may have a similar campaign before them.
"Paul Prescott's Charge" is presented to the public as the second volume of the Campaign Series. Though wholly unlike the first volume, it is written in furtherance of the same main idea, that every boy's life is a campaign, more or less difficult, in which success depends upon integrity and a steadfast adherence to duty.
How Paul Prescott gained strength by battling with adverse circumstances, and, under all discouragements, kept steadily before him the charge which he received from his dying father, is fully told; and the author will be glad if the record shall prove an incentive and an encouragement to those boys who may have a similar campaign before them.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1865
About the author
Horatio Alger Jr.
540 books98 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 26, 2011
A pleasant surprise. Horatio Alger stories are a byword--in my generation--for poor quality popular youth fiction, but I had never actually read a Horatio Alger book. Now I have and, while it certainly wasn't competitive with Dickens or Collins, it was as good as much of modern popular fiction, like Rowlings.
Yes, Paul Prescott's Charge: A Story For Boys follows the rags-to-riches, too-good-to-be-true protagonist formula we expect, but the quality of the writing was not bad for 150 years ago and, as I said, not much worse than modern fiction. The big difference, of course, is the cultural assumptions implicit in the writing. Young readers of 1865 were assumed conversant with the Bible, with the difference between pranks and ill-will, and understood, whether they practiced it or not, a standards of fair play and decency which would strike modern readers as naive.
Not all bad.
Yes, Paul Prescott's Charge: A Story For Boys follows the rags-to-riches, too-good-to-be-true protagonist formula we expect, but the quality of the writing was not bad for 150 years ago and, as I said, not much worse than modern fiction. The big difference, of course, is the cultural assumptions implicit in the writing. Young readers of 1865 were assumed conversant with the Bible, with the difference between pranks and ill-will, and understood, whether they practiced it or not, a standards of fair play and decency which would strike modern readers as naive.
Not all bad.
September 6, 2021
Most of the Horatio Alger Stories are pretty straightforward, but this one bounces all over the place. We start with one set of characters, and then we jump to some others, and then to a third group. They’re loosely tied together at the end, but very loosely. I wasn’t even sure what the point of the whole thing was, except for the usual situation of a boy in very poor circumstances making his way up in the world.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews