The Young Explorer

Pacific Series

by Edwards Amasa Park

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

Paperback

First published January 1, 1880

Reviews

[Cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book I read on my new Kindle.

This was a nice quick little read, could almost read it in one sitting.

Felt like a moral story. Liked the character of Ben and enjoyed his friendships with Jake and Florence/Ida.

It wrapped up really quickly, they all travelled to find Dewey, and then it was ended in one paragraph. I wanted to know what came next.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun adventure novel! Now I want to read more by this author.

[Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad for a typical Alger story except that it ends super abruptly! Really unsatisfying.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe a little too perfect, but a fun adventure story nonetheless.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mid-period Alger, where he tried to expand his reader base by stretching his universe to include places further away than Central Park. In this novel, Horatio asks himself where possibly would a boy seeking his fortune want to go if not to New York City? The answer apparently was to the gold fields of California. There is nothing in particular that makes this a logical choice for our hero Benjamin. When we meet him he is newly orphaned and is already set upon his trip out west. The opening chapters are dedicated to his turning down work opportunities in his home town, a process that allows him to make mild fun of his uncle's life choices while also forcing him to agree, openly mock the meanness of the local miser to his face, and sneer at the offer of local posh boy who wants him to hire him as a valet.

So from the start we can see that Ben is a real sh*t that Alger wants us to forgive because he has ambition. This was a regular problem of the mid-period Alger novel, because the classic Alger formula was to constantly reaffirm that there is no shame in accepting any kind of honest labor if it offered itself. When Alger set his mind to getting his boys out of the small towns and the squalid streets that served him so well in the Ragged Dick era, he had to have them turn down the exact offers of work that he promised was the surest path to success in his early novels. Without re-imagining the whole Alger formula he couldn't help but create nasty little pieces of work, like our hero Ben. So expect to hate him.

The bulk of the book is a normal Alger workup, where the best strategy for our hero is to keep an honest face while waiting for good things to happen to him. He travels to California at no cost to himself and is handed a pile of expense dollars because a young woman trusts him immediately, and then he attracts small group of decent hardworking allies while moving amidst a cloud of imbecile criminals and foolish bullies that he can easily best.

Ben wins out in the end of course, otherwise what would be the point? and credit to Alger for trying something new.