Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Gary Scharnhorst and Jack Bales

Critical Essay by Gary Scharnhorst and Jack Bales

SOURCE: "Cast Upon the Breakers (1887–1899)," in The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr., Indiana University Press, 1985, pp. 127–48.

In the following chapter, Scharnhorst and Bales provide biographical and historical information on the last decade of Alger's life, with special attention to his politics and economic ideology.

I

Rupert did not envy his father's old partner. "I would rather be poor and honest, " he reflected, "than live in a fine house, surrounded by luxury, gained by grinding the faces of the poor. "

—HORATIO ALGER, JR.,
Rupert's Ambition

Alger was a mugwump, a liberal Republican committed to principles of fair prices and decent wages, a critic of sharp business practices and cutthroat competition. He was neither an apologist for the wealthy class nor a stalking horse for industrial capitalism. Rather, his appeal was fundamentally nostalgic. He often set his tales in idealized villages modeled upon preindustrial Marlborough. His heroes never...
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