The Horatio Alger myth has worked itself deeply into American
culture. Even those who have never read one of his stories and many
who could not identify him have come to believe that honest,
industrious adolescents can easily rise from poverty to
respectability. That conviction has reinforced notions of
capitalism and the Protestant work ethic. It has also strengthened
a sense of naïve optimism that in America things will always
get better.

The two stories here, one of which violates convention by
featuring a heroine rather than a hero, invite a close examination
of how Alger's fictional protagonists win out. Readers will
discover that the often used phrase rags-to-riches does not
describe the career of the typical Alger hero, whose progress is
rather from adversity to a solid and respectable place in society.
A critical introduction examines the ratio of reality to
sentimentality in Alger's work. And since the author intended
the stories to be not time-bound but applicable and determinative
in all circumstances, the tales invite speculation as to how
relevant they are to the changed economic and social circumstances
of later times.