I think the name says it all. Saw this while shopping for books at McKay's. No, I didn't buy this book, but some of the ones that I did (pictures later this weekend) might raise an eyebrow or two.
A Raindrop
4 days ago
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Unfortunate book name
I think the name says it all. Saw this while shopping for books at McKay's. No, I didn't buy this book, but some of the ones that I did (pictures later this weekend) might raise an eyebrow or two.
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I've run across "Ragged Dick" before, not the book just a mention of the title. But isn't Penguin cheapening the meaning of the word "classic" by applying it to Horatio Alger books? I mean, I've seen Alger sentences used as examples of how not to write.
I read Ragged Dick for a class on American Literature in uni the year before I decided I would never ever take an English class ever again.
It's most certainly not a good book, but it does have a good deal of cultural significance so I suppose it still counts as a classic. After all, you can still find reprints of The Coming Race that call it a classic text and it's by Bulwer-Lytton, one of the worst writers in the English language.
Is Ragged Dick related to Spotted Dick?
I read Ragged Dick and Mark the Match Boy as a kid and was crazy about them. The author wrote a billion of those rags-to-riches stories for boys. He was also a pedophile.
OK, that last bit of detail really makes me not want to read his work (even if it gives Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward an ironic twist). Having just read his wiki article, I can see why his name is a near-pejorative when it comes to writing/style. Yeesh, not the sort of work for me!
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