This was a rare clunker in the Alger oeuvre. There really wasn't much to the story and no real tension or crisis for the hero as is Alger's normal M.O. On top of that, the "good guys" really piled on in trying to make a fool out of the "bad guy" whose only sin was snobbery. There was a meanness that I haven't noticed in others of his works. ( )

Not bad, as Algers go - Harry gets most of his opportunities by work, not luck (though the timing of money arriving vs when their mortgage payment is due is luck, a lot). Luck to get a job with Cameron, and that Cameron was there - but Harry earned his pay, and the friendship that resulted. Luck that his father's invention is worth something - but not luck out of the blue, like so many Algers. And Harry is less of a paragon, of self-control and of intelligence, than many of Alger's heroes - more realistic. I wish Alger had written one about the rich boy after he was brought down (or a rich boy, there's one in every book); that would have been an interestingly different story. So not bad, but I think I'm Algered out at the moment. ( )

This book is valued at $25.00 according to www.ABEBOOKS.com