Coming of Age PDF EPUB Audio

Helping Himself

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 175

Read online EPUB Download Save

Listen to Helping Himself Audiobook Free

Read by Richard Kilmer (1942-2022), Sharon Kilmer · 5 h 34 min · 40 parts

Open the player

01 - THE MINISTER'S SON
8:05
02 - GRANT MAKES TWO BUSINESS CALLS
8:51
03 - GRANT WALKS TO SOMERSET
9:17
04 - A TIMELY RESCUE
8:54
05 - MRS. THORNTON'S PEARLS
9:43
06 - GRANT GETS INTO UNEXPECTED TROUBLE
9:48
07 - MRS. SIMPSON COMES TO GRIEF
8:36
08 - GRANT TAKES A DECISIVE STEP
9:35
09 - UNCLE GODFREY PARTS FROM GRANT
8:42
10 - A DAY IN WALL STREET
9:04
11 -GRANT MAKES A FRIEND
8:29
12 - MRS. ESTABROOK'S PLANS
9:27
13 - TWO VIEWS OF TOM CALDER
8:23
14 - WILLIS FORD'S NEW FRIENDS
10:16
15 - AN ARTFUL TRAP
8:17
16 - GRANT FALLS UNDER SUSPICION
8:25
17 - THE TELLTALE KEY
9:58
18 - GRANT'S ENEMIES TRIUMPH
9:32
19 - IMPORTANT EVIDENCE
9:04
20 - AT THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL
8:33
21 - THE THIEF IS DISCOVERED
9:27
22 - WILLIS FORD AT BAY
9:03
23 - JUSTICE TRIUMPHS
9:18
24 - STARTLING NEWS
9:14
25 - ANXIOUS INQUIRIES
6:34
26 - A WESTERN CABIN
5:43
27 - THE RIDE TO BARTON'S
6:12
28 - HERBERT IS PROVIDED WITH A NEW HOME
9:12
29 - INTRODUCES MR. BARTON
8:32
30 - A MODEL HOUSEHOLD
8:36
31 - THE HOUSEKEEPER'S CRIME
9:29
32 - HOPE DEFERRED
5:05
32 - THE JOURNEY BEGINS
5:04
34 - MRS. BARTON'S SURPRISE
9:26
35 - HERBERT BREAKS DOWN
9:29
36 - GRANT RECEIVES A LETTER
4:56
37 - WILLIS FORD FINDS THE RUNAWAYS
5:11
38 - FORD TAKES A BOLD STEP, BUT FAILS
9:36
39 - THE HOUSEKEEPER'S RETRIBUTION
6:43
40 - CONCLUSION
6:52

This audiobook recording is in the public domain.

The audio edition streams in the page. There is no audio file to download.

Browse all free audiobooks

About this book

Horatio Alger wrote a lot of these books, and Helping Himself fits the pattern most readers expect from him. Grant Thornton, a teenage boy from a small town, gets pushed into New York City after his father dies. He has to figure out how to survive, work honestly, and not get cheated by the city's various sharks along the way.

If you've read Ragged Dick or any of Alger's other young man novels, you know the shape of it. Hard work pays. Decent people end up rewarded eventually. The villains tend to overplay their hand.

It was published in 1886 and reads that way. Some of the social attitudes feel dated now. But as a window into Gilded Age fiction for boys, it still holds interest, and the prose moves quickly enough that it doesn't feel like a slog.

About the author

Horatio Alger

Horatio Alger Jr. was an American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to middle-class security and comfort through good works. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States from 1868 through to his death in 1899.