Hope and Have

Hope and Have is one of Oliver Optic’s many novels for boys, with the title pointing to the moral framework that links hopeful aspiration with the eventual achievement of the desired position. The hope and have framing positions the central character within the standard rags to respectability tradition, with the standard moral and character development of the wider Optic catalogue working through the path from hope to the eventual having of the position the protagonist has been pursuing.

Oliver Optic was the pen name of William Taylor Adams, a Massachusetts writer who became one of the most prolific producers of boys’ fiction in mid to late nineteenth century America with more than a hundred novels.

For scholars of nineteenth century American children’s literature or of the wider career of Oliver Optic, the various novels in his catalogue are essential. Many are now in the public domain.