Work and Win; Or, Noddy Newman on a Cruise

Name: Work and Win; Or, Noddy Newman on a Cruise
Author: Oliver Optic

by Oliver Optic

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Language: en4,015 downloads on Project Gutenberg

Subjects

Christian life -- Juvenile fiction Orphans -- Juvenile fiction Shipwreck survival -- Juvenile fiction Runaway children -- Juvenile fiction Circus -- Juvenile fiction New York (State) -- Juvenile fiction Guardian and ward -- Juvenile fiction Schooners -- Juvenile fiction

In: Children's Fiction·Children & Young Adult Reading·Adventure

Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #23758.

About this book

The work is a mid‑nineteenth‑century juvenile adventure that blends Christian moral instruction with lively episodes of mischief, ship‑life, and a circus setting. It opens with a moral preface that frames the story as a vehicle for showing the “gentle and Christian character” of its young hero, Noddy Newman, an orphan taken under the wing of the compassionate Miss Bertha Grant. The first chapter places Noddy in a familiar routine, washing out a boat‑house under the watchful eye of the boatman Ben, while he negotiates the competing demands of his caretaker and the headstrong Miss Fanny Grant. Their quarrel over a burned‑down boat‑house launches the narrative into a series of escapades that promise both domestic trials and larger perils at sea.

The prose reflects the earnest, didactic tone of post‑Civil War American boys’ literature, with a straightforward, dialogue‑driven style that emphasizes character development over elaborate description. Its language is plain yet vivid, capturing the restless energy of a teenage orphan and the earnest attempts of his guardians to steer him toward respectable work. Readers who enjoy moral‑laden adventure tales, especially those set in rural New York with elements of shipwreck survival and circus intrigue, will find the novel’s blend of earnest instruction and spirited plot engaging.

Characters in Work and Win

Noddy NewmanTeenage orphan boy, sandy hair, plain shirt and trousers, earnest expression, mid‑1800s American attire
Miss Bertha GrantWoman in her thirties, modest high‑collar dress, dark hair pinned, gentle eyes, 19th‑century rural New York style
MollieYoung captain's daughter, long chestnut hair, simple dress, sea‑worn skin, innocent smile, mid‑19th‑century nautical setting

The opening · free to read

The incidents which make up the story are introduced to illustrate the moral status of the youth, at the beginning, and to develop the influences from which proceeded a gentle and Christian character. Mollie, the captain's daughter, whose simple purity of life, whose filial devotion to an erring parent, and whose trusting faith in the hour of adversity, won the love and respect of Noddy, was not the least of these influences. If the writer has not "moralized," it was because the true life, seen with the living eye, is better than any precept, however skilfully it may be dressed by the rhetorical genius of the moralist.

Once more the author takes pleasure in acknowledging the kindness of his young friends, who have so favorably received his former works; and he hopes that "WORK AND WIN," the fourth of the Woodville Stories, will have as pleasant a welcome as its predecessors.