14 h 46 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 14 h 46 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can soften a mining camp full of men who are quick to anger and slow to show tenderness?
In Bret Harte’s The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales, California’s gold country holds more than the promise of fortune. The title story enters Roaring Camp, where rowdy, hard-drinking miners live together in a rough settlement. A new arrival begins to change the mood of the place, bringing hidden tenderness into view.
The collection also follows gamblers, drifters and people the respectable world rejects through the Sierra Nevada foothills. Harte looks past rough manners to find kindness, loyalty and sacrifice. Humor sits beside feeling and irony, while sudden action tests the people of these camps. His watchful narrator invites you to notice what they do when no one is watching.
What you’ll discover
- A camp begins to change Watch hard men reconsider everyday habits as small acts of care reshape their shared world.
- Outcasts with hidden heart Meet rejected people whose tenderness challenges the judgments of the respectable world.
- The gambler and the miner Discover cool manners and blunt kindness among the familiar figures of Harte’s West.
- Feeling edged with irony Find humor beside loyalty and sacrifice, with room for both warmth and an amused glance.
- Gold country becomes fiction Explore mining camps and foothills through a storyteller’s polished, slightly formal style.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy Western tales full of gamblers, miners, and stagecoaches, or if you like humor mixed with feeling and outcasts who show unexpected kindness.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A baby's cry silences a camp of outlaws
- The camp scrubs itself clean for a child
- Exiles from Poker Flat head for the mountains
- Snowed in, the outcasts find a strange peace
- A stagecoach finds shelter with Miggles
- A clumsy friend offers everything he owns
- Harte pokes fun at the famous writers
- A wild girl and a schoolmaster in Smith's Pocket
- Floods, gamblers, devils and stock-market fish
- Mercy for outcasts and a wry way of telling
Who’s who
- StumpyA small, gruff miner who takes charge of the newborn at Roaring Camp and insists on a proper christening.
- KentuckA rough miner whose finger is gripped by the baby, and who hides his tenderness behind swearing.
- John OakhurstA calm gambler who names the baby Luck and later leads the exiles of Poker Flat through snow.
- The DuchessA young woman banished from Poker Flat who finds unexpected friendship with an innocent girl.
- MigglesA laughing, brave young woman who gives a stagecoach party shelter while caring for helpless Jim.
- Tennessee's PartnerA stolid, red-faced miner who stays loyal to a gambling friend who has wronged him.
- M'lissA fierce, black-eyed schoolgirl of Smith's Pocket who asks a master to teach her and seeks her father.
- Jack HamlinA cool gambler with a sweet singing voice and a hidden soft heart.
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La Chance du camp de Roaring Camp et autres récits
by Bret Harte · 1870
About a hundred rough men bet on a newborn's survival in Roaring Camp, then contribute gifts and money for him.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if a hundred rough men gathered outside a cabin to bet on a baby's chances? In Roaring Camp in 1850 they bet, they wait, and then they pass a hat to feed the child.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A baby's cry silences a camp of outlaws
The title story opens in Roaring Camp in 1850. About a hundred men have left their claims and gathered outside a cabin. Inside, Cherokee Sal, the only woman in the camp, is in great distress. The men smoke, place bets, and wait.
Sal dies within the hour, and Stumpy takes charge of the child. A donkey supplies the milk. Then each man files past a candle box holding the baby in red flannel and drops a gift in a hat. The gifts include a gold nugget, a silver spoon, and a Bible whose donor is never named.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1870
- Language
- français
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Harte, Bret. The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-luck-of-roaring-camp-and-other-tales.
Harte, B. (2026). The luck of Roaring Camp and other tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-luck-of-roaring-camp-and-other-tales (Original work published 1870)
Harte, Bret. The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-luck-of-roaring-camp-and-other-tales.
@book{harte2026luck,
author = {Harte, Bret},
title = {The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-luck-of-roaring-camp-and-other-tales},
note = {First published 1870}
}
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What is The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales about?
It gathers Bret Harte's gold rush stories, including a baby adopted by a mining camp, outcasts snowed in at Poker Flat, and a woman who cares for a helpless man, together with parodies, sketches, and legends.
Who are Oakhurst, Stumpy and Kentuck?
They are miners and gamblers in Harte's camps. Stumpy raises the foundling with a donkey, Kentuck is the rough man whose finger the baby grabs, and Oakhurst is a calm gambler in two of the stories.
What are the Condensed Novels in this book?
They are short parodies of famous novelists, such as Cooper, Dumas, Bronte, Dickens, and Hugo. Harte exaggerates each writer's style for comic effect, with names like Muck-a-Muck and Miss Mix.
The author
Bret Harte
1836–1902 · American novelist and poet
Bret Harte was an American writer and poet born in Albany, New York, in 1836. He moved to California in 1854 and worked as a journalist and editor. His story “The Luck of Roaring Camp” appeared in 1868. He later lived in Britain and died in Camberley, England, in 1902.
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