Martin Eden – Jack London
This is definitely a book for budding writers to read and try and take some heart from. The main character is actually a sailor, who sees a particularly one-sided unfair brawl starting. He steps and saves the honour, and possibly life, of a well to do young gentleman. As way of thanks, the gentleman invites the sailor over to his parents’ house for a nice meal.
Although Martin has an active brain, and enjoys learning more whenever he can, he feels out of place in high society, and his discomfort is not helped any when the sister of the man he saved turns out to be a charming, beautiful young lady.
Determined to better himself, Martin sets out to better himself, learning as much as he can in Maths (that is Math to my American readers ;>) and grammar, and hopes to go on to start earning some money, and respectability by writing books. He suffers a great deal of rejection, in both the literary and romantic sense, but perseveres.
Despite being written nearly a century ago, I found the style to be very readable, and could happily recommend to this anyone in need of a good book to read.