This book is mch shorter than The Nether World, but follows a very similiar storyline and setting, as well as time period.

The places where this book takes place truly existed in the East End of London over 100 years ago, but no longer exists as there was a massive slum clearance many many years ago. The area was called ' The old Nichol ', and you can google it and see old maps and if lucky a few old photos taken from the area at the time.

Yet another grim, grimy, depressing and miserable story of the East End's sub poor, not just regualar poor, meaning just making ends meet, I mean the type of poor where you may not eat for two days, the infant may sleep on a dirty blanket on the floor, and the wife or common law girlfriend may get a good slap in the mouth when her drunk man comes home and there is no food so no dinner.

Despite its grimness, it is in my top 3 favorite books, especially Victorian books about the East End.
A ( )

I cannot believe this was written at the turn of the last century! A gritty, visceral down-and-out, just how I like them. Very British. ( )

Set in an area of Victorian London known as the Jago. It is a notorious slum made up of several streets around a central court and inhabited by all manner of thieves and vagabonds. The "Child of the Jago' in question is a lad called Dicky Perrott who although not inherently bad,becomes so due to overwhelming circumstances. His family live in near poverty with no hope to sustain them. At one point Dicky does get a job which he hopes will eventually pull him out of this situation and will enable him to help his family too. Regretfully he is fired due to no fault of his own and all goes downhill from thereon in.
Arthur Morrison has written a powerful novel in which the main characters find themselves caught up in a set of circumstances from which it is impossible to escape. No-one (apart that is from Father Sturt) is completely innocent,but much sympathy must be accorded to most of them
This novel could well be compared to Dickens 'Oliver Twist', but whereas that story is very well known, Morrison's tale deserves a much wider audience. ( )

When this was presented to me as a "slum novel" I was prepared to hate it. I expected poverty, thugs, filth ... in short, a celebration of human indecency, like "Gangs of New York" in prose form. Well, there was certainly all that, yet strangely I still liked it.

Through all the suffering, ugliness, and ignorance portrayed in this novel, there is also a childlike ... sweetness, for lack of a better word. And not simply because the story focuses on a young boy and his interactions with family, friends, and neighbors. All the denizens of the Jago exhibit a poignant appeal that has them coming across as tangible, complex characters.

I think this an overlooked gem of British literature, quite unlike the other British literature of this period that I have read. I would definitely recommend it to others, especially those looking for something that "feels" real. After all, this book was inspired by the author's observations of the real London slum, the Old Nichol. Reading becomes an exercise in morbid fascination, as you wonder how much is fictionalized and how much is genuine. ( )

The back bills it as Charles Dickens without the things that make you hate Dickens. Only they said it more elegantly.

I'm unable to make the comparison with any conviction but I can tell you about this book. It is a stark and uncompromising description of the Victorian slums. The description of the conditions does not come at the cost of the characters who inspire pity and horror. Never are we hit over the head with moralising, the story tells itself. ( )