'The Jago had got him, and it held him fast.'In the worst of London's
East End slums, in an area called the Jago, young Dicky Perrott is used
to a life of poverty, crime, and violence. Gang warfare is the order of
the day, deaths are commonplace, and thieving the only way to survive.
At first Dicky dreams of becoming a High Mobsman - one of the
aristocrats of Jago crime - but the efforts of Father Sturt to improve
conditions offer him a different path.
Dicky's journey takes him
through a savage but colourful community of pickpockets
and cosh-carriers, where the police only enter in threes, and where
murder erupts with an unusual horror and intimacy. Morrison's portrayal
of the Victorian underclass and its underworld drew attention to the
bleak prospects for children living in such surroundings, and it is a
classic of slum-fiction. In this edition Peter Miles provides a rich
contextual background to the creation of the novel, and the social
debates to which it contributed.
A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison
- Product Code:New
- Availability:In Stock
-
£8.99