Her Benny

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He scrapes a living running errands in the streets; his beloved but frail sister Nelly, a year younger, sells matches. It is written alot in northern dialect, which some people may struggle with, other than that it's a beautifully written story, one that the author tells us contains more truth than fiction, which just breaks my heart all over again. Benny has saved his 'angel's' life; now she reveals that she and her father have long known that he was innocent of the theft. I'm really disappointed too as the only reason I read it is because my grandfather told me it was the one book he ever read that made him cry his eyes out.

The children that seem to fairly swarm in this neighbourhood are nearly all of a pale, sallow complexion, and of stunted growth. I wasn't used to reading something where spirituality and religion was so prominent but in the end it didn't take away from the story. In the winter those streets and courts are kept comparatively clean by the heavy rains; but in the summer the air fairly reeks with the stench of decayed fish, rotting vegetables and every other conceivable kind of filth. The book sold over a million copies, and it is easy to see why such a tale would have appealed to the late Victorians, following on from the social issues first raised by Dickens.The author's clear no-nonsense prose and the quaint illustrations add to the pleasure of reading this curiosity. The main character, Benny, is determined to stay honest and never slip into crime, like most of the other street boys of Liverpool. When Oscar Wilde said you’d have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing one wonders whether he was really thinking of Hocking. I've not read anything with this style of writing or genre, I got the book as a gift, but I did like it and it's something I'll keep for a long time. Like them, its principal message is that diligence and honesty will be rewarded; Benny as Industrious Apprentice has his Idle counterpart too, in the character of Perks, a street boy who repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempts to lure Benny into crime, and ends up dying in Dartmoor prison.

In the meantime Nelly gets God in a big way and starts to wish for the sweet release of death because people have told her that heaven is a reward and better than life on earth. Six years later, and by now grown up, he bravely stops a runaway carriage in a nearby lane; only afterwards does he discover that one of its occupants was Eva Lawrence. Despite the obvious drawbacks - melodramatic story line, a surfeit of religious instruction, the suffering of the (admittedly likeable) hero turned up to the nth degree, tear-jerking scenes always only a page away - this Victorian novel may present to the sophisticated reader of the 21st century, I found it to be sincere and affecting. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. In 1993 the novel was also adapted into a successful stage musical by Anne Dalton, [4] with a 25th anniversary revival in 2018.

I mean having grown up in liverpool and the surrounding areas I have visited many places within this book and have felt able to immerse myself into what was happening.