Jack Sheppard (novel) for many months in the "Bentley's Miscellany": Dickens' "Oliver Twist". The plots are similar, in that both deal with an individual attempting to corrupt a boy. Ainsworth's boy is corrupted, whereas Dickens' is not. Both authors also cast Jews as their villains; they are similar in appearance, though Ainsworth's is less powerful. According to Frank Chandler, the novel "was intended as a study in the Spanish style". Such influences appear in Jack's physical description and in the words of the characters. Dramatist John Gay stated that Jack's story is related to the stories of Guzman d'Alfarache, Lazarillo de Tormes, Estevanillo
The Fool's Progress review calling it "an epic exploration of Abbey's passionate loves and hatreds." The Fool's Progress The Fool's Progress is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1988. The book is a semi-autobiographical novel about a man, Henry Holyoak Lightcap, who refuses to submit to modern commercial society. Unlike Abbey's most famous fiction work, "The Monkey Wrench Gang", which concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the American Southwest, "The Fool's Progress" focuses on the journey of Henry across America. Edward Abbey considered it to be his "fat masterpiece." It was the final