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
Wild Boy (novel) Wild Boy (novel) Wild Boy is a 2003 novel by English author Jill Dawson, published by Sceptre. Set in Paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is a fictional retelling of the story of Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron. The novel is split into sections headed by dates in the French Republican Calendar which was in use at the time, and is in the main told by two narrative voices, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, the doctor appointed to be the boy's tutor, and Madame Guerin to whom Itard entrusts his care. The story begins with Victor's arrival