A virtuoso feat of writing, but maybe not much else?
Set in 18th century London, written in an (I assume) genuine working class London patois, which needs a glossary at the back to translate.
The story primarily of Edgeworth Bess, a clichéd fallen servant girl who travels, Dick Whittington like, to London, where she becomes a prostitute and falls in with various criminals, including the thief taker Jonathan Wild, who sits between the criminal underworld and its victims. He, and her lover Jack Sheppard, are eventually hung at Tyburn, she expects the same fate, but is eventually deported.
A good read, but insubstantial?
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