9.
Title: [Jack Sheppard]
Author: William Harrison Ainsworth
Genre: Nineteenth Century
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: IS Book 3
Date Completed: February 1, 2016
Rating: *****

Murder, revenge, daring escapes, and a fashionable anti-hero: an indulgent recipe for not just movies and comic books, but a nineteenth-century "Newgate novel" that fictionally recounts the history of a notorious eighteenth-century thief.  Jack Sheppard, published serially by William Aisnworth between January 1839 and February 1840, capitalizes on the sensational reputation of an historical figure, presenting to the Victorian audience an escape artist and "master housebreaker" caught in over twenty years of revenge and mistaken identities. The novel is grand in its style, for all of its melodrama, and perfectly delicious (especially for those who are likewise inclined).

As a character, Jack is highly romantic, identifying his turn to crime as a response to the denial of affection in his youth, but maintaining a marginal loyalty to all in the household that extends to the novel's conclusion.  Within the novel Jack is as desirable a character as he must have seemed to his nineteenth century readers - well dressed and well groomed, his attractive features win him the admiration of women, and his daring escapades win him the respect of lower-class men. Ainsworth portrays him as a victim of fate and criminal machinations, offering readers the excuse for sympathy and fondness which would otherwise be denied a notorious criminal. For my own part, of course, I am endlessly fascinated to the attention to material details - the extent to which Ainsworth describes the physical features, and dress, of particular characters (i.e. not all receive the same attention). This one is certainly a keeper.

Enjoy stories of heists or cowboys or pirates or other adventuring sorts?  Then this one is for you.