Description:
A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad see a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's . . . Dodger.
Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl - not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.
Review:
I enjoyed this book very
much. The writing is very good and the story is well thought out. The story captured me from the very first page and I kept reading with interest, anxious to find out what would happen next to Dodger and how his carefully thought-out plans would work out. The book contains
actual historic figures from the Victorian age. Most of them I was familiar
with, and others I had to look up. These historic figures include Charles
Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Mayhew, Robert Peel, Sweeney Todd, Joseph
Bazalgette, Angela Burdett-Coutts, and even Queen Victoria herself.
Dodger is a great character, and is the best developed of all of the characters, after all, the book is about him. He is not a pickpocket as he is in Oliver Twist. He is a “tosher,” which is someone who retrieves valuables from the sewers. He doesn’t consider himself a thief. He simply finds things people have lost. Pratchett does a great job of recreating Victorian England. You can tell that he did a lot of research, and it paid off. The descriptions of London and the lives of those who lived there were very vivid.
Charles
Dickens is a main character in the book, and Dodger's experiences with him not
only give Dickens ideas for Oliver Twist, but even give him ideas for other
stories that he will write subsequently. I loved the moments when Dodger would
say something and Charlie (as he is referred to in the book) would take out a
notebook and write something down, much to the annoyance of Dodger. I know how it is to write down ideas and quotes, I just hope I don't annoy my friends with doing it. *wink* I also hope that one day I can write a novel close to the quality of
Dickens. Even though there are glimpses of Dickens's stories, I am glad that the plot of Dodger isn't taken from a Dickens novel (as far as I know).
After reading Dodger I may try other works by Pratchett. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.
Dodger is a great character, and is the best developed of all of the characters, after all, the book is about him. He is not a pickpocket as he is in Oliver Twist. He is a “tosher,” which is someone who retrieves valuables from the sewers. He doesn’t consider himself a thief. He simply finds things people have lost. Pratchett does a great job of recreating Victorian England. You can tell that he did a lot of research, and it paid off. The descriptions of London and the lives of those who lived there were very vivid.
After reading Dodger I may try other works by Pratchett. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.
There were some great
passages in the book, and because I read it on my Kindle Fire, I highlighted some. I would never mark up a hard copy of a book, so reading an
ebook has its positives.
Here are just a few highlights:
The night passed fairly quickly because so much had already slid away into yesterday.
"Well, I thought to myself, if that is the self-same young man I met the other day, then the only way he would stop anything being stolen would be to put his hands behind his back."
...although the man was the master, which was of course only right and proper, if you watched and listened, you would see that their marriage was like a barge on the river with the wife being the wind that told the captain which way the barge would sail. Mrs. Mayhew, if not being the wind, certainly knew when to apply the right puff.
Sharp Bob, who in these circumstances realized that only half of his name was accurate, was struggling now.
"Mmm, well now," he said, "if one day you gave up messing about in ... well, mess, I might talk to you about the works of Spinoza, a philosopher who might broaden your mind - because as far as I can see, there's plenty room."
The little room was silent and dark, apart from the slight snoring of Solomon, the gray light that managed to filter through the dirty window, and the smell of Onan, which in some peculiar way could almost be heard.
If he had no plans for the day, he would lounge under the blanket until Onan licked his face, and you never wanted that to happen more than once.
Mister Todd was definitely not a naturally cheerful personality; the gloom was apparently laminated to him.
Sweeney swirled a white sheet over him in a way that would have been called theatrical.
"All men are writers, journalists scribbling within their skulls the narrative of what they see and hear, notwithstanding that a man sitting opposite them might well brew an entirely different view as to the nature of the occurrence. That is the salvation and the demon of journalism, the knowledge that there is almost always a different perspective from which to see the conundrum."
And that was how Dodger and Simplicity got into Parliament, indeed with the cutthroat razor - and with a lie, which was fine, considering that's how so many people got into Parliament.
"Money makes people rich; it is a fallacy to think it makes them better, or even that it makes them worse. People are what they do, and what they leave behind."
Dodger said, "Can I have some more?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Charlie wearing the familiar expression of a man enjoying the fun.
"Don't bother with the fish slice; nobody bothers with the fish slice, it is there as an ornament, just to show people that you have a fish slice."
The night passed fairly quickly because so much had already slid away into yesterday.
"Well, I thought to myself, if that is the self-same young man I met the other day, then the only way he would stop anything being stolen would be to put his hands behind his back."
...although the man was the master, which was of course only right and proper, if you watched and listened, you would see that their marriage was like a barge on the river with the wife being the wind that told the captain which way the barge would sail. Mrs. Mayhew, if not being the wind, certainly knew when to apply the right puff.
Sharp Bob, who in these circumstances realized that only half of his name was accurate, was struggling now.
"Mmm, well now," he said, "if one day you gave up messing about in ... well, mess, I might talk to you about the works of Spinoza, a philosopher who might broaden your mind - because as far as I can see, there's plenty room."
The little room was silent and dark, apart from the slight snoring of Solomon, the gray light that managed to filter through the dirty window, and the smell of Onan, which in some peculiar way could almost be heard.
If he had no plans for the day, he would lounge under the blanket until Onan licked his face, and you never wanted that to happen more than once.
Mister Todd was definitely not a naturally cheerful personality; the gloom was apparently laminated to him.
Sweeney swirled a white sheet over him in a way that would have been called theatrical.
"All men are writers, journalists scribbling within their skulls the narrative of what they see and hear, notwithstanding that a man sitting opposite them might well brew an entirely different view as to the nature of the occurrence. That is the salvation and the demon of journalism, the knowledge that there is almost always a different perspective from which to see the conundrum."
And that was how Dodger and Simplicity got into Parliament, indeed with the cutthroat razor - and with a lie, which was fine, considering that's how so many people got into Parliament.
"Money makes people rich; it is a fallacy to think it makes them better, or even that it makes them worse. People are what they do, and what they leave behind."
Dodger said, "Can I have some more?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Charlie wearing the familiar expression of a man enjoying the fun.
"Don't bother with the fish slice; nobody bothers with the fish slice, it is there as an ornament, just to show people that you have a fish slice."
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