““This is Thackeray’s first full-length novel, which appeared in serialised instalments in Fraser’s Magazine between May 1839 and February 1840. Thackeray’s original intention was to criticise the Newgate school of crime fiction, exemplified by Bulwer-Lytton and Harrison Ainsworth, whose works Thackeray felt glorified criminals. Thackeray even accused Dickens of this in his portrayal of the good-hearted prostitute Nancy and the charming pickpocket, the Artful Dodger, in Oliver Twist. The appearance of the first instalments of Ainsworth’s novel Jack Sheppard at the beginning of 1839 seems to have been what spurred Thackeray into action. Ainsworth’s novel portrayed a real life prison breaker and thief from the eighteenth century in flattering terms. In contrast, Thackeray sought out a real life criminal whom he could portray in as unflattering terms as possible.””
