Her Benny

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Still, it seems like perfect plot fodder for a farce about a Victorian character who follows people around, dying again and again. Benny’s father’s drowning in the dock – gurgles and all – and the scene where Joe invites his docile fellow workers to hear him read the bible are similarly absurd. On the western side of Scotland Road, that is to say, between it and the Docks, there is a regular network of streets, inhabited mostly by the lowest class of the Liverpool poor.

When Oscar Wilde said you’d have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing one wonders whether he was really thinking of Hocking. It's also funny in hindsight to have not one but two agonizing deathbed scenes for the same person, although it was surprisingly effective the second time around. He scrapes a living running errands in the streets; his beloved but frail sister Nelly, a year younger, sells matches. The harsh portrayal of street urchin Perks, alias John Cadger, contrasts with empathy of Charles Dickens in his creation of the Artful Dodger.Abandoning Liverpool, he nearly dies of starvation and heat-stroke, but is rescued and nursed back to health by a kindly farming family.

Like them, its principal message is that diligence and honesty will be rewarded; Benny as Industrious Apprentice has his Idle counterpart too, in the character of Perks, a street boy who repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempts to lure Benny into crime, and ends up dying in Dartmoor prison. If you can overlook or ignore the language, vocabulary and grammar use, I feel sure you too would love the tale. A friend of ours, some years ago, came into considerable property in this neighbourhood, and employed a young man who was new to the work to collect the rents for him. I've not read anything with this style of writing or genre, I got the book as a gift, but I did like it and it's something I'll keep for a long time. In the winter those streets and courts are kept comparatively clean by the heavy rains; but in the summer the air fairly reeks with the stench of decayed fish, rotting vegetables and every other conceivable kind of filth.

The combination of twee-ness and religious overtones make this a little indigestible in places but it is one of the most famous books about Victorian Liverpool and did successfully highlight the plight of children in the city. The children that seem to fairly swarm in this neighbourhood are nearly all of a pale, sallow complexion, and of stunted growth.

If my story] shall awaken any sympathy for the poor little waifs of our streets, I shall have my reward. Nelly, a child of great natural spiritual insight, acts as Benny's moral conscience; when she dies after a street accident, he is in despair. The most positive aspects were the historical interest and the settings: the cold and gritty streets and docksides of Victorian Liverpool and the surrounding woods and fields to which Benny retreats and where he grows in faith and stature.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc.