Catherine A Story was the first novel by English author William Makepeace Thackeray. It first appeared in serialized instalments in Frasers Magazine between May 1839 and February 1840, credited to "Ikey Solomons, Esq. Junior". Thackerays original intention in writing it was to criticize the Newgate school of crime fiction, exemplified by BulwerLytton and Harrison Ainsworth, whose works Thackeray felt glorified criminals. Thackeray even included Dickens in this criticism for his portrayal of the goodhearted streetwalker Nancy and the charming pickpocket, the Artful Dodger, in Oliver Twist.Ainsworths Jack Sheppard portrayed a reallife prison breaker and thief from the eighteenth century in flattering terms. In contrast, Thackeray sought out a reallife criminal whom he could portray in as unflattering terms as possible. He settled on Catherine Hayes, another eighteenthcentury criminal, who was burned at the stake for murdering her husband in 1726. However, as he told his mother, Thackeray developed a "sneaking kindness" for his heroine, and the novel that was supposed to present criminals as totally vile, without any redeeming characteristics, instead made Catherine and her roguish companions seem rather appealing. Thackeray felt the result was a failure, and did not republish it in his lifetime. Thackeray himself, in the last instalment of the novel, has his narrator say that the newspapers, reporting on earlier instalments, had abused Catherine by calling it "one of the...

Binding: Hardcover;158 pages; Publisher: Bibliotech Press; Classification: N/A; Weight: 485.6 g; Dimensions: N/A

Something not quite right? You have 21 days from the day you receive it, to send something back.

Please note, we cannot offer refunds on fashion face masks, cosmetics, pierced jewellery, adult toys, and swimwear or lingerie if the hygiene seal is not in place or has been broken.

Items of footwear and/or clothing must be unworn and unwashed with the original labels attached. Also, footwear must be tried on indoors. Items of homeware including bedlinen, mattresses, and toppers, and pillows must be unused and in their original unopened packaging. This does not affect your statutory rights.

Click here to view our full Returns Policy.