Thackeray even included Dickens in this criticism for his portrayal of the good-hearted streetwalker Nancy and the charming pickpocket, the Artful Dodger, in Oliver Twist.
[2] Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard portrayed a real-life prison breaker and thief from the eighteenth century in flattering terms.
However, as he told his mother, Thackeray developed a "sneaking kindness" for his heroine,[3] 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.
"[7] On the other hand, the noted critic George Saintsbury thought the novel had many good qualities, including its style and its rich texture of allusions.
[8] It has also been suggested that the heroine, though crudely drawn, looks forward to the much more famous Becky Sharp of Thackeray's Vanity Fair.