The book is a roman à thèse, or a novel with a thesis — which was meant to create a furor over the squalor that was plaguing England's working class cities.

Sybil examines the moral corruption inherent in forcing children to work under such unpleasant conditions.

The characters of the sixteen-year-old Dandy Mick and Devilsdust, who is abandoned by his mother and left to fend for himself, are particularly emblematic of this.

[2] Disraeli's novel was made into a silent film called Sybil in 1921, starring Evelyn Brent and Cowley Wright.

The Difference Engine, a 1990 steampunk novel written by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, contains alternate versions of several characters from Sybil, including Sybil Gerard, Walter Gerard, Charles Egremont and Dandy Mick.