"A Child of the Jago" by Arthur Morrison is a novel published in 1896. It follows young Dicky Perrott growing up in the Old Jago, a fictional slum in London's East End. Surrounded by poverty, violence, and crime, Dicky navigates a brutal world where survival means theft and betrayal. When a clergyman offers him a chance at honest work, hope flickers briefly—but the slum's grip proves difficult to escape in this stark portrait of Victorian London's underclass. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.