- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press (6 Nov 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198312970
- ISBN-13: 978-0198312970
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 16.4 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,124,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Smith (Puffin Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Review
"Leon Garfield's vivid descriptions and dialog transported me almost bodily . . . Reissuing Leon Garfield's novels is a great gift." -- "Suzanne Fisher Staple"s
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
In the dangerous streets of 18th-century London, Smith a 12-year-old pickpocket, lives in the shadow of the hangman's rope. Then one day he steals a document from a gentleman - only to witness his murder minutes later. The activity section at the back of the play features information about life in 18th-century London, including maps from the period. There are also assignments covering a range of National Curriculum outcomes, plus detailed guidance on drama activities.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"He was called Smith and was twelve years old. Which, in itself, was a marvel; for it seemed as if the smallpox, the consumption, brain-fever, gaol-fever and even the hangman's rope had given him a wide berth for fear of catching something. Or else they weren't quick enough."
This is our introduction to Smith, a pickpocket, and the 18th Century London in which he lives.
The story begins with Smith picking the pockets of a 'country gentleman', only then to witness that gentlemen being murdered, for something he was thought to be carrying. But Smith now has that something, a document, and he sets out to learn to read it, and to solve the mystery of the murdered gentleman, while avoiding the killers who are on his trail.
There is an array of charaters - conspiring lawyers, a blind magistrate, murderous villains, highway men - and as with Dickens, places become characters too - Newgate Gaol, the City of London itself. The language is a wonder, to be relished - evocative, compelling, and always humourous - lightly ironic or downright comic. Rather like Smith himself.
This is our introduction to Smith, a pickpocket, and the 18th Century London in which he lives.
The story begins with Smith picking the pockets of a 'country gentleman', only then to witness that gentlemen being murdered, for something he was thought to be carrying. But Smith now has that something, a document, and he sets out to learn to read it, and to solve the mystery of the murdered gentleman, while avoiding the killers who are on his trail.
There is an array of charaters - conspiring lawyers, a blind magistrate, murderous villains, highway men - and as with Dickens, places become characters too - Newgate Gaol, the City of London itself. The language is a wonder, to be relished - evocative, compelling, and always humourous - lightly ironic or downright comic. Rather like Smith himself.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read Garfield's novel as a child in the seventies and found it enchanting. It took me away from 20th century post-industrial Scotland and completely submerged me in the world of 18th century London. Quite an achievement! Ever since I have enjoyed the history of that period and reading 18th century writers such as Fielding.
Strangely 'Smith' has the feel both of the 1700s and of the 1960s in which it was written just as 1963's classic film version of 'Tom Jones' looks sumptuously authentic and yet retains a certain sixties sensibility. These two periods are my particular favourites so that explains much of my enjoyment of Garfield's work but he was also a supremely skilled writer, a painter of worlds using words.
The one star review by 'CJ' posted here misses the point to some extent: Garfield's major skill was in writing beautifully descripitive passages; they are wonderfully evocative and take the reader on a journey through time that is simultaneously charming, convincing and achieved with marvellous deftness. He told a great yarn too but it is his utterly brilliant descriptive passages that enchant. To call it boring misses the point that Garfield has recreated the pace of life in that period. And he does it with such subtlety that some readers may mistake it for a lack of action. After all this was a time when the fastest transport on land was the horse. It is easy for modern readers to forget that the world was not always such a frenetically information-overloaded place and Garfield transports us with amazing skill to a time before all this madness.
Strangely 'Smith' has the feel both of the 1700s and of the 1960s in which it was written just as 1963's classic film version of 'Tom Jones' looks sumptuously authentic and yet retains a certain sixties sensibility. These two periods are my particular favourites so that explains much of my enjoyment of Garfield's work but he was also a supremely skilled writer, a painter of worlds using words.
The one star review by 'CJ' posted here misses the point to some extent: Garfield's major skill was in writing beautifully descripitive passages; they are wonderfully evocative and take the reader on a journey through time that is simultaneously charming, convincing and achieved with marvellous deftness. He told a great yarn too but it is his utterly brilliant descriptive passages that enchant. To call it boring misses the point that Garfield has recreated the pace of life in that period. And he does it with such subtlety that some readers may mistake it for a lack of action. After all this was a time when the fastest transport on land was the horse. It is easy for modern readers to forget that the world was not always such a frenetically information-overloaded place and Garfield transports us with amazing skill to a time before all this madness.
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