Abandoning Liverpool, he nearly dies of starvation and heat-stroke, but is rescued and nursed back to health by a kindly farming family. It was one of the most popular waif stories of the nineteenth century improving fiction for Victorian children whose purpose, although primarily religious was also social and political. And instantly, seizing a huge poker and waving it in the air, he shouted to the affrighted agent, with a terrible oath.

Its form parallels, and was probably influenced by, Hogarth's well-known and widely distributed series of engravings of Industry and Idleness, which had also been aimed at the young. Gilt decorated blue cloth with a black and white illustrated frontis and black and white illustrations throughout. Once recovered from this shock, the tears soon reappeared as a result of this heart wrenching story.In the winter those streets and courts are kept comparatively clean by the heavy rains; but in the summer the air fairly reeks with the stench of decayed fish, rotting vegetables and every other conceivable kind of filth. A story that is heart wrenching in parts and full of emotion throughout, I defy you not to tear up when reading this. The language, vocabulary and grammar misuse put me occasionally is a state of apoplexy and nearly to tears. Benny has saved his 'angel's' life; now she reveals that she and her father have long known that he was innocent of the theft. The main character, Benny, is determined to stay honest and never slip into crime, like most of the other street boys of Liverpool.

The children that seem to fairly swarm in this neighbourhood are nearly all of a pale, sallow complexion, and of stunted growth.

If my story] shall awaken any sympathy for the poor little waifs of our streets, I shall have my reward. Although the author is obviously familiar with the conditions suffered by the urban poor, his characters lack psychological realism and illustrate doctrine rather than convince as real people. Nelly has a weak constitution and Benny considers a life of crime as a means to alleviate their suffering. The lines that appear as chapter headings seem to be chosen as particularly glaring examples of bad Victorian verse. I should add that the front entrance of the Liverpool Central library has the names of many books and theatre productions written in the flagstones as you approach the front door, Her Benny is amongst them, which is how I discovered it!

On the western side of Scotland Road, that is to say, between it and the Docks, there is a regular network of streets, inhabited mostly by the lowest class of the Liverpool poor. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. I've not read anything with this style of writing or genre, I got the book as a gift, but I did like it and it's something I'll keep for a long time. Her Benny, an improving story for young people about Liverpool street children, was first published in 1879. The police rarely, if ever, venture into this neighbourhood alone, or if one should be so foolish enough to do so, he has generally to pay dearly for his indiscretion.The harshness of life and death is brought easily to the minds eye of even a modern reader, and the book is certain to bring more than one tear to the eye of even the most cold hearted of readers. The twists and turns in life of ‘Her Benny’ (her being Nelly, his sister) illustrate the poverty and destitution of the time, but a godly approach to life pays dividends in the end. They are the apple of each others eye and cling together for survival like a couple of limpets on the Albert Dock wall.