Like them, its principal message is that diligence and honesty will be rewarded; Benny as Industrious Apprentice has his Idle counterpart too, in the character of Perks, a street boy who repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempts to lure Benny into crime, and ends up dying in Dartmoor prison. A Liverpool slum boy, blamed for a theft, becomes a farmer in Wales and saves the life of his childhood sweetheart. Her Benny, an improving story for young people about Liverpool street children, was first published in 1879. I'm really disappointed too as the only reason I read it is because my grandfather told me it was the one book he ever read that made him cry his eyes out.

Once recovered from this shock, the tears soon reappeared as a result of this heart wrenching story. My mum has been trying to her me to read this for years but it never appealed to me, embarking on the 59 book challenge with one of the topics "a book your mum loves" I had to choose this one. Then raising his voice to a loud pitch the shouted, “Mike, come down here: there’s a chap that ‘as five pun’ in his pocket; let’s collar him quick! And those who have occasion to penetrate their dark and filthy recesses are generally thankful when they find themselves safe out again. Nelly, a child of great natural spiritual insight, acts as Benny's moral conscience; when she dies after a street accident, he is in despair.Helped by their friend the night-watchman Joe Wrag, and 'Granny' Betty Barker, manage to retain their independence and learn to lead Christian lives.

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. A friend of ours, some years ago, came into considerable property in this neighbourhood, and employed a young man who was new to the work to collect the rents for him. The most positive aspects were the historical interest and the settings: the cold and gritty streets and docksides of Victorian Liverpool and the surrounding woods and fields to which Benny retreats and where he grows in faith and stature. Nelly plies her trade like the little match girl selling fusees on around Castle Street and St George's Church.It's also funny in hindsight to have not one but two agonizing deathbed scenes for the same person, although it was surprisingly effective the second time around. It is written alot in northern dialect, which some people may struggle with, other than that it's a beautifully written story, one that the author tells us contains more truth than fiction, which just breaks my heart all over again.

My efforts to hopscotch to the front door jumping only on books I've read is getting closer to completion! Hocking's work however is also characteristic of Victorian evangelical fiction in the emphasis placed on Christian piety, and the role of inner spiritual renewal; his Methodist beliefs emerge especially clearly in Joe Wrag's prolonged struggle with the doctrine of Predestination. His local knowledge also emerges in the book's vivid descriptions of Victorian Liverpool, and its careful attempts to reproduce the Scouse dialect. The language, vocabulary and grammar misuse put me occasionally is a state of apoplexy and nearly to tears.The children that seem to fairly swarm in this neighbourhood are nearly all of a pale, sallow complexion, and of stunted growth. Despite the obvious drawbacks - melodramatic story line, a surfeit of religious instruction, the suffering of the (admittedly likeable) hero turned up to the nth degree, tear-jerking scenes always only a page away - this Victorian novel may present to the sophisticated reader of the 21st century, I found it to be sincere and affecting. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. In the meantime Nelly gets God in a big way and starts to wish for the sweet release of death because people have told her that heaven is a reward and better than life on earth. The author's clear no-nonsense prose and the quaint illustrations add to the pleasure of reading this curiosity.