Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: As noted on that page, Truth In Literature for London, although they're technically storm drains.

And Dodger’s tale of skulduggery, dark plans and even darker deeds begins.'ĭodger is a non- Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, about a tosher (young person who goes down the sewers looking for valuables they're young because it's not a job that leads to a long life), who rescues a girl from apparent kidnappers, and finds himself in a very complicated situation when some well-off do-gooder charges him with finding out what's going on. But when he rescues a young girl from a beating, suddenly everybody wants to know him. Pratchett intends for this book to 'get people interested in that era so wonderfully catalogued by Henry Mayhew and his fellows' and his take on Dodger certainly stays true to the respect for the common man that both Mayhew and Dickens shared, as well as their passionate belief in the importance of social justice.'Dodger is a tosher – a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Dickensian London.

But for all his colourful adventures and street smarts, Pratchett's Dodger is a good-hearted fellow, and this version of his story is also a deeply humane tale that casts a clear light on the reality of existence for poor Londoners in the early Victorian era. Pratchett takes obvious delight in bringing all the sights and smells of Dodger's London vividly to life, peppering his tale with expressive Victorian street-slang, and weaving in a host of real historical characters from Joseph Bazalgate and Benjamin Disraeli, to Charles Dickens himself. Told with wit and vigour, this is an enormously entertaining story full of dry humour and with plenty of jokes to tickle fans of Dickens. Filled with a gallant desire to help her in her plight, Dodger embarks on an adventure which leads him to become the hero of Fleet Street, to face down the demon barber Sweeny Todd, and even to meet the prime minster - as well as to make a 'nobby' new friend, a journalist by the name of Charlie Dickens. Making his home in the rookeries of Seven Dials with a wily but kind Jewish watchmaker, Solomon, he knows everyone and everyone knows him.īut Dodger's story veers in an unexpected direction when he encounters a beautiful young girl and helps save her from a terrible beating. Terry Pratchett once again proves himself a master storyteller in this tribute to one of Charles Dickens' best-known characters, the Artful Doger.Īlthough he is not averse to helping himself to others' belongings, Pratchett's Dodger is not a pick-pocket as such, but a 'tosher', a scavenger who combs the foul sewers of Victorian London to find lost coins and trinkets.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett