The tale of a poor orphan who raises himself up from his humble beginnings through hard work, honesty and devotion to duty. The novel reflects the changing social and political landscape of England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Dinah Craik was initially regarded as the literary equal of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot, from the 1860s onwards she was overshadowed by them, and had been virtually forgotten by the 1920s.
