D greenwood little ragamuffin read the summary. About James Greenwood and Little Rag. Jim runs away from home

James Greenwood

Little ragamuffin

James Greenwood

The True History of a Little Ragamuffin

Converted from English for children by A. Annenskaya

Artist E. Golomazova

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Preface from the publisher

James Greenwood (1833–1929), one of England's first professional writers for children, worked in the field of children's literature for more than half a century. He has written almost 40 novels.

Like many other English children's writers, Greenwood paid tribute to the theme of Robinsonade (The Adventures of Robert Deviger, 1869). However, he was not just an “entertaining” writer: the leitmotif of his work was the life of the poor, outcast people, abandoned by society to their fate. The writer dedicated a special book, “The Seven Curses of London” (1869), to the unbearable life of the inhabitants of the London slums.

The writer’s most famous book, “The True History of a Little Rag” (1866), became extremely popular in Russia, going through about 40 editions. The hero of the book, Jim, became for the Russian reader a touching symbol of a young London beggar.

Harassed by his stepmother, the boy leaves his home. But what awaits him is not exciting travel, but half-starved nomadism in the company of street children like him, an eternal search for food, despair and fear. Greenwood depicts for the reader the social swamp in which crime is born, shows how gradually people, driven to despair by hunger and poverty, turn into inhumans.

Greenwood's book has an optimistic ending: the boy manages to escape hopeless poverty. The writer believes in the friendly support of those who, through hard and honest work, establish themselves on earth - and instills in the reader faith in the bright power of friendship and work.

Chapter I. Some details about the place of my birth and about my relationship

I was born in London, at number 19, Freingpen Lane, near Turnmill Street. The reader is probably not at all familiar with this area, and if he decided to look for it, his efforts would remain unsuccessful. It would be in vain for him to make inquiries from various people who, apparently, should know both this street and this alley well. A petty shopkeeper who lived twenty steps from my alley would shake his head in bewilderment in response to the questions of an inquisitive reader; he would say that he knows Fringpon Lane and Tommel Street in the neighborhood, but he has never heard those strange names that he is now being told about in his entire life; It would never have occurred to him that his Fringpon and Tommel were nothing more than distorted Fringpen and Turnmill.

However, no matter what the shopkeeper thinks, Fraingpen Lane exists, that is certain. Its appearance is now exactly the same as it was twenty years ago, when I lived there; only the stone step at the entrance to it has been greatly worn out, and the plaque with its name has been renewed; the entrance to it is as dirty as before, and with the same low, narrow arch. This vault is so low that a scavenger with a basket must almost crawl through it on his knees, and so narrow that a shop shutter or even a coffin lid could serve as a gate for him.

As a child, I was not particularly cheerful and carefree happy: I constantly paid my main attention to coffins and funerals. Our alley passes through, especially in the summer, many funerals, and therefore it is not surprising that I often thought about coffins: I mentally measured all our neighbors and wondered whether it would be possible to carry their coffins along our cramped alley. I was especially worried about the funerals of two persons. Firstly, I was worried about a fat innkeeper who lived in Turnmill Street and often came into our lane to buy pots and pans, which the neighbors took from him and then forgot to return. Alive, he should have walked out of the alley sideways, but what would happen when he died, suddenly his shoulders got stuck between two walls?

I was even more concerned about Mrs. Winkship's funeral. Mrs. Winkship, the old lady who lived at the entrance to the lane, was shorter, but even fatter than the innkeeper. In addition, I loved and respected her from the bottom of my heart, I did not want her to be treated disrespectfully even after death, and therefore I thought long and often about how to carry her coffin through the narrow entrance.

Mrs. Winkship's business was to rent carts and lend money to the fruit merchants who lived in our lane. She was proud of the fact that she had not gone anywhere further than Turnmill Street for thirty years, the only time she went to the theater was to sprain her leg. She used to sit all day long on the threshold of her own house; her chair was an overturned basket, on which lay a bag of chaff for greater convenience. She sat in this way to watch for fruit merchants: she had to demand money from them while they were going home, having sold their goods, otherwise she would often have to suffer losses. In good weather, she had breakfast, lunch, and drank tea without leaving her bag.

Her niece lived with her, a young woman, terribly disfigured by smallpox, one-eyed, with hair combed back, ugly, but very good-natured and often fed me delicious dinners. She kept the key to the barn in which the carts were kept, and prepared food for her aunt. What kind of food were they! I have been to many excellent dinners in my life, but none of them could compare with Mrs. Winkship's.

Just at one o'clock in the afternoon Mrs. Winkship was moving her basket from the door to the drawing-room window and asked:

– Is everything ready, Martha? Bring it on!

Martha opened the window and placed salt, vinegar, pepper and mustard on the windowsill, then took out a large box that served as a table and covered with a tablecloth as white as snow, and finally ran back into the room, from where she served her aunt dinner through the window. How delicious this dinner seemed, how pleasantly it smoked and, most importantly, what an amazing smell it emitted! It has become a saying among us boys and girls of Fraingpen Lane that every day is Sunday at Mrs. Winkship's. In our homes we never ate those delicious dishes that she enjoyed, and we found that there could be nothing better in the world than them.

All we got was the smell, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner Mrs. Winkship drank rum and hot water. Did we laugh at the good old lady for this, did we blame her for her slight weakness for wine? Oh no, not at all! We realized early on that this weakness could be to our advantage. Each of us, the boys and girls of the alley, wanted her to send him to the shop for her usual portion of rum. To do this it was necessary to use some tricks. We vigilantly watched from the gateway to see how soon the old lady would finish lunch. She was sitting in one place! Then one of us would emerge from the ambush and approach her, yawning around with the most innocent look. When he got quite close, he should have asked if she needed to buy anything.

-Are you talking to me, boy? – Mrs. Winkship was surprised every time.

“Yes, sir, I’m going to Tommel Street to get some molasses for my mother, and I was wondering if you needed tea or something else.”

- No, thanks, boy; I’ve already bought myself some tea, and they’ll bring me milk now; it seems like I don’t need anything else.

Both she herself and each of us knew very well what she needed. But it would be a disaster if some awkward boy decided to hint about rum! He would never have to run errands for the old lady again! After Mrs. Winkship's answer, you just had to bow politely and walk past, then she would probably call you over and say:

- Listen, boy, you don’t care, just run to Mr. Pigot, you know?

- Of course, sir, I know, this is a tavern.

“Well, buy me threepence of the best rum and a piece of lemon there.” Here's to you for your efforts!

The old woman gave the clever boy a small coin, and after that he could only watch her while she drank; After the last sip, Mrs. Winkship became unusually kind, and often one or two more coins were given to anyone who approached her at that time. She was especially fond of me, and one evening I managed to get as many as four halfpence coins.

However, I was busy all the time nursing my little sister, and I rarely had the opportunity to enjoy Mrs. Winkship's favors, so I was not at all worried about her death out of selfish goals. I never got to see this sad event. When I ran away from Freyngpen Lane, the kind old lady was sitting calmly on her basket, and when I returned from Australia as a grown, tanned man, it turned out that no one living in Clerkenwell parish knew anything about her.

In all other respects, upon returning from distant lands, I found our lane exactly as I had left it. As before, from one window there was a garland of onions strung on a string, from another there were strips of dry cod, and on the third there were fresh herrings. It was still laundry day for some of the alley's residents; tattered curtains, rags of colorful blankets, mended shirts and flannel sweatshirts were still drying on lines nailed to the walls of houses or tied to floor brushes.

Dickens, by placing a disadvantaged child at the center of the story, opened up a new theme for literature. Among his many followers in England, James Greenwood (1833-1929), in his time a famous journalist and author of numerous novels, stands out. Greenwood’s best book, “The True Story of a Little Raggar” (1866), brought him wide recognition in Russia, which he himself may not have even suspected. “The Little Raggedy One” is an accusatory social and everyday novel, close in theme to Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.” In England, this book was never published for children and is forgotten as firmly as everything written by Greenwood. There is not a single article about his work, his name is not mentioned in biographical dictionaries or even in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

From the 50s of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Greenwood published about forty books. He wrote in many genres and on different topics: newspaper articles and feuilletons, adventure and humorous stories for youth, stories about animals, accusatory essays, novels from the life of the bottom of London, etc.

Greenwood worked with a group of progressive journalists who challenged the ostentatious prosperity of Victorian England. Once disguised as a tramp, he froze for several hours on the street on a stormy autumn night before he got a place in a shelter. Here he encountered such indescribable filth and stench, such incredible human suffering, that it far exceeded even his darkest assumptions about the horrors of the London slums. He told about everything he saw in essays that excited public opinion. “The picture painted by Greenwood,” said one of the reviews, “is all the more terrible since he himself spent only one night in these conditions, and thousands of our compatriots are forced to spend their whole lives in this way.”

Greenwood's journalistic book "The Seven Plagues of London" is similar in theme to "The Little Rag" and in many ways complements it. Greenwood lists the blatant social ills of the English capital as child homelessness, poverty, vagrancy, alcoholism, criminal offenses, and the existence of brothels and rooming houses. Here is what he writes about street children: “I don’t know exactly where this information came from, but at the present time (we are talking about the 1860s - Evg. B.) it is recognized as a fact that within the vast flourishing London they wander daily , both in summer and winter, up to one hundred thousand boys and girls without supervision, food, clothing or occupation. Excellent candidates for hard labor, the workhouse and, finally, for Portland 2 and exile!

In “The Little Ragged Man,” an artistic analysis of the same phenomena convincingly shows how hopeless need and vagrancy push people to commit criminal offenses. Jim's innate honesty and decency struggle with the evil effects of the horrific conditions in which he has to live. His father's desperate poverty, endless discord in the family, Jim's beatings from his always drunken stepmother - all this forces him to run away from home and become a tramp. A homeless boy spends the night with his comrades in the catacombs or in a carrier's van, and sometimes on damp ground. During the day he trades in the Coventgarden market, stealing whatever he can get his hands on or eating garbage. Only a happy accident helped him get out of the abyss and begin an honest working life.

Greenwood's novel about the plight of the children of English working people is stark and truthful. And yet it does not leave a depressing impression. In his autobiographical story “In People,” M. Gorky recalls how Greenwood’s “Little Raggedy One” excited him as a teenager. In the tragic fate of the London street child, Alyosha Peshkov saw much in common with the vicissitudes of his own wandering life. But Greenwood's book did not dishearten him. Against! She strengthened his faith in man's ability to withstand any challenge.

“A few days later,” writes Gorky, “she (the woman who supplied Alyosha Peshkov with books - Evg. B.) gave me Greenwood’s “The True History of a Little Ragged Man”; The title of the book stung me a bit. But the very first page aroused a smile of delight in my soul - so with this smile I read the entire book to the end, re-reading other pages two or three times... Greenwood gave me a lot of courage..."

In Russia, revolutionary-democratic writer Marko Vovchok was intensively involved in promoting Greenwood’s work. She not only translated his novels and essays, but also published in four books of “Notes of the Fatherland” for 1868-1869 a large journalistic work, “Gloomy Pictures,” with excerpts from his writings. Greenwood and English writers close to him in ideological and creative aspirations. According to Marco Vovchok, Greenwood’s books instill in the reader a healthy doubt, which “washes away false colors from the world around us and gives us the opportunity to call things by their names, without being mistaken about their real qualities... One of the main representatives of this healthy trend in England can, without a doubt, , call Greenwood.”

In the same “Notes of the Fatherland,” Marco Vovchok published in 1868 a complete translation of “The True Story of a Little Raggar,” which later formed the basis for numerous adaptations and retellings of this novel for children of younger and middle age. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the abbreviated translation of A. N. Annenskaya was widespread; in Soviet times, “The Little Rag” was often retold by T. Bogdanovich and K. Chukovsky.

"Little Rag" by Greenwood

"I was born in London..."

The hero of the story “The Little Rag,” a brief summary of which we will present today, appears before the reader as an adult man, serious and self-sufficient. He shares his memories of Freingpen Street, where he lived as a child.

The reader's mind sees the poor London slums, which are not without their charm. And, of course, little Jimmy, living with his sister Polly, father and stepmother. Jim describes his neighbors, paying particular attention to his neighbor Mrs. Winkshim and her niece Martha, an ugly but incredibly kind woman.

Jimmy's childhood was not cloudless. He lost his mother early. Even before her second pregnancy, the poor woman was crippled by poverty and beatings from her father. And after the birth of our hero’s sister, she never recovered.

Immediately after the funeral of Jimmy's mother, a neighbor appeared in his father's life - the widow Mrs. Burke. The cunning woman very quickly gained the trust of Mr. Balizet. Meanwhile, the woman was not known for her kindness and immediately disliked her stepson. The boy nursed his little sister, was often malnourished and suffered beatings from his father because of her slander.

Jim runs away from home

Before you is the second chapter of the story “The Little Rag,” a brief summary of which will tell you about the beginning of Jim Balizet’s wanderings.

One day, Jimmy's sister fell down the stairs and the boy, scared to death by what happened and by his stepmother's anger, ran away from home. He wandered the streets hungry until the kind townspeople threw him a few coins. He was able to have dinner on them. The boy even wanted to return home, but hearing that his father was angry with him, he went back to the market, where he spent most of the day.

On the night streets of London, Jim met two boys slightly older than him. He introduced himself to them as Jim Smithfield. Together with them, our hero spent his first night as a homeless child in an old van. As it turned out, his new friends Mouldy and Ripston were petty thieves who lived by reselling stolen goods and using the money to buy food for themselves. Jimmy, lonely and scared, also begins to steal, which, it should be noted, he is very good at. In addition, the boys earn extra money in various small jobs.

Fever and the workhouse

In the third chapter of the story “The Little Rag,” a summary of which is described below, Jim falls ill and ends up in a workhouse.

In October, Jim became seriously ill. The boy had a fever and was delirious. His friends tried their best to alleviate Jim's condition. Soon our hero ended up in a workhouse, where he suffered a fever. From there the boy was going to be sent to Stratford as an orphan, but he, too frightened by the stories about this place, ran away from the workhouse right before his departure.

Jim waited for his friends outside all day, freezing in the February wind, but the boys never showed up. And then our hero, completely desperate, decided to return home. But near the tavern I saw my father - drunk, unkempt, embittered, who beat his stepmother in the same way as Jimmy’s mother had once done. The boy hoped that his father’s anger would soften at the sight of him, but he became even more furious and almost killed his son. Jim barely managed to escape.

Suffering from the cold, he wandered through the night streets until he came across two well-dressed gentlemen. Rude, inhumane townsfolk robbed the boy, taking away from him the decent clothes that were given to him in the workhouse. Barefoot, wearing only trousers and a dirty jacket, he spent the whole night on the street.

Meeting with an old friend

In this chapter of D. Greenwood's story "The Little Rag", a summary of which we are considering, Jim becomes a chimney sweep.

All the next day Jimmy wandered the streets in a strange daze. And only when I heard a boy singing on the street, I decided to make money doing the same. To his surprise, after the song ended, hands with pennies and halfpence reached out to him. One of the listeners turned out to be the same Martha - the niece of Jimm's former neighbor. After feeding and clothing the child, the kind women decided to send him to learn the craft of a chimney sweep.

Mr. Belcher, Mrs. Wickship's son-in-law, was not very happy with the new student, but still took the boy with him. There Jim met Sam and Spider, chimney sweep workers. Spider, a teenager tormented by rheumatism, was unable to work due to constant pain. Tobias, that was the name of the Spider, was an excellent worker, but rheumatism turned him into an invalid.

Mr. Belcher's Mystery

The next chapter of J. Greenwood's story "The Little Rag" is about what secret Mr. Belcher was hiding.

Soon Sam leaves Mr. Belcher, and Jim now has to do his job. Before leaving, Sam informs the boy that their regular night job involves cleaning church chimneys. But this is prohibited by law and therefore Mr. Belcher carefully protects his secret.

The real secret was revealed to the reader much later, when the owner, leaving Jimmy to guard the horse, went with another chimney sweep, Ned Perks, to the church. They took tools and a large bag with them. When the men returned with a bag filled, probably not with soot, but with something else, the curious Jim looked inside - and saw the hand of the dead man!

The frightened boy ran away, convinced that Ned Perks was the killer, and now he would deal with him too. The men did not find Jim and were forced to return home, while our hero accidentally stumbled upon the forester. His story greatly excited the man.
Joe and Tom (that was the name of the second forester) went after a couple of chimney sweeps and soon caught them. As it turned out, the dead man had been buried for a week; Ned and Belcher had only dug up the body. However, they must be tried for this crime too.

Nevertheless, Mr. Belcher managed to escape, and Ned went with the forest rangers and Jim to the authorities in Ilford. All the way Ned intimidated Jim, promising that Belcher would get to him and kill him. In the end, the boy decided not to tell the police or the judge anything more that could anger his former owner even more. In the morning, he asked to go for a walk, escaped from the police and reached London by cart.

Now Jimmy felt relatively safe, but he was haunted by fear, he felt lonely and unhappy.

Jim becomes "rich"

This chapter of Greenwood's story "The Little Rag" briefly describes Jim's adventures on the street.

While wandering along the street, our hero witnessed a silent scene: a street kid, a little older than Jim himself, quietly stole a wallet from a rich woman who was admiring a store window. Then Jim, overwhelmed by a feeling of hopelessness, decided to also become a thief. No, he was somewhat disgusted by this idea, but he convinced himself: this was the only way to survive for him, lonely and homeless.

Soon the boy, who was naturally agile, managed to buy new clothes and even rent a house. So, stealing wallets from the rich, he lived for two months. Bye...

Meeting with Mr. Gapkins

We continue to describe the summary of “The Little Rag” by James Greenwood. Jim meets Mr. Hapkinson.

One day, Jim managed to steal a wallet full of gold coins on the street. Having rushed to run, he fell straight into the hands of a richly dressed gentleman, who took him to his home. George Gapkins, despite his wealth, was no gentleman. He profited from the labor of petty thieves, taking the money they stole, and in return he promised shelter, food and pocket change. Jim liked his proposal and happily agreed.

Having agreed with George, Jim went to spend the money that he gave him. He decided to go to the theater, and there he ran into Ripston, his old thief friend. From him Jim learned that Ripston now works and lives honestly. As it turned out, the death of their mutual friend Mouldi had such an impact on the boy’s worldview. He died a few months after Jim was sent to the workhouse, falling from the roof and breaking his bones.

Tormented by his conscience, Jim admits to Rip that he still steals. A friend invites him to work with him, but then Gapkins appears in front of the boys. Ripston leaves, confused. And George tells Jimmy all the way how thankless and hard honest work is.

At night, the owners of the house begin to quarrel. Jim tries not to pay attention to this, but suddenly Mrs. Gapkins asks him to come down to her. She assures the boy that he needs to escape, otherwise George, having squeezed all the juice out of him, will soon throw him in prison and find the next “fresh hands,” as has happened more than once.

The next morning Mrs. Gapkins came down with a fever and only three weeks later began to recover. It was at this time that George, with his friends Tilner and Armitage, decided to commit a major theft. His wife warned the boy about this, advising him to run away as soon as possible.

Jim went to Ripston, his only friend. Ripston introduced our hero to his owners - the middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Tibbitt. Jim told them everything, including about the impending crime. Mr. Tibbitt immediately went to the police, taking Jim with him.

At the police station, the inspector told Jim to take part in the robbery in order to catch Gapkins red-handed. His plan was a success - the police were already waiting at the thieves' house.

“This is where my story, the story of a little ragamuffin, ends.”

Jim said that after the robbery story, he was sent to an institution for young offenders in Australia. There he learned a lot, matured and even made a fortune for himself. Now Jim is an honest and happy person and considers the most unhappy times of his life to be the months when he was a little ragamuffin. However, the important coal merchant Mr. Ripston says that there was nothing wrong with them...

Conclusion

The story “The Little Ragged One” can be called incredibly poignant, reading the summary of which, the reader sees how unfair and cruel life is. However, a ship does not sink when there is water around it. It sinks when there is water in it. So Jim, like a ship, was able to go through all the storms of life and remain an honest, integral person.

Greenwood's story "The Little Rag", the main characters of which were able to endure all the hardships of life with honor, is interesting to both young and adult readers.

Answer from
The boy grew up with his father and stepmother, who offended him all the time, deprived him of food, lied to his father about him, forced him to do everything himself, and was also a drunkard. One fine day she made him run away. At the market they gave him alms and he ate. In the evening, when he was walking home, his friends tried to seize him, to whom his father had promised a shilling for the capture of his son; he fought off the guys and ran away. Once again at the market, he met homeless guys Ripston and Mouldy, who nicknamed him Smithfield, and they went together to spend the night in a van. The next day, Smithfield learned to steal with the guys, but his conscience still gnawed at him. Day after day everything was the same: the guys got up, had breakfast, worked whatever they had to, or stole and resold stolen goods to one old man, sometimes they ate meat, sometimes a piece of bread for the whole day, sometimes they saved it on straw, sometimes without. During the six months that Smithfield spent in the company of the guys, he went to the theater several times, and spent one night at the police station. One day Smyth fell ill, he was brought to the workhouse, where he recovered; to avoid being sent to a terrible place, he ran back to where the guys always spent the night, but they weren’t there. Smith was frozen and decided to return home, but met his father, who almost killed him, and realized that he couldn’t go home. A few days later, he decided to try singing, and one friend recognized him by his voice, she took him to her place, fed him and clothed him. He became an apprentice chimney sweep to earn an honest living. But nothing came of it. He began to steal again, and ended up with the “trainer of thieves” George Gapkins. He met Ripston at the theater, he told him that Mouldy had died, and he himself was now working in a factory, from which Smith’s conscience awoke. He even wanted to ask to work with Ripston, but then they met Gapkins and dissuaded him. Gapkins' wife told Smith what Gapkins was doing with all his past assistants and advised him to get away somewhere. Finally, the day comes when Gapkins tells Smith to buy light shoes for himself, he realizes that there will be a theft, and decides to betray Gapkins. Everything goes well and Smif gets a job at Ripston’s factory. Now everything will be fair and good.

Answer from Konstantin Voropuponin[newbie]
And before that, his real mother died. There are already 2 or 3 chapters written about this. And his stepmother's name was Mrs. Burg

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: a summary of the little ragged John Greenwood

In Russian and foreign literature there are many interesting and fascinating works that make us think, look at things differently, at the people around us. I was lucky enough to meet one of them quite by accident. It was James Greenwood's story "The Little Rag". I read the first page, the second and couldn’t stop. It was very interesting to find out how the misadventures of the little London tramp Jim would end.

I was struck by the fact that this work was written a long time ago, in 1866, and talks about the distant past, about the society that developed in England at that time, but all those life phenomena that the writer so truthfully narrates through the lips of his hero, before they still exist, albeit in a slightly modified form. It turns out that Greenwood in “The Little Raggedy One” touches on one of the most pressing problems of our time - the problem of vagrancy. After all, it is really very scary when people lose their home and find themselves on the street, and especially if they are children, when few people try to help them find a way out of the current situation.

And all because some of them did not find mutual understanding with their parents, others simply have a desire to travel, others are sucked into its whirlpool by the street, thirst for money, bad company, drugs + But it doesn’t matter what reason turns a child into tramp, it's still terrible.

The writer forces readers to take a fresh look at the abandoned and disadvantaged, as if warning so that this does not happen to any of us or our loved ones.

"The Little Rag" tells the story of how a London boy, Jim, does not find mutual understanding with his stepmother, who constantly takes out all her anger associated with poverty on the poor boy. There is no understanding on the part of the father. Jim cannot tolerate this attitude towards himself, the eternal bullying and vice. He is lonely, he is overcome by fear. That is why the boy leaves home.

We are upset along with the main character, we sincerely sympathize with his sorrows and sorrows, we rejoice with him when he manages to get a crust of bread or find lodging for the night, we feel the cold and hunger of the London streets, understanding what pushes people onto the slippery path of theft and what it can lead to search for easy money.

Seeing that even in the most difficult moments little Jim does not lose heart and does not lose courage, we believe that he will be able to withstand all the trials and tribulations and will win the struggle of life and will be able to find a way out of such a difficult situation.

With the help of his friends, who, like Jim, for some reason ended up on the street, the boy lives and looks for different ways out of a difficult situation. Together with his comrades, in the cold and cold, he spends the night in a van or on damp ground, warming himself in a pile of manure. The children eat garbage or what they manage to steal from the traders.

The author describes the events so truthfully, masterfully, and naturally that at some point it seems as if you yourself find yourself in little Jim’s place, as if you yourself are experiencing hunger, cold, deception and humiliation. And then it becomes clear what made the boy take the slippery path of theft. Thanks to this story, you understand what the possibility of easy money can lead to.

Greenwood told many hard truths about the plight of street children. His book evokes many sad thoughts. And yet this story does not leave a depressing impression. It is warmed by the writer’s love for ordinary people who, in all life’s trials, do not lose self-control, good spirits and faith in a better future.

Many books read are forgotten over time, and only some, the best, are destined for a long life and recognition.

It seems to me that James Greenwood's "Little Raggedy One" is one of these works.