"Jack Sheppard: A Romance, Vol. 1 (of 3)" by William Harrison Ainsworth is a historical romance serially published from 1839 to 1840. Based on the life of real 18th-century criminal Jack Sheppard, this Newgate novel traces a boy's corruption into a life of theft under the shadow of the notorious thief-catcher Jonathan Wild. Through daring prison escapes and criminal exploits, Sheppard emerges as both rogue and tragic hero, caught between his crimes and his conscience in the dangerous London underworld. (This is an automatically generated summary.)