Mord Em'ly

Mord Em'ly (Maud Emily as she is known to the authorities) is one of the great unsung heroines of Victorian fiction. A street-girl from Walworth (Elephant and Castle) we first meet her whilst she is involved in a girl-gang fight. She is both sarcastic, resourceful, aggressive, argumentative, a victim of her upbringing and yet a magnificent product of the slums. Her greatest asset is her 'patter'. Here's how she deals with young     "Know this feller, don't you?" asked Miss Gilliken, jerking her head in the direction of the youth.    "Seen his mug before," said Mord Em'ly, looking at him casually. "Can't say I know his name."    "Name of 'Enery Barden," said the youth, in a deep, hoarse voice, stepping forward, and introducing himself awkwardly. "Got a job at the Willer Walk Station; also to be met with, Saturday evenings, at the boxing-saloon of the Green Man."    "Where did ye find it?" asked Mord Emily of Miss Gilliken, with a satirical accent.    "Who are you calling 'it'?" demanded Mr. Barden aggressively. "P'r'aps you'll kindly call me "im ' and not 'it'."    "P'r'aps I shall do jest as I like," replied Mord Em'ly. She turned to Miss Gilliken. "Did you win it in a raffle? "    "I'll tell you presently," said Miss Gilliken.    "Sometimes they give 'em away," said Mord Em'ly thoughtfully, "with a packet of sweets. I 'ave seen 'em offered instead of a coker-nut or a cigar at one of these Aunt Sally—"    "Look 'ere!" interrupted Mr. Barden crossly. "You think you're jolly clever, no doubt."    "Think? " repeated Mord Em'ly. "Don't I know it?" Mord Em'ly is one of several 'slum lit' novels of the 1890s / early 1900s - Clarence Rook's The Hooligan Nights, W. Somerset Maugham's Liza of Lambeth, Arthur Morrison's Child of the Jago — and easily ranks amongst the best of them. Told largely through dialogue, rendered in phonetic Cockney (hence the peculiar title), Maud's creative origins are not really literary but in the strong female characters of Victorian music-hall. She has a lot to contend with - a drunken mother; a vicious father, returned from the dead, a rabble-rousing 'socialist' who wants to exploit her naivety. By the end of the book, she has a choice — will she emigrate to Australia ('a good deal like South London, only better') or fulfil her destiny in the great metropolis? I guarantee you will want to find out.