Jack Sheppard: A Romance

Jack Sheppard is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth serially published in Bentley's Miscellany from 1839 to 1840, with illustrations by George Cruikshank. It is a historical romance and a Newgate novel based on the real life of the 18th-century criminal Jack Sheppard.
The story is divided into three parts, called "epochs". The "Jonathan Wild" epoch comes first. The events of the story begins with the notorious criminal and thief-catcher Jonathan Wild encouraging Jack Sheppard's father to a life of crime.