Catherine: A Story Annotated

Catherine: A Story was the first full length work of fiction produced by William Makepeace Thackeray. It first appeared in serialized installments in Fraser's Magazine between May 1839 and February 1840, credited to Ikey Solomons, Esq. Junior. Thackeray's original intention in writing it was to criticize the Newgate school of crime fiction, exemplified by Bulwer Lytton and Harrison Ainsworth, whose works Thackeray felt glorified criminals. Thackeray even included Dickens in this criticism for his portrayal of the good hearted streetwalker Nancy and the charming pickpocket, the Artful Dodger, in Oliver Twist.