A Book of Scoundrels

Charles Whibley (1859-1930) was an English literary journalist and author. The Introduction to A Book of Scoundrels states, "How shall you contemplate with indifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance has compelled to exercise his peculiar skill, to indulge his finer aptitudes? A masterly theft rises in its claim to respect high above the reprobation of the moralist. The scoundrel, when once justice is quit of him, has a right to be appraised by his actions, not by their effect; and he dies secure in the knowledge that he is commonly more distinguished, if he be less loved, than his virtuous contemporaries." People discussed in the work include Captain Hind, Moll Cutpurse and Jonathan Wild, Ralph Briscoe, Thomas Pureney, Vaux, George Barrington, Deacon Brodie and Charles Peace, The man in the grey suit, and Monsieur L'abbe.