Point of View

Most of the book is written from the third-person limited point of view – that of its protagonist and central character, Jack Sheppard. His experiences, thought processes, and feelings are the focus of much of the manuscript, with occasional interjections of similar third-person limited narration from the point of other characters, including Bess. One chapter (Part 2, Chapter 10) is narrated in Bess’s first-person voice, and another (Part 2, Chapter 13) focuses on the first-person narrative of a character referred to as the Lion-Man, a story told within the continuing primary context of Jack’s story.

Also in terms of narrative point of view, there are several sections of the book (including the foreword and a large number of footnotes) written from the first-person point of view of Dr. Voth (no first name is ever identified), the academically-minded, transgender editor of the manuscript/biography of Jack Sheppard. These interjections...