Little is known about the life of Thomas Deloney. Most of Deloney's literary production seems to have taken the form of ballads; however, his four prose narratives are admired for their depiction of character and popular bourgeois culture, and their handling of dialogue. The Gentle Craft (1 and 2) (1597--98) portrays the world of cobblers, while Thomas of Reading (1599?) resembles later historical novels. Jack of Newbery (1597-98), published in eight editions by 1619, presents the adventures of an upwardly mobile apprentice who marries his master's widow and goes on to become a power in the realm.
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