While reading this highly entertaining book, I couln't help comparing it to the picaresque Spanish classic, Lazarillo de Tormes, about an orphaned boy brought up by a series of roguish masters who teach him how to survive on the streets through theft and trickery, and who often physically abuse him. Similar to Lazarillo (named after Lazarus, the resurrected man from the Bible) The Good Thief is a criticism of the hypocrisy of society seen through the innocent eyes of a child who does not personally comment on the evils of prostitution, or the brutality of hired thugs, for example, but who shows the reader how prevalent they are.
Again, in both works, the moral teachings of the Catholic church are held up against the failings of the people in charge of practicing and teaching those precepts.

Besides the similarity to Dickens' picaresque Oliver Twist, as mentioned in other reviews, readers might also note a resemblance, in Twain's picaresque novel, to Huckleberry Finn, who arrives at his own sense of morality and social justice, especially after his experiences with the two knaves, the "duke" and the "dauphin." In all, The Good Thief will take you on an adventure, leaving you pondering the merits of modern society and how it measures up to the social and moral justice lacking in early 19th century New England.

Editor's note: A picaresque novel (from the Spanish picaro - rogue/rascal) depicts in realistic, often humorous/satirical detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class.