W. Somerset Maugham 
Liza of Lambeth 

Liza of Lambeth (1897) narrates Liza’s last four months alive. She lives in a working-class area of London, and as the youngest of thirteen siblings she is left to look after their incompetent mother. She rejects a local suitor, but finds herself attracted to a mysterious stranger on a site-seeing trip. The novel gives insight into working-class London at the turn of the century.