Nine kids author Charles initially mistreated — shabby of him? (10)
I believe the answer is:
dickensian
'shabby of him?' is the definition.
The definition and answer are not the same part of speech.
'nine kids author charles initially mistreated' is the wordplay.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'mistreated' indicates an anagram.
The first letters of 'author charles' is 'ac'.
'nine'+'kids'+'ac'='ninekidsac'
'ninekidsac' is an anagram of 'DICKENSIAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dickensian that I've seen before include "Involving very poor social conditions -- case in kind (anag)" , "Like the author of Oliver Twist" , "Twist perhaps" , "Literary" , "conditions so squalid?" .)