Leonardo said:

Nobody's boy (Sans Famille) 1878, by Hector Malot

Boo hoo.

I once had the pleasure of spending a great deal of time and effort hunting down a copy of this book in decent condition for someone I cared a lot about; one of the many efforts she wasn't worth. Always intended to read it, but not worth tracking down an English copy again to do so; the sequel Nobody's Girl (also by Malot) actually strikes me as a much more interesting premise, about a small girl who is shipwrecked and stranded on an island.