The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves and ProstitutesThe first and possibly the greatest sociological study of poverty in 19th-century London, this survey by a journalist invented the genre of oral history a century before the term was coined. Henry Mayhew vowed "to publish the history of a people, from the lips of the people themselves — giving a literal description of their labour, their earnings, their trials and their sufferings, in their own 'unvarnished' language." With his collaborators, Mayhew explored hundreds of miles of London streets in the 1840s and 1850s, gathering thousands of pages of testimony from the city's humbler residents. Their stories revealed aspects of city life virtually unknown to literate society. A sprawling, four-volume history resulted from Mayhew's investigations. This extract focuses on the criminal class--pickpockets, prostitutes, rag pickers, and vagrants, whose true stories of degradation, horror, and desperation rival Dickensian fiction. A classic reference source for sociologists, historians, and criminologists, Mayhew's work is immensely readable. As Thackeray wrote, these urban vignettes conjure up "a picture of human life so wonderful, so awful, so piteous and pathetic, so exciting and terrible, that readers of romances own they never read anything like to it." |
From inside the book
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Page i
... ISBN-13: 978-0-486-44006-4 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-486-44006-0 (pbk.) Manufactured in the United. Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves and Prostitutes Stealing Lead from House-tops, Copper from Kitchens, &c.
... ISBN-13: 978-0-486-44006-4 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-486-44006-0 (pbk.) Manufactured in the United. Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves and Prostitutes Stealing Lead from House-tops, Copper from Kitchens, &c.
Page iii
... Stealing from the Doors and Windows of Shops PAGE 18 22 29 41 47 57 62 62 64 67 68 71 74 76 77 80 81 83 84 89 103 109 109 114 115 117 117 THIEVES AND SWINDLERS—continued Stealing from Children Child Stripping Stealing from. iii.
... Stealing from the Doors and Windows of Shops PAGE 18 22 29 41 47 57 62 62 64 67 68 71 74 76 77 80 81 83 84 89 103 109 109 114 115 117 117 THIEVES AND SWINDLERS—continued Stealing from Children Child Stripping Stealing from. iii.
Page iv
... Stealing from Children Child Stripping Stealing from Drunken Persons Stealing Linen, &c. Robberies from Carts Robberies by False Keys Robberies by Lodgers Robberies by Servants Area and Lobby Sneaks Stealing by Lifting Windows, &c ...
... Stealing from Children Child Stripping Stealing from Drunken Persons Stealing Linen, &c. Robberies from Carts Robberies by False Keys Robberies by Lodgers Robberies by Servants Area and Lobby Sneaks Stealing by Lifting Windows, &c ...
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Page 47
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Other editions - View all
The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person ... Henry Mayhew Limited preview - 2012 |
The London Underworld In The Victorian Period - Authentic First-Person ... Henry Mayhew Limited preview - 2013 |
The London Underworld in the Victorian Period - Authentic First-Person ... Henry Mayhew No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
ain’t appearance asked beggars begging booty boys brothels brother burglars called carry Clerkenwell clothes coat cohabit committed companions convicted costermongers Court dark detected ditto door dressed entered father felonies female frequently friends gentleman Giles’s girls give hand handkerchief Haymarket Holborn impostors Kaggs labour lady Lane live lodging lodging-houses London look Mendicity metropolis Metropolitan districts months mudlarks neighbourhood never night o’clock occasionally officers Oxford Street parish party passed pawnbrokers penal servitude persons pick pickpockets plunder pocket police policeman poor prison prostitutes public-house ragged received Regent’s Park respectable robbery sailor seen seldom sell sent servants shillings shops Shoreditch Society Somers Town sometimes Spitalfields steal stolen Street thief thieves told took walk watch Waterloo Road week West-end Westminster Whitechapel window woman women young