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
Results 1-5 of 19
Page iv
... Spitalfields 173 Narrative of a Pickpocket 181 HORSE AND DOG STEALERS 194 Horse Stealing 194 Dog Stealing 195 HIGHWAY ROBBERS 197 A Ramble among the Thieves ' Dens in the Borough 202 HOUSEBREAKERS AND BURGLARS 209 Narrative of a Burglar ...
... Spitalfields 173 Narrative of a Pickpocket 181 HORSE AND DOG STEALERS 194 Horse Stealing 194 Dog Stealing 195 HIGHWAY ROBBERS 197 A Ramble among the Thieves ' Dens in the Borough 202 HOUSEBREAKERS AND BURGLARS 209 Narrative of a Burglar ...
Page 36
... Spitalfields , and contiguous districts are infested with nests of brothels as well as Whitechapel . To attract sailors , women and music must be provided for their amusement . In High Street , Shadwell , there are many of these houses ...
... Spitalfields , and contiguous districts are infested with nests of brothels as well as Whitechapel . To attract sailors , women and music must be provided for their amusement . In High Street , Shadwell , there are many of these houses ...
Page 54
... Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Wapping, and Shadwell, although I have not touched very closely upon those who cohabit with thieves and other desperate characters, whose daily means of obtaining a livelihood exposes them to the penalties the ...
... Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Wapping, and Shadwell, although I have not touched very closely upon those who cohabit with thieves and other desperate characters, whose daily means of obtaining a livelihood exposes them to the penalties the ...
Page 74
... Spitalfields, Whitechapel, or Shadwell, he would assuredly be robbed, but not mal- treated to any greater extent than was absolutely requisite to obtain his money, and other valuables he might chance to have about him, at the time the ...
... Spitalfields, Whitechapel, or Shadwell, he would assuredly be robbed, but not mal- treated to any greater extent than was absolutely requisite to obtain his money, and other valuables he might chance to have about him, at the time the ...
Page 79
... Spitalfields and the adjacent parishes for men out of work, or men whose trade is slack for a time. Some three weeks before I met her, the girl's father had the misfortune to break his arm and to injure his spine by a small keg of ...
... Spitalfields and the adjacent parishes for men out of work, or men whose trade is slack for a time. Some three weeks before I met her, the girl's father had the misfortune to break his arm and to injure his spine by a small keg of ...
Other editions - View all
The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person ... Henry Mayhew Limited preview - 2005 |
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
appearance asked beggars begging booty boys brothels brother burglars called carry character Clerkenwell clothes coat cohabit committed companions convicted costermongers Court dark detected ditto door dressed entered father felonies female frequently friends gentleman girls give hand handkerchief Haymarket Holborn impostors jewellery 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 Road 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