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 45
... ain't much of a place. Some of the girls about here live in houses. I don't; I never could abear it. You ain't your own mas- ter, and I always liked my freedom. I'm not comfortable exactly; it's a bru- tal sort of life this. It isn't ...
... ain't much of a place. Some of the girls about here live in houses. I don't; I never could abear it. You ain't your own mas- ter, and I always liked my freedom. I'm not comfortable exactly; it's a bru- tal sort of life this. It isn't ...
Page 52
... ain't. It only makes one miserable a thinking of it. I come up from the country when I was quite a gal, not above sixteen I dessay. I come from Dorsetshire, near Lyme Regis, to see a aunt of mine. Father was a farmer in Dorset, but only ...
... ain't. It only makes one miserable a thinking of it. I come up from the country when I was quite a gal, not above sixteen I dessay. I come from Dorsetshire, near Lyme Regis, to see a aunt of mine. Father was a farmer in Dorset, but only ...
Page 61
... ain't made above a few pence , which ain't enough to keep us as we should be kep . I mean , sir , the children should have a bit of meat , and my ole man and me wants some blue ruin to keep our spirits up ; so I'se druv to it , sir , by ...
... ain't made above a few pence , which ain't enough to keep us as we should be kep . I mean , sir , the children should have a bit of meat , and my ole man and me wants some blue ruin to keep our spirits up ; so I'se druv to it , sir , by ...
Page 63
... Ain't what I was once . But as I says I likes to be jolly , and I always is . A old fid- dle , you know , makes the best music . “ Market full , my dear , ' she added , pushing the wine - glass of gin towards me . ' Ah ! I s'pose not ...
... Ain't what I was once . But as I says I likes to be jolly , and I always is . A old fid- dle , you know , makes the best music . “ Market full , my dear , ' she added , pushing the wine - glass of gin towards me . ' Ah ! I s'pose not ...
Page 65
... ain't no matter of your'n , so we'll let it be . They do say I'm a bit cracky , but that's all my eye . I'm a drunken old b- -if you like , but nothing worser than that . I was once the swellest woman about town , but I'm come down ...
... ain't no matter of your'n , so we'll let it be . They do say I'm a bit cracky , but that's all my eye . I'm a drunken old b- -if you like , but nothing worser than that . I was once the swellest woman about town , but I'm come down ...
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