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 6
... asked him , when he had finished speaking , if he was my father . I don't know why I asked him . He seemed confused , and the lady of the house poured out some wine and gave me , after that I don't know what happened . " This may be a ...
... asked him , when he had finished speaking , if he was my father . I don't know why I asked him . He seemed confused , and the lady of the house poured out some wine and gave me , after that I don't know what happened . " This may be a ...
Page 19
... asked her to come home to tea with her. The child, delighted at the making the acquaintance of so kind and so well ... asking it, as she was getting tired of talking, she could tell me. Did she expect to THE LONDON UNDERWORLD IN THE ...
... asked her to come home to tea with her. The child, delighted at the making the acquaintance of so kind and so well ... asking it, as she was getting tired of talking, she could tell me. Did she expect to THE LONDON UNDERWORLD IN THE ...
Page 26
... asked what was the matter with her , and for the first time she condescended , or felt in the humour to speak to me . " My heart's broken , " she said . " It has been broken since the twenty - first of May . I wish I was dead ; I wish I ...
... asked what was the matter with her , and for the first time she condescended , or felt in the humour to speak to me . " My heart's broken , " she said . " It has been broken since the twenty - first of May . I wish I was dead ; I wish I ...
Page 33
... asked her if she would like anything to eat. She replied she could drink some tea, which was ordered for her. She had met a man in a public- house in the afternoon, who was occupied in eating some bread and cheese. In order to get into ...
... asked her if she would like anything to eat. She replied she could drink some tea, which was ordered for her. She had met a man in a public- house in the afternoon, who was occupied in eating some bread and cheese. In order to get into ...
Page 37
... asked of those who paid their money and claimed a night's lodging in return . The establishment contained forty beds . There were two floors . The first was divided into little boxes by means of deal boards , and set apart for mar- ried ...
... asked of those who paid their money and claimed a night's lodging in return . The establishment contained forty beds . There were two floors . The first was divided into little boxes by means of deal boards , and set apart for mar- ried ...
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