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 84
Page v
... Gentlemen 328 Broken-down Trademen 330 Distressed Scholar 331 The Kaggs Family 332 ADVERTISING BEGGING-LETTER WRITERS 339 ASHAMED BEGGARS 342 THE SWELL BEGGAR 343 CLEAN FAMILY BEGGARS 344 BEGGARS AND CHEATS—continued NAVAL AND MILITARY ...
... Gentlemen 328 Broken-down Trademen 330 Distressed Scholar 331 The Kaggs Family 332 ADVERTISING BEGGING-LETTER WRITERS 339 ASHAMED BEGGARS 342 THE SWELL BEGGAR 343 CLEAN FAMILY BEGGARS 344 BEGGARS AND CHEATS—continued NAVAL AND MILITARY ...
Page 6
... gentleman who came down to the farm, and he kissed me and told me to be a good girl. Yes, I remember these things very well. I was about eleven the last time he came, and two years after I was sent up to town, carefully dressed and ...
... gentleman who came down to the farm, and he kissed me and told me to be a good girl. Yes, I remember these things very well. I was about eleven the last time he came, and two years after I was sent up to town, carefully dressed and ...
Page 10
... gentleman of position and connection that he exhibits an invincible distaste to mar- riage. If they were acquainted with his private affairs their astonishment would speedily vanish, for they would find him already to all intents and ...
... gentleman of position and connection that he exhibits an invincible distaste to mar- riage. If they were acquainted with his private affairs their astonishment would speedily vanish, for they would find him already to all intents and ...
Page 12
... gentleman of property in the neighbourhood, and without much demur I yielded to his desires. We then went to London, and I have since that time lived with four different men. We got tired of one another in six months, and I was as eager ...
... gentleman of property in the neighbourhood, and without much demur I yielded to his desires. We then went to London, and I have since that time lived with four different men. We got tired of one another in six months, and I was as eager ...
Page 17
... gentleman at Sam's , and yes- terday morning they were married at St. George's , Hanover Square . The gentleman has lots of money , I believe , and he started off with her at once for the Continent . It is very true this is an unusual ...
... gentleman at Sam's , and yes- terday morning they were married at St. George's , Hanover Square . The gentleman has lots of money , I believe , and he started off with her at once for the Continent . It is very true this is an unusual ...
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