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 1
... give from any data at present before the public anything like a correct estimate of the number of prostitutes in London , we may mention ( extracting from the work of Dr. Ryan ) that while the Bishop of Exeter asserted the number of ...
... give from any data at present before the public anything like a correct estimate of the number of prostitutes in London , we may mention ( extracting from the work of Dr. Ryan ) that while the Bishop of Exeter asserted the number of ...
Page 18
... give a portion of what they receive to the mistress of the brothel in return for their board and lodging. As we have had occasion to observe before, it is impossible to estimate the number of brothels in London, or even in particular ...
... give a portion of what they receive to the mistress of the brothel in return for their board and lodging. As we have had occasion to observe before, it is impossible to estimate the number of brothels in London, or even in particular ...
Page 22
... gives a yearly average of 1,141 illegitimate children thrown back on their wretched mothers. These statistics are sufficiently appalling, but there is reason to fear that they only give an approximate idea of the illegitimate infantile ...
... gives a yearly average of 1,141 illegitimate children thrown back on their wretched mothers. These statistics are sufficiently appalling, but there is reason to fear that they only give an approximate idea of the illegitimate infantile ...
Page 24
... give him something for himself , by way of remembering her . Oh ! they had a sweet recollection of her , some on ' em . She'd crippled lots of the- crucifiers . " " Did she never get into a row ? ” “ Lots on ' em , she believed me ...
... give him something for himself , by way of remembering her . Oh ! they had a sweet recollection of her , some on ' em . She'd crippled lots of the- crucifiers . " " Did she never get into a row ? ” “ Lots on ' em , she believed me ...
Page 25
... give me a fiver once after crack- ing a crib , and a nice spree me an ' Lushing Loo ' ad over it . Sometimes I get three shillings , half - a - crown , five shillings , or ten occasionally , accordin ' to the sort of man . What is this ...
... give me a fiver once after crack- ing a crib , and a nice spree me an ' Lushing Loo ' ad over it . Sometimes I get three shillings , half - a - crown , five shillings , or ten occasionally , accordin ' to the sort of man . What is this ...
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