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 70
Page ii
... Poor , originally published in 1861 by Griffin , Bohn , and Company , London . The variations in spelling , style and format are intrinsic to the original and , for the most part , have not been altered here . Library of Congress ...
... Poor , originally published in 1861 by Griffin , Bohn , and Company , London . The variations in spelling , style and format are intrinsic to the original and , for the most part , have not been altered here . Library of Congress ...
Page v
... POOR LAWS Statistics of the Poor Laws 308 310 315 Report of the Poor Law Board ( 1860 ) STREET BEGGARS IN 1816 MENDICANT PENSIONERS BEGGING - LETTER WRITERS IN 1816 MENDICITY SOCIETY A Deserving Case Another An Imposter Another Imposter ...
... POOR LAWS Statistics of the Poor Laws 308 310 315 Report of the Poor Law Board ( 1860 ) STREET BEGGARS IN 1816 MENDICANT PENSIONERS BEGGING - LETTER WRITERS IN 1816 MENDICITY SOCIETY A Deserving Case Another An Imposter Another Imposter ...
Page 17
... poor girl must live ; she wouldn't be a servant for anything ; this was much better . She was a lady's maid once , but lost her place for staying out one night with the man who seduced her ; he afterwards deserted her , and then she ...
... poor girl must live ; she wouldn't be a servant for anything ; this was much better . She was a lady's maid once , but lost her place for staying out one night with the man who seduced her ; he afterwards deserted her , and then she ...
Page 22
... poor, they must lose all feeling, all delicacy, all prejudice, and all shame. Her remarks about a foundling-hospital are sensible; in the opinion of many it is a want that ought to be supplied. Infanticide is a crime much on the ...
... poor, they must lose all feeling, all delicacy, all prejudice, and all shame. Her remarks about a foundling-hospital are sensible; in the opinion of many it is a want that ought to be supplied. Infanticide is a crime much on the ...
Page 25
... spent all the money I gave her . By this time she was perfectly drunk , and I had been powerless to stop her . Pressing her hand to her forehead , she exclaimed , “ Oh , my poor head ! ” THE LONDON UNDERWORLD IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 25.
... spent all the money I gave her . By this time she was perfectly drunk , and I had been powerless to stop her . Pressing her hand to her forehead , she exclaimed , “ Oh , my poor head ! ” THE LONDON UNDERWORLD IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 25.
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