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 59
Page 1
... houses , unless to sup- press disturbances that would require their presence in ... house , and are willing to undertake the labour , annoyance , and expense of ... public anything like a correct estimate of the number of prostitutes in ...
... houses , unless to sup- press disturbances that would require their presence in ... house , and are willing to undertake the labour , annoyance , and expense of ... public anything like a correct estimate of the number of prostitutes in ...
Page 24
... house , and then when he done it she always give him something for himself , by way of remembering her . Oh ! they ... public - house in the immediate vicinity , where " Swindling Sal " appeared very much at home , mollified and appeased ...
... house , and then when he done it she always give him something for himself , by way of remembering her . Oh ! they ... public - house in the immediate vicinity , where " Swindling Sal " appeared very much at home , mollified and appeased ...
Page 31
... house, you observe prostitutes standing out- side in little gangs and knots ... public- houses licensed for music in St. George's Street and Ratcliff ... public-house keepers feel the change acutely. To show how the neighbourhood has ...
... house, you observe prostitutes standing out- side in little gangs and knots ... public- houses licensed for music in St. George's Street and Ratcliff ... public-house keepers feel the change acutely. To show how the neighbourhood has ...
Page 33
... public- house in the afternoon, who was occupied in eating some bread and cheese. In order to get into conversation with him, she asked him to give her some, and on his refusing she made a snatch at it, and caught hold of the knife he ...
... public- house in the afternoon, who was occupied in eating some bread and cheese. In order to get into conversation with him, she asked him to give her some, and on his refusing she made a snatch at it, and caught hold of the knife he ...
Page 46
... public - house close to the barracks talking to some soldiers , when I had an opportunity of speaking to her . I did not allow it to pass with- out taking advantage of it . I told her I had heard she was very passionate and violent ...
... public - house close to the barracks talking to some soldiers , when I had an opportunity of speaking to her . I did not allow it to pass with- out taking advantage of it . I told her I had heard she was very passionate and violent ...
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