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 iii
... 109 INTRODUCTION 109 SNEAKS , OR COMMON THIEVES 114 Stealing from Street - Stalls 115 Stealing from the Tills 117 Stealing from the Doors and Windows of Shops 117 THIEVES AND SWINDLERS - continued PAGE Stealing from Children 122 iii.
... 109 INTRODUCTION 109 SNEAKS , OR COMMON THIEVES 114 Stealing from Street - Stalls 115 Stealing from the Tills 117 Stealing from the Doors and Windows of Shops 117 THIEVES AND SWINDLERS - continued PAGE Stealing from Children 122 iii.
Page v
... Shops 274 Pawnbrokers , & c . 276 Narrative of a Returned Convict 279 COINING 282 Forgers 287 Bank Notes 287 Cheques Forged Acceptance Forged Wills CHEATS Embezzlers Magsmen , or Sharpers The Card Tricks 288 289 290 291 291 295 297 ...
... Shops 274 Pawnbrokers , & c . 276 Narrative of a Returned Convict 279 COINING 282 Forgers 287 Bank Notes 287 Cheques Forged Acceptance Forged Wills CHEATS Embezzlers Magsmen , or Sharpers The Card Tricks 288 289 290 291 291 295 297 ...
Page 2
... shop windows of tobacconists. These circumstances having tended to a revival of this trade the Society have had occasion within the last twelve months to resort to five prosecutions, which have greatly tended to the removal of that inde ...
... shop windows of tobacconists. These circumstances having tended to a revival of this trade the Society have had occasion within the last twelve months to resort to five prosecutions, which have greatly tended to the removal of that inde ...
Page 12
... shop. I have told you they partially educated me; I could cypher a little as well, and I knew something about the globes; so I thought I was qualified for something better than minding the shop occasionally, or sewing, or helping my ...
... shop. I have told you they partially educated me; I could cypher a little as well, and I knew something about the globes; so I thought I was qualified for something better than minding the shop occasionally, or sewing, or helping my ...
Page 14
... shops , bazaars , servants to a great extent , frequenters of fairs , theatres , and dancing - rooms , are more or less prostitutes and patronesses of the numerous brothels London can boast of possessing ; but these women do not swell ...
... shops , bazaars , servants to a great extent , frequenters of fairs , theatres , and dancing - rooms , are more or less prostitutes and patronesses of the numerous brothels London can boast of possessing ; but these women do not swell ...
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