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The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves and Prostitutes
The 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."
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."
416 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2005
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2390 people want to read
About the author
Henry Mayhew
335 books35 followersHenry Mayhew (1812-1887) was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the co-founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch in 1841. He is also known for his work as a social researcher, publishing an extensive series of newspaper articles in the Morning Chronicle that was later compiled into the book series London Labour and the London Poor (1851), a groundbreaking and influential survey of the city's poor.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
March 10, 2015
In the 1840s, journalist Henry Mayhew published a series of articles about the poor of London. These were published in book form in 1851, in the three-volume London Labour and the London Poor. When the books were reprinted in 1861 a fourth volume was added, subtitled Those That Will Not Work, comprising Prostitutes, Thieves, Swindlers and Beggars. The present book is a Dover reprint of that fourth volume.
Despite the cover and title page, Mayhew does not seem to have contributed to this volume. The section on Prostitutes is by Bracebridge Hemyng, who was 20 years old when the book was published, and must have conducted most or all of his research while in his teens. He later found success as the author of many stories about schoolboy adventurer Jack Harkaway. Thieves and Swindlers is by John Binny, and Beggars is by Andrew Halliday.
Prostitutes by Bracebridge Hemyng
In researching his section, like Mayhew before him, Hemyng conducted lots of interviews, bravely asking some very personal questions.
A few drinks are usually enough to win his subjects over, as most of the women he speaks to are alcoholics. In addition to interviews, Hemyng also joined police detectives on a case requiring the search of some brothels and 'low lodging houses' that he might have had difficulty entering (or exiting) himself.
It is during a search of a lodging house that Hemyng observes this scene of poverty:
Amongst the interviews and observations is much heavy-handed Victorian moralising, perhaps to counter any misconception that might arise from the author being such an expert on prostitutes. The author's definition of 'prostitute' encompasses all women who have consensual extramarital sex, making no distinction between sex for money and for pleasure. (He does, however, mostly write about 'professional' prostitutes.) He says some rather silly things which may have more to do with schoolboy fantasy than research -- "Ballet-girls have a bad reputation, which is in most cases well deserved." He thinks trashy novels and other publications have made many women susceptible to becoming prostitutes, which seems absurd alongside his own evidence that most of the women he meets are desperately poor and have no other means of surviving, even those who have other employment. He repeats a story that sounds a lot like an urban legend, of a bored wife who goes to a house where she can meet men (for money or pleasure is not stated), and is surprised that her first visitor is her own husband. (They live happily ever after.)
At times the women's stories resemble Victorian melodrama. There are several possible reasons for this, all of which may be true to some extent: a) those fictions are based on the everyday reality of Victorian London; b) out of many interviews, those selected for inclusion are those that read like 'good stories'; c) interviewees tend to fictionalise their own stories, beating the truth into a fictional shape; d) some of the stories have been invented by the subjects to conceal their own perceived wrongdoing or to elicit sympathy.
As is often the case with Dover, this is a no-frills reprint: there are no footnotes, no translation of the occasional French and Latin; no attribution for the illustrations. There's probably no reason to buy this rather than read a free ebook edition.
Without access to a time machine, this is as close as you're likely to get to walking the streets of Victorian London and asking its most miserable inhabitants for their stories. It's like looking behind the facades of those streets in Dickens and finding out what was really going on.
Thieves and Swindlers by John Binny
Thieves and Swindlers was less engaging than Prostitutes. The interviews and personal stories are the great strength of this book, and it's obviously more difficult to interview a thief than a prostitute. Even so, there are several excellent interviews with 'reformed' thieves, each of which amusingly ends with the claim that 'since then I have lived an honest life', expressed so consistently that you suspect the author appended it himself each time, to protect his sources.
This section is not so well-written as the previous. At times the author seems a little disorganised, awkwardly doubling back on a story or description to tell you something he should have mentioned at the start. He would have loved a word processor. His descriptions of his catalogue of thieves frequently state that this type are 'chiefly Irish cockneys', a claim that becomes almost comical with repetition. And the modern reader may be bothered by the occasional mention of 'unprincipled Jews', generally as fences.
The early part of the section is packed with detail about various kinds of thieves and theft but lacks any indication of where it all came from. The reader must presume it is a mixture of information provided by the police, personal observation, hearsay and imagination.
Readers who persevere through this comparatively less interesting material are rewarded by the interviews that come later, the accounts of ingenious burglaries, and the details of popular swindles. At times it's almost a manual for how to make money dishonestly in 1861. The description of how counterfeit coins are made seems especially useful for readers who live in a world where coins are worth enough to justify the labour involved.
The police describe a burglary of a warehouse, where a gang of burglars needed to defeat six locks to reach their target (money and goods worth more than L13,000). The police estimated that the burglars had spent four months on the job, presumably visiting the warehouse most nights during that time. Their method was to closely study the locks -- exactly how is not described, but presumably they probed the lock with a piece of wire or another tool, to determine its shape -- and make keys to fit them. Presumably a lot of trial and error was required.
Here's an interesting swindle that would be a lot more challenging to pull off today: a person rents a room under an assumed name, orders lots of expensive goods to be delivered there, takes the goods away and is never seen again. The shopkeepers eventually come looking for their money and find an empty room with a pile of invoices on the floor and no way of tracking the renter. It seems extraordinary that shopkeepers would ever have sold expensive goods on credit to strangers, but the swindler typically visits the shop in the guise of a lady or gentleman. To treat them with suspicion would be to violate class rules.
Beggars and Cheats by Andrew Halliday
As with the previous section, this starts off unpromisingly as a catalogue of unsourced claims, but by the end the author had overcome my scepticism and convinced me that there were indeed many fraudulent beggars in mid-Victorian London. The author occasionally takes pains to state that some beggars are genuinely needful and deserving, but no Victorian Londoner would have given a halfpenny to a starving child after reading this.
There are only a few interviews. The best is with the seventy year old man who has been a beggar all his life. He tells what it was like in the good old days (apparently the 1810s), when he and almost 200 other beggars shared two large houses in Pye street, organised and led by the beggar captain Copenhagen Jack, begging by day and feasting all night. Then Jack is 'pressed' (i.e. captured by a Navy press gang, and forced to join the Navy, a common practice during the Napoleonic wars) and is never seen again. It's very reminiscent of the beggar king Horrabin, in The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.
Another good interview is with a bricklayer who lost both arms after falling from scaffolding. He tries to beg, but finds he can't make enough to live. After a day when he receives only a penny, he's about to place himself in a workhouse -- the last resort for the desperately poor -- when another armless man stops him. This more experienced beggar teaches him how it's done. There's no money in being an armless tradesman -- the public need something more picturesque to excite their compassion, like a shipwrecked sailor. They join forces.
The author becomes humorous toward the end, as he reminisces about some of the more absurd beggars he's known. Perhaps the best is 'the offal eater', the seemingly imbecilic old man who picks up filthy old pieces of bread from the ground and eats them. He never asks for money, and seems incapable of coherent speech. He simply ensures someone is watching when he eats from the ground, and then relies on their compassion to do the rest. When the author gives him some fresh bread and then sees him a few hours later, again doing his 'offal eating' stunt, he becomes suspicious.
Despite the cover and title page, Mayhew does not seem to have contributed to this volume. The section on Prostitutes is by Bracebridge Hemyng, who was 20 years old when the book was published, and must have conducted most or all of his research while in his teens. He later found success as the author of many stories about schoolboy adventurer Jack Harkaway. Thieves and Swindlers is by John Binny, and Beggars is by Andrew Halliday.
Prostitutes by Bracebridge Hemyng
In researching his section, like Mayhew before him, Hemyng conducted lots of interviews, bravely asking some very personal questions.
This was merely a question to ascertain the amount of remuneration that she, and others like her, were in the habit of receiving; but it had the effect of enraging her to a great extent.
A few drinks are usually enough to win his subjects over, as most of the women he speaks to are alcoholics. In addition to interviews, Hemyng also joined police detectives on a case requiring the search of some brothels and 'low lodging houses' that he might have had difficulty entering (or exiting) himself.
It is during a search of a lodging house that Hemyng observes this scene of poverty:
[W]e went into another room, which should more correctly be called a hole. There was not an atom of furniture in it, nor a bed, and yet it contained a woman. This woman was lying on the floor, with not even a bundle of straw beneath her, rapped up in what appeared to be a shawl[...] Her face was shrivelled and famine-stricken, her eyes bloodshot and glaring, her features disfigured slightly with disease, and her hair dishevelled, tangled and matted. More like a beast in his lair than a human being in her home was this woman[...] She said she was charged nothing for the place she slept in. She cleaned out the water-closets in the daytime, and for these services she was given a lodging gratis.
Amongst the interviews and observations is much heavy-handed Victorian moralising, perhaps to counter any misconception that might arise from the author being such an expert on prostitutes. The author's definition of 'prostitute' encompasses all women who have consensual extramarital sex, making no distinction between sex for money and for pleasure. (He does, however, mostly write about 'professional' prostitutes.) He says some rather silly things which may have more to do with schoolboy fantasy than research -- "Ballet-girls have a bad reputation, which is in most cases well deserved." He thinks trashy novels and other publications have made many women susceptible to becoming prostitutes, which seems absurd alongside his own evidence that most of the women he meets are desperately poor and have no other means of surviving, even those who have other employment. He repeats a story that sounds a lot like an urban legend, of a bored wife who goes to a house where she can meet men (for money or pleasure is not stated), and is surprised that her first visitor is her own husband. (They live happily ever after.)
At times the women's stories resemble Victorian melodrama. There are several possible reasons for this, all of which may be true to some extent: a) those fictions are based on the everyday reality of Victorian London; b) out of many interviews, those selected for inclusion are those that read like 'good stories'; c) interviewees tend to fictionalise their own stories, beating the truth into a fictional shape; d) some of the stories have been invented by the subjects to conceal their own perceived wrongdoing or to elicit sympathy.
As is often the case with Dover, this is a no-frills reprint: there are no footnotes, no translation of the occasional French and Latin; no attribution for the illustrations. There's probably no reason to buy this rather than read a free ebook edition.
Without access to a time machine, this is as close as you're likely to get to walking the streets of Victorian London and asking its most miserable inhabitants for their stories. It's like looking behind the facades of those streets in Dickens and finding out what was really going on.
Thieves and Swindlers by John Binny
Thieves and Swindlers was less engaging than Prostitutes. The interviews and personal stories are the great strength of this book, and it's obviously more difficult to interview a thief than a prostitute. Even so, there are several excellent interviews with 'reformed' thieves, each of which amusingly ends with the claim that 'since then I have lived an honest life', expressed so consistently that you suspect the author appended it himself each time, to protect his sources.
This section is not so well-written as the previous. At times the author seems a little disorganised, awkwardly doubling back on a story or description to tell you something he should have mentioned at the start. He would have loved a word processor. His descriptions of his catalogue of thieves frequently state that this type are 'chiefly Irish cockneys', a claim that becomes almost comical with repetition. And the modern reader may be bothered by the occasional mention of 'unprincipled Jews', generally as fences.
The early part of the section is packed with detail about various kinds of thieves and theft but lacks any indication of where it all came from. The reader must presume it is a mixture of information provided by the police, personal observation, hearsay and imagination.
Readers who persevere through this comparatively less interesting material are rewarded by the interviews that come later, the accounts of ingenious burglaries, and the details of popular swindles. At times it's almost a manual for how to make money dishonestly in 1861. The description of how counterfeit coins are made seems especially useful for readers who live in a world where coins are worth enough to justify the labour involved.
The police describe a burglary of a warehouse, where a gang of burglars needed to defeat six locks to reach their target (money and goods worth more than L13,000). The police estimated that the burglars had spent four months on the job, presumably visiting the warehouse most nights during that time. Their method was to closely study the locks -- exactly how is not described, but presumably they probed the lock with a piece of wire or another tool, to determine its shape -- and make keys to fit them. Presumably a lot of trial and error was required.
Here's an interesting swindle that would be a lot more challenging to pull off today: a person rents a room under an assumed name, orders lots of expensive goods to be delivered there, takes the goods away and is never seen again. The shopkeepers eventually come looking for their money and find an empty room with a pile of invoices on the floor and no way of tracking the renter. It seems extraordinary that shopkeepers would ever have sold expensive goods on credit to strangers, but the swindler typically visits the shop in the guise of a lady or gentleman. To treat them with suspicion would be to violate class rules.
Beggars and Cheats by Andrew Halliday
As with the previous section, this starts off unpromisingly as a catalogue of unsourced claims, but by the end the author had overcome my scepticism and convinced me that there were indeed many fraudulent beggars in mid-Victorian London. The author occasionally takes pains to state that some beggars are genuinely needful and deserving, but no Victorian Londoner would have given a halfpenny to a starving child after reading this.
There are only a few interviews. The best is with the seventy year old man who has been a beggar all his life. He tells what it was like in the good old days (apparently the 1810s), when he and almost 200 other beggars shared two large houses in Pye street, organised and led by the beggar captain Copenhagen Jack, begging by day and feasting all night. Then Jack is 'pressed' (i.e. captured by a Navy press gang, and forced to join the Navy, a common practice during the Napoleonic wars) and is never seen again. It's very reminiscent of the beggar king Horrabin, in The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.
Another good interview is with a bricklayer who lost both arms after falling from scaffolding. He tries to beg, but finds he can't make enough to live. After a day when he receives only a penny, he's about to place himself in a workhouse -- the last resort for the desperately poor -- when another armless man stops him. This more experienced beggar teaches him how it's done. There's no money in being an armless tradesman -- the public need something more picturesque to excite their compassion, like a shipwrecked sailor. They join forces.
At the end of the week we shared two pound and seven shillings, which was more nor a pound than my mate ever did by his self. He always said it was pilin' the hagony to have two without ne'er an arm. My mate used to say to me, 'Enery, if your stumps had only been a trifle shorter, we might ha' made a fortune by this time; but you waggle them, you see, and that frightens the old ladies.'
The author becomes humorous toward the end, as he reminisces about some of the more absurd beggars he's known. Perhaps the best is 'the offal eater', the seemingly imbecilic old man who picks up filthy old pieces of bread from the ground and eats them. He never asks for money, and seems incapable of coherent speech. He simply ensures someone is watching when he eats from the ground, and then relies on their compassion to do the rest. When the author gives him some fresh bread and then sees him a few hours later, again doing his 'offal eating' stunt, he becomes suspicious.
This convinced me that he was an artful systematic beggar, and this impression was fully confirmed on my following him into a low beer-shop in St. Giles's and finding him comfortably seated with his feet up in a chair, smoking a long pipe, and discussing a pot of ale. He knew me in a moment, dropped his feet from the chair, and tried to hide his pipe. Since that occasion he has never come my way.
November 26, 2018
I really liked this book because of the first-person accounts and the dialect that sounded very authentic. If you want to get into the grimy numbers and details of Victorian Period larceny, here's a good book for that.
It's very nice source material for fantasy writers and roleplayers. The book is teeming with all sorts of miscreants from rough glass-cutting burglars to blind paralytic drunk prostitutes and pickpocket children. While reading this book I often found myself thinking "I didn't even know you could commit a crime like that."
It's very nice source material for fantasy writers and roleplayers. The book is teeming with all sorts of miscreants from rough glass-cutting burglars to blind paralytic drunk prostitutes and pickpocket children. While reading this book I often found myself thinking "I didn't even know you could commit a crime like that."
December 17, 2008
You can definitely tell that this was written in the 19th century, because the author takes practically no steps towards legitimising his authority as a social scientist. The most scientific aspect is the inclusion of some data collected on the number of prostitutes, the trades & occupations of prostitutes arrested, the number of felonies committed & the value of the property stolen, etc, etc. Theres plenty of data throughout which is not distracting but adds to the text. Im not big on a lot of charts & graphs, but all the figures were relevantly placed. Actually, he also did a tremendous job of being thorough w/his research. I was surprised the extent he went to w/some of his investigations. I dont think he left any stones unturned.
Theres a lot of judgment (moral & otherwise) passed by the author on his subjects. For example, he frequently refers to them in descriptive, degrading terms. He calls them "worthless", "depraved", "wretched", etc. But it would not be fair to say that he is insensitive to their plight or circumstances, because he does present it all in context. The first-person narratives are very insightful & you can tell that he had some kind, empathetic abilities in order to get this many street people to reveal themselves to him in such detail.
Mayhew is a pretty damn good writer & really transports you into Victorian London. His vivid & meticulous descriptive language makes the streets come to life. This is probably my favourite period so the whole thing delighted me.
A couple of cautions, though. The bits in French (& other foreign languages) are not translated anywhere for you. Also, I thought a brief explanation of the currency units & some rough equivalents would have been helpful. You kind of have to put them in perspective yourself & compare measurements w/in the text to get a rough idea of how much 7s, 6d, or 13,000l is. Some of the vocabulary is archaic as well, & its pretty funny how Mayhew avoids talking specifically about sexual behaviour, given the premise of the study.
Overall this was a fascinating read & I gained a great deal from it.
Theres a lot of judgment (moral & otherwise) passed by the author on his subjects. For example, he frequently refers to them in descriptive, degrading terms. He calls them "worthless", "depraved", "wretched", etc. But it would not be fair to say that he is insensitive to their plight or circumstances, because he does present it all in context. The first-person narratives are very insightful & you can tell that he had some kind, empathetic abilities in order to get this many street people to reveal themselves to him in such detail.
Mayhew is a pretty damn good writer & really transports you into Victorian London. His vivid & meticulous descriptive language makes the streets come to life. This is probably my favourite period so the whole thing delighted me.
A couple of cautions, though. The bits in French (& other foreign languages) are not translated anywhere for you. Also, I thought a brief explanation of the currency units & some rough equivalents would have been helpful. You kind of have to put them in perspective yourself & compare measurements w/in the text to get a rough idea of how much 7s, 6d, or 13,000l is. Some of the vocabulary is archaic as well, & its pretty funny how Mayhew avoids talking specifically about sexual behaviour, given the premise of the study.
Overall this was a fascinating read & I gained a great deal from it.
February 22, 2017
Interesting book, wasn't quite what i expected as i expected there to be more picture's and actually facts from the underworld themselves but never the less it was quite good!
Want to read
September 19, 2012Beggars! Thieves! And prostitutes!
February 12, 2013
This book is exactly what it claims to be - an authentic study of the London Underworld in the middle of the 19th century. And it does so very well. It is an interesting read, showing a world (thankfully) long gone - not written to be sensational but to give a true picture of the enormous social problems in London at the time.
It is well written, it is easy to read (despite its age) and you will learn quite a bit reading it. If you are a writer and want to add some crime to your novel this is an excellent source book - telling you how various crimes were committed, who generally did what crimes (ages, appearances, where they lived, how they lived, who they lived with et c.) and giving some interviews (though they seem quite edited, they are obviously the writers summary of answers to questions Mayhew had been asking) to add some extra flavour.
The books is surprisingly prejudice-free (considering the time it was written, I should add) - but when it comes to the subject of prostitution the difference between now and then become very apparent. It's both how to define prostitution (not just people, or in this book women, getting paid to have sex with a man - the definition here also includes mistresses and a woman living with a man she is not married to) and the horror of unpure literature which Mayhew really, really want to have forbidden since that would save so many from a life in sin and destitution... You even get a sense that these shameful books are a bigger problem than alcoholism (which when you read this book might come across as a bit odd, drink seems to have been the downfall of so many)!
It is well written, it is easy to read (despite its age) and you will learn quite a bit reading it. If you are a writer and want to add some crime to your novel this is an excellent source book - telling you how various crimes were committed, who generally did what crimes (ages, appearances, where they lived, how they lived, who they lived with et c.) and giving some interviews (though they seem quite edited, they are obviously the writers summary of answers to questions Mayhew had been asking) to add some extra flavour.
The books is surprisingly prejudice-free (considering the time it was written, I should add) - but when it comes to the subject of prostitution the difference between now and then become very apparent. It's both how to define prostitution (not just people, or in this book women, getting paid to have sex with a man - the definition here also includes mistresses and a woman living with a man she is not married to) and the horror of unpure literature which Mayhew really, really want to have forbidden since that would save so many from a life in sin and destitution... You even get a sense that these shameful books are a bigger problem than alcoholism (which when you read this book might come across as a bit odd, drink seems to have been the downfall of so many)!
January 23, 2018
The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves & Prostitutes, shall remain a continual source of research for me throughout the upcoming years.
Referenced/Read for personal research and historical clarity. I found this work of immense interest. The details given to the lives, jobs, activities, etc., portrayed are full of life - amazing tales of life's struggles and the spirit of human persistence.
This work is one of my resources for personal writing and/or ghost authoring.
I found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
Overall, this work is also a good resource for the researcher, enthusiast and scriptwriter.
Referenced/Read for personal research and historical clarity. I found this work of immense interest. The details given to the lives, jobs, activities, etc., portrayed are full of life - amazing tales of life's struggles and the spirit of human persistence.
This work is one of my resources for personal writing and/or ghost authoring.
I found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
Overall, this work is also a good resource for the researcher, enthusiast and scriptwriter.
August 15, 2017
A work that is a classic reference source for sociologists, historians and criminologists.
One of the most informative books on Victorian London, written in a simple language even if sometimes it falls into Victorian terminology.
Although Mayhew's accounts are more personal than scientific, there is much to discover by reading the lines, especially in the section on prostitution.
Investigating the London criminal plot, the reader realizes that for many people there was no other way to resort to crime to feed or survive, thus being trapped as slaves of other unhappy individuals.
One of the most informative books on Victorian London, written in a simple language even if sometimes it falls into Victorian terminology.
Although Mayhew's accounts are more personal than scientific, there is much to discover by reading the lines, especially in the section on prostitution.
Investigating the London criminal plot, the reader realizes that for many people there was no other way to resort to crime to feed or survive, thus being trapped as slaves of other unhappy individuals.
July 26, 2016
Super interesting and super thorough first-person accounts from Victorian London, pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Found myself nodding off halfway through the Thieves' chapter though, not from lack of interest but just from sheer information overload. Fantastic reference book, plus you get a great sense of the character of the time (from a high-class scholar's view, anyway)
July 8, 2014
Useful for background research, but the arrogant tone of the well-to-so author annoys me.
March 8, 2019
MY THOUGHTS:
I received this book in exchange for my honest review.
This is quite the book. It shows an ugly side to London’s early beginnings. The series was initially written mid-1800s, with the last at the end of the 1800s.
Full of effective resource material for anyone interested in or writing about the Victorian era. Full of interviews, and first-hand accounts, although a fascinating read, it does show the sexism of the times, the discrimination against women and what some were forced to endure out of hardship and the inability to have financial security because of the mindset of the male population of the times.
Thankfully, this part of life in London is over. I’m sure there’s still a darker side to the city, like there is for every city, but not like what was researched and written in this book.
I found the book opened my eyes to a lot of things. Many topics in the book, I already knew about because of my own research. I think anyone who is not as familiar with Victorian era life, should get this book.
I received this book in exchange for my honest review.
This is quite the book. It shows an ugly side to London’s early beginnings. The series was initially written mid-1800s, with the last at the end of the 1800s.
Full of effective resource material for anyone interested in or writing about the Victorian era. Full of interviews, and first-hand accounts, although a fascinating read, it does show the sexism of the times, the discrimination against women and what some were forced to endure out of hardship and the inability to have financial security because of the mindset of the male population of the times.
Thankfully, this part of life in London is over. I’m sure there’s still a darker side to the city, like there is for every city, but not like what was researched and written in this book.
I found the book opened my eyes to a lot of things. Many topics in the book, I already knew about because of my own research. I think anyone who is not as familiar with Victorian era life, should get this book.
July 20, 2021
Highly influential and groundbreaking in that it attempted to look at the lives of the very poor in Britain. The tone and phraseology reflect when it was written and by whom, but an important and interesting read none the less.
I’d also recommend Frederick Engels’ the Condition of the Working Class in England.
I’d also recommend Frederick Engels’ the Condition of the Working Class in England.
August 14, 2019
It was fairly interesting although a little hard going. It was written in the 18th century by Mayhew and the stories are from each individual so it just feels a little stilted and mundane.
July 6, 2021
I enjoyed this but it would have been better if it wasn't so long and repetitive
Read
July 28, 2024This is excruciating to read. I couldn't make it past the second page. Life is too damn short.
March 20, 2025
Interesting but very repetitive
March 21, 2017
Not often you can read such an interesting first hand account.
Of course it isn't very objective. In fact, it is WONDERFULLY biased showing all the prejudices existing in that times... even though you get a sense that the author, despite looking down on many unfortunates, still has more compassion and open mind than most of his peers.
That was certainly educating, if not exactly accurate.
Of course it isn't very objective. In fact, it is WONDERFULLY biased showing all the prejudices existing in that times... even though you get a sense that the author, despite looking down on many unfortunates, still has more compassion and open mind than most of his peers.
That was certainly educating, if not exactly accurate.
January 10, 2019
I have found this book fascinating since I first came across it at the age of fifteen.
Invaluable reading to gain a true insight into the nature of Victorian England, and Victorian London in particular.
Invaluable reading to gain a true insight into the nature of Victorian England, and Victorian London in particular.
November 1, 2019
Such an amazing book, particularly when the author recounts people's experiences in their own words. I would've given it another star, however I find that it tends to get bogged down in statistics but then again this is to be understood considering that it was written by a sociologist. The other problem that I have with the book is that I no longer have a dictionary from that time period, so occasionally I will get hung up on a word that the definition has changed so much over time that it is no longer recognizable. For example would someone please explain to me what is "silent match" is?
July 23, 2016
This is a gem of a book as it is a good source material of social history of London's Underworld around the 1850s.
Henry Mayhew while proclaiming to be objective is not that all, he certainly comes in with 'an holier than thou attitude' about the profession that 'these' people undertake.
He goes through an extensive analysis of prostitution, he categorises the levels of engagement that women participate. For example Mayhew defines one class as 'female operatives' who can be milliners, dress makers, furriers, shoe-binders who only partake in prostitution to fund their extravagant life style or their own sexual gratification. In other classes of prostitution he reasons that some women undertake this type of work in the hope of finding a husband. I mean it is really fascinating the way he tries to reason prostitution. With the female operatives he decides the following is the cause of the lax morality:
'1 Low wages inadequate to their sustenance
2 Natural levity and the example around them
3 Love of dress and display, couple with the desire for a sweetheart
4 Sedentary employment and want of proper exercise
5 Low and cheap literature of an immoral tendency
6 Absence of parental care and the inculcation of proper precepts, In short, bad bringing up.'
Number 4 is where he blames the abundance of penny romance novels as a reason that women were driven to prostitution.
There are wonderful characters and descriptions in this book for example "Opposite to this was the Rose and Crown public-house, resorted to by all classes of the light-fingered gentry, from the mobman and his 'Amelia' to the lowest of the street thieves and his 'Poll'. I n the tap-room might be seen Black Charlie the fiddler, with ten or a dozen lads and lasses enjoying the dance and singing and smoking over potations of gin and water, more or less plentiful according to the proceeds of the previous night - all apparently free from care in their wild carousals."
If you enjoy social history, if you reading almost first hand accounts, if you want to understand a period of English history, then this is a really interesting read.
Henry Mayhew while proclaiming to be objective is not that all, he certainly comes in with 'an holier than thou attitude' about the profession that 'these' people undertake.
He goes through an extensive analysis of prostitution, he categorises the levels of engagement that women participate. For example Mayhew defines one class as 'female operatives' who can be milliners, dress makers, furriers, shoe-binders who only partake in prostitution to fund their extravagant life style or their own sexual gratification. In other classes of prostitution he reasons that some women undertake this type of work in the hope of finding a husband. I mean it is really fascinating the way he tries to reason prostitution. With the female operatives he decides the following is the cause of the lax morality:
'1 Low wages inadequate to their sustenance
2 Natural levity and the example around them
3 Love of dress and display, couple with the desire for a sweetheart
4 Sedentary employment and want of proper exercise
5 Low and cheap literature of an immoral tendency
6 Absence of parental care and the inculcation of proper precepts, In short, bad bringing up.'
Number 4 is where he blames the abundance of penny romance novels as a reason that women were driven to prostitution.
There are wonderful characters and descriptions in this book for example "Opposite to this was the Rose and Crown public-house, resorted to by all classes of the light-fingered gentry, from the mobman and his 'Amelia' to the lowest of the street thieves and his 'Poll'. I n the tap-room might be seen Black Charlie the fiddler, with ten or a dozen lads and lasses enjoying the dance and singing and smoking over potations of gin and water, more or less plentiful according to the proceeds of the previous night - all apparently free from care in their wild carousals."
If you enjoy social history, if you reading almost first hand accounts, if you want to understand a period of English history, then this is a really interesting read.
May 23, 2009
Great book. Mayhew is a pretty surprising narrator in that while he does censor and frame the accounts he has collected within his Victorian prejudices, he does point out that it is really hard for people to earn an honest living. He's collected these accounts over the course of years, has statistics to go alongside them, but does let the people he encounters speak for themselves.
And of course, you learn a lot about Mayhew's predjudices too. He has some wonderful quotes, particularly on prostitutes, that I would have quoted if I'd been anywhere near a computer at the time. Sadly, the sheer density of the book makes me not really want to go hunting for them -- it's a pretty solid read.
And of course, you learn a lot about Mayhew's predjudices too. He has some wonderful quotes, particularly on prostitutes, that I would have quoted if I'd been anywhere near a computer at the time. Sadly, the sheer density of the book makes me not really want to go hunting for them -- it's a pretty solid read.
June 20, 2010
One of the most informative books on London's Victorian underbelly, written in simple, unflowered language and accessible even today. Though Mayhew's accounts are more personal in nature than scientific, there is a lot being said between the lines, especially in his section on prostitution in London. You come away from this investigative look on London's underworld with the understanding that Mayhew felt a certain sympathy for many of these people, some of whom had no other recourse than to turn to crime in order to stave off starvation, or who were trapped like slaves into crime by other nefarious individuals.
September 16, 2014
This book is a good introduction into the overwhelming works of Mayhew. For those interested in whetting their appetite but not drenching themselves in the history of the times, this book helps cover the highlights of the dozens of volumes that were the extent of Mayhew's works. This book also tempers some of the darker aspects of Mayhew's disillusion and outright prejudice that are more apparent in the unabridged versions of his volumes, enabling the interested parties to learn about the details of the times without becoming too offended by the man himself. All in all a fascinating piece of work.
March 16, 2013
Very fascinating book. Interviews with prostitutes and thieves from all levels and walks of life in mid 19th century London. The interviews are written in a monologue form, showing that they were likely written by memory of the encounter, so there may have been some leeway for embellishment. Nonetheless, the interviews are very descriptive and personal, to the length where I could actually visualize a teenage mudlark boy scavenging in the River Thames.
March 23, 2013
This is only an exerpt from the complete 4 volume series that was originally printed in 1861, but the details and language are incredible. As a historical first hand reference, it is a gem for me, a fiction writer of that era looking for unadulterated details of the Victorian Era and society at that time.
January 27, 2016
Having read bits of this book whilst researching for my own 'Wilful Walks' essay/journal, I found the text useful. It was far more of a struggle though when confronted with reading it from cover to cover. It is of its time, obviously, but gives a splendid indication of how life would have been then.
September 8, 2009
In 1862, eleven years after the publication of Henry Mayhew's gigantic survey of conditions among the London proletariat, London Labour and the London Poor, this fourth volume was added to the series. As eye opening as ever I am at present struggling along the London sewers. Not a pretty sight!!
September 7, 2007
Brilliant. This book really gives you first hand accounts of some of london's seedy underworld. This book makes you cry and laugh at the same time, and makes you appreciate living in the 21 century.
October 6, 2009
Henry Mayhew. . . The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: BRILLIANT.
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