Product Description

London Labour and the London Poor is a masterpiece of personal inquiry and social observation. It is the classic account of life below the margins in the greatest Metropolis in the world and a compelling portrait of the habits, tastes, amusements, appearance, speech, humour, earnings and opinions of the labouring poor at the time of the Great Exhibition. In scope, depth and detail it remains unrivalled. Mayhew takes us into the abyss, into a world without fixed employment where skills are declining and insecurity mounting, a world of criminality, pauperism and vice, of unorthodox personal relations and fluid families, a world from which regularity is absent and prosperity has departed. Making sense of this environment required curiosity, imagination and a novelist s eye for detail, and Henry Mayhew poss­essed all three. No previous writer had succeeded in presenting the poor through their own stories and in their own words, and in this undertaking Mayhew rivals his contemporary Dickens. To pass from one to the other, writes one authority, is to cross sides of the same street.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18177 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Customer Reviews

Essential and entertaining reading on Victorian England
Mayhew interviewed hundreds of people, all extremely poor, and many in destitution, to discover the conditions of poverty in London in 1852. Here, he relates their stories in their own words, with deep sympathy, but is never patronising or judgemental in the typical Victorian fashion. The interviews shed light on all aspects of Victorian society, viewed by those it treated harshest. Favourite examples: the photographer, who exploited his customer's ignorance of the technique (a widow whose picture did not come out is given one of a sailor, and told that the cap represents her hair); the crossing-sweeper, who earns pennies by drawing pictures in the mud outside the shopping arcade; the wife of the soldier sent to Canada, who finds relief in a homeless shelter, her stockings having frozen to her feet. Most stories are personal tragedies, each of a different kind, though many with flashes of humour. The extent of some people's bad fortunes is frequently distressing: because these are real people who speak to us through Mayhew's writing. The author's conclusion is that society is to blame for the poverty of its citizens, a view he reaches by recognising his interviewees' essential humanity.

A must-read for those interested in Victorian England
Henry Mayhew, founder of Punch magazine, wrote this four-volume sociological classic during the 1850's. If you are at all interested in the Victorian era, in British history, in London, or in urban history in general, this is a must-read. This version is abridged and is a distillation of the "best" of the multiple-volume set. This distillation is itself over 500 pages, so imagine the impact of the entire set! The utter destitution of the London poor is set out in such vivid detail than one cannot help being shocked at the conditions human beings were forced to live in in the greatest city of its time. The only fault I find with this book is Mayhew's occasional lapses into preaching. Otherwise a fine book.

brilliant
This book is easy to read and full of very interesting facts and anecdotes. Not only are there many examples of the different types of occupation in Victorian London, but details are also given of the extent and income of each occupation and personal accounts, which means that it is not dry at all and a fascinating read. It was very interestingt to read about the real lives of people and the hardship they experienced and appeared to get used to!!
I could not put it down and would heartily recommend it to all.