Henry MayhewThe London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves and Prostitutes

This book is a selection of essays from different social scientists, doctors, concerned parties of the time discussing social problems in London in the Victorian era. The language is a lot like Charles Dickens - flowery and sophisticated, using archaic terminology and metaphors. It's a fun challenge to read that kind of thing. I found myself looking up words as well as some history. It's amazing to read a woman's account of having a child out of wedlock and how she was relieved when the baby finally died of malnutrition because she really was never going to be able to raise him with any kind of life ahead of him. She settled into a meager existence of making do and having "my gin." There's so much in that story that's different from now - she had no institutional options for help and was not held criminally responsible. Yet there's so much that's the same - the satisfaction with achieving nothing more than making it through another day to get another drink.The thing that made me put down the book while reading only the first chapter was the misogyny and sexism. The author of that section, who's a doctor examining the problem of prostitution in London, keeps saying that women have only one thing to offer in the world - their virginity - and that women are all basically whores. Those ideas are bad enough now but to see them in fuller force back then and imagining them slicing all the way through history was just a little too much to take. I might try again to push past it and think of the hope for the future. Maybe the part examining thievery would be interesting.

I ordered this book as part of my ongoing obsession with the Victorian era. (Blame Sarah Waters.)The accounts are fascinating in and of themselves. I was ready for a lot of one-sided moralising from the author, Mayhew, but he has (had?) a very modern approach to the plight of London's poor. It was a pleasant surprise to realise that people of the era could see and understand the social injustice of the time.Having read the words of the beggars, thieves and prostitutes, it is difficult to understand how some of them (particularly the prostitutes) could have done anything other than what they did. I feel almost as if I know them now - this book is the next best thing to actually meeting and speaking with these people.Best of all I never felt like I was ploughing through the book, working to get an understanding of the people. I raced through the book, fascinated. Later I went back, re-reading certain parts.More than worth the price.

This is a purported "scientific" study of London so be prepared to find a difficult read. Paragraphs are quite lengthy and many statistics are cited. It's not an easy read. It isn't something to curl up and zip through. If you've the patience to absorb the numbers, you might get through it without falling asleep.

It's a great picture of London's underworld, but I can't ignore the author's own prejudices. Maybe he was of his time, but he is utterly unaware of his own shortcomings. I want to challenge him, but he's been dead for 100 years...

Excellent real life history of criminal underworld during victorian times. Impressed by what these people experienced in their sad lives!

This is great in theory, but if I'm honest, it is sometimes a bit like reading Shakespeare...very hard to understand. I wish I could understand the lingo a little better. I wanted to love this book, but it's taking me forever to get through it, due to the fact that I have to re-read most sentences a few times until I understand what the author is saying. It does have a lot of first-person accounts by people interviewed for the book, in the Victorian period, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place, and those are pretty easy to interpret, but the author himself speaks in what is also( obviously) Victorian period language...but I'm finding a lot of what he has written is lost in translation, at least it's lost on me! lol I could read books and watch television shows about Victorian England 24/7...but this is a tough read for me. It's actually making me feel a little stupid...but I'm not giving in yet!

Thick language, lots of judgement but excellent reference material for what I needed. A look back at another place and time, and from the bottom of the ladder. well worth plodding through.

A part of history of London I never read about.

Mayhew certainly did an impressive amount of research.These accounts are fascinating, and also deeply harrowing, just as is his writing on, 'The London Labour and the London Poor'.Essential for anyone interested in the real history of the UK.

I brought this book for my other half - a Londener himself - and have stolen it! It is a fascinating read. I love the way the accounts from some of the people are spelt as they would have spoken it so you really get a taste of the accent. We know most of the streets and places that are mentioned in the book and it's interesting to think what was happening there before we were walking around and drinking in all the pubs! I'd recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in history and loves London. It really does have a character all of its own and is full of people who are unlike any other. 5 stars, I'm so glad I brought it!

A fascinating contemporary study of the darker side of London in the mid nineteenth century. The detail is astounding and it is possible to detect Mayhew's personal calls for reform.

Voices from the past tell us the reality of the lives of the working class. Most didn’t live in nice houses and have servants. This describes the hard truth of what our predecessors went through.

Great insight into days gone by, full of odd details and intriguing lives, but a difficult and slow read. The prejudice of some of the collectors of the information sometimes comes through, but it is nevertheless uniquely worthwhile. The accounts' authenticity mean that it is a great source of reliable information. Just dip in and out to avoid getting bogged down with the dull parts.