London Labour and the London Poor: Selection (Classics)
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Review
This edition... has a thoughtful, detailed and illuminating introduction. (Andrew Dodgshon, Tribune )
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has a strong sense of the contradictory forces at work in Mayhew's writing, which he compares successively to a peep show, a collection of dramatic monologues and an early work of sociology...This selection is still as long as a fair-sized novel, with helpful notes and a springy, suggestive introduction that captures the energy and variety of Mayhew's world. (John Bowen, Times Literary Supplement. )
Should be required reading not just for lovers of Dickens, but for anyone who wants to understand our 19th century. (Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph )
[A] superb new edition. (Ian Thomson, Evening Standard )
As riveting as any Dickensian novel and as salutary as any social services report, this is a unique insight into the life of the capital over a hundred years ago. (Robert Gwyn Palmer, The Resident )
A collection of some of the best descriptive writing in the English language. (Roy Hattersley, New Statesman )
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has a strong sense of the contradictory forces at work in Mayhew's writing, which he compares successively to a peep show, a collection of dramatic monologues and an early work of sociology...This selection is still as long as a fair-sized novel, with helpful notes and a springy, suggestive introduction that captures the energy and variety of Mayhew's world. (John Bowen, Times Literary Supplement. )
Should be required reading not just for lovers of Dickens, but for anyone who wants to understand our 19th century. (Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph )
[A] superb new edition. (Ian Thomson, Evening Standard )
As riveting as any Dickensian novel and as salutary as any social services report, this is a unique insight into the life of the capital over a hundred years ago. (Robert Gwyn Palmer, The Resident )
A collection of some of the best descriptive writing in the English language. (Roy Hattersley, New Statesman )
Product Description
London Labour and the London Poor is an extraordinary work of investigative journalism, a work of literature, and a groundbreaking work of sociology. It originated in a series of articles for a London newspaper and grew into a massive record of the daily life of Victorian London's underclass. Mayhew conducted hundreds of interviews with the city's street traders, entertainers, thieves and beggars which revealed that the 'two nations' of rich and poor were much closer than many people thought. By turns alarming, touching, and funny, the pages of London Labour and the London Poor exposed a previously hidden world to view. The first-hand accounts of costermongers and street-sellers, of sewer-scavenger and chimney-sweep, are intimate and detailed and provide an unprecedented insight into their day-to-day struggle for survival. Combined with Mayhew's obsessive data gathering, these stories have an immediacy that owes much to his sympathetic understanding and highly effective literary style. In its imaginative power the work can justly be regarded as the greatest Victorian novel never written. This new selection offers a cross-section of the original volumes and their evocative illustrations, and includes among other features an illuminating introduction to Henry Mayhew and the genesis and influence of his work.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Amazon should look to separating this edition from the Penguin edition of Mayhew's studies because this is almost a totally different selection of Mayhew's writings with a better and more in depth introduction and potted biography of Mayhew by the editor, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. One of the main points that Douglas-Fairhurst makes is that Mayhew considered himself a reporter rather than a reformer or campaigner but what a reporter. Using language that resonates of the time, much of it verbatim transcripts of interviewees, Mayhew shines a dazzling light on the street life of Victorian London. Dickens and Thackeray were notable devotees of Mayhew's work and incorporated much of his studies into their own work.
I would strongly recommend anyone with even the slightest interest in the period to get this volume, all the more so because although there is some overlap with the Penguin edition, there is lots of "new" material in here (costermongers' cries for example) so that even if you already have that edition it is well worth getting this one as well.
I would strongly recommend anyone with even the slightest interest in the period to get this volume, all the more so because although there is some overlap with the Penguin edition, there is lots of "new" material in here (costermongers' cries for example) so that even if you already have that edition it is well worth getting this one as well.
92 of 94 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
75 of 79 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
It's a book you can pick up and dip into at random
I am staggered by this book. I know there are faults with it but it really is an amazing piece of preserved history. Read more
Published 3 days ago by subject2status
a unique collection
a first hand accounts of discussions with london's working and non working poor. utterly facinating and so far as I know unique, with accounts on long lost habits and jobs. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Nickreview
Should be compulsory reading !
First I read Mayhew's 'Characters', then this fuller version. Now I am determined to get hold of the original complete text. Read more
Published 6 months ago by "Conversation Sharp"
LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR
Book in excellent condition, perfect and punctual delivery. I am - as always - completely satisfied and very happy with the transaction.
Published 9 months ago by futzi
A window into a grimy past, vivid and compelling.
"London Labour and the London Poor" began life in a newspaper around 1850 and went through several editions, culminating in four volumes. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jason Mills
London and the Poor
Very good book, good insight into what it must have been like, took a bit to get into it, can read a book in two days this took 2 weeks.
Published 15 months ago by ali
London Labour and the Poor.
I bought this book for a friend who was brought up in the East End and now belongs to a history group who researches various aspects of its industry. Read more
Published 15 months ago by K. A. Appleton
London poor
I heard snatches of this book on the radio and since my father (born in 1895) was a Londoner and certainly poor - I wanted to know more about how poor families survived. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Robert L. Rolfe
Clear, presice and informative
Mayhew is unfortunately slipping from the general publics knowledge which is a shame. His ability to write clear and in most cases dispassionately is so informative of the social... Read more
Published 18 months ago by studyfreak
Compelling Account of Poverty in 1850s London
The outstanding voice within this book is not, in fact, the author's. His prose is, I suppose, typical of the period: convoluted, complex and difficult to "scan". Read more
Published 23 months ago by Andy
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