London Labour and the London Poor (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780199697571)

An extraordinary work of investigative journalism, literature, and sociology, London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of articles for a local newspaper and grew into a massive record of the daily life of Victorian London's underclass. By turns alarming, touching, and funny, the pages of London Labour and the London Poor exposed a previously hidden world. Henry Mayhew conducted hundreds of interviews that provided a first-hand account of costermongers and street-sellers, of sewer-scavengers and chimney-sweeps, creating an intimate and detailed portrait that offered unprecedented insight into their day-to-day struggle for survival. Combined with Mayhew's comprehensive data gathering, these stories have an immediacy that owes much to his sympathetic understanding and effective literary style. This new selection offers a cross-section of the original volumes and their evocative illustrations, including among other features an introduction by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst that illuminates Mayhew's life and career, the genesis and development of the book, and its influence on contemporaries such as Dickens and Kingsley.

Author: Henry Mayhew
ISBN-10: 0199697574
ISBN-13: 9780199697571
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 05/18/2012
Pages: 528
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.79lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.00w x 1.00d