London Labour and the London Poor

by Henry Mayhew, Rosemary O-Day (Introduction), Tom Griffith (Editor)

Overview

London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of articles written for the Morning Chronicle in 1849-50, when Mayhew was at the height of his powers as a journalist, and was eventually published in four volumes in 1861-2. Victor Neuburg's judicious selection ranges from costermongers to ex-convicts, from chimney-sweeps to vagrants, and includes illustrations from the 1865 impression.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781840226195
Publisher:	Wordsworth Editions, Limited
Publication date:	03/28/2008
Series:	Classics of World Literature
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Henry Mayhew was a journalist, novelist, dramatist, and one of the founding editors of Punch.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and is Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Editorial Reviews

Journalist Mayhew wrote these texts as newspaper articles between 1849 and 1850. He exposed the underbelly of London's impoverished masses, some working, some begging, others stealing. Dickens, it ain't.

—Michael Rogers

Library Journal

"Henry Mayhew's "London Labour and the London Poor" takes the fascinated and appalled reader deep into the world of the Victorian underclass...It's a book you'll want to keep as well as reread."—The Washington Post

"A smartly presented abridgement...[H]ighly welcome."—Forward

From the Publisher

Narrator David Timson takes three tacks in performing this classic of Victorian political economy and sociology. He delivers the modern editors’ notes and introduction with vigorous clarity. He reads Mayhew’s text with similar energy but with more feeling and with an orotund, occasionally jocular tone, as if Mayhew were a Dickens character. And for the heart of the book—the testimony of the poor, who are answering interview questions—he not only gives each person their own voice and accent, but he also uses tone and manner to exhibit their character and emotional state, giving, in effect, a multitude of dramatic monologues that are revealing, informative, and often greatly affecting. Overall it’s a performance—a series of performances—of impressive creativity, sensitivity, and skill, a remarkable tour de force. W.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

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