London Labour and the London Poor (Classics of World Literature) - Softcover

Mayhew, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1840226196 ISBN 13: 9781840226195

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions, 2008

Synopsis

With an Introduction by Rosemary O'Day. 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'.

About this title

Synopsis:

"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.

About the Author:

Henry Mayhew (1812?1887) was a journalist, social investigator, novelist, and author? his work distinguished by vivid reportage, unsentimental sympathy, humor, and an eye for detail. Victor Neuburg is a former senior lecturer at the School of Librarianship, University of North London. His publications include Popular Literature and A Guide to the Western Front.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1840226196
• ISBN 13: 9781840226195
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 688