"The Comic Almanack, Volume 2" is a delightful collection that showcases the wit and humor of 19th-century British writers. Featuring contributions from notable figures such as Gilbert Abbott A Beckett, Henry Mayhew, and William Makepeace Thackeray, this volume offers a rich tapestry of comedic sketches, illustrations, and satirical commentary. The almanack serves as both entertainment and social critique, reflecting the cultural landscape of its time while engaging readers with its playfu...

It was a cold Autumnal midnight, and the wind was blowing frightfully, and the rain was beating against the windows, and not a sound was to be heard in the streets, unless I mention the noise of some two or three cabs tearing past the house, and bearing homewards their gay and youthful votaries of fashion from some festive ball or joyous theatre. Indeed, it was just such a night as makes the sympathizing heart of Woman, when seated quietly by her own comfortable fire-side, bleed with pity ...

In "Jack Black," Henry Mayhew presents a comprehensive exploration of the life of a London costermonger, a street seller of fruits and vegetables, during the Victorian era. The narrative is characterized by Mayhew's engaging prose and keen observational style, providing a vivid portrayal of urban life and the socio-economic struggles of the working class. Drawing from interviews and firsthand accounts, Mayhew meticulously documents the experiences, hardships, and resilience of London's lab...

"The Comic Almanack" is a delightful collection that showcases the wit and humor of 19th-century British literature. Edited by notable figures such as Gilbert Abbott A Beckett and featuring contributions from literary giants like William Makepeace Thackeray, this volume offers a unique blend of satire, illustrations, and comedic narratives. The almanack serves as a reflection of the social and cultural landscape of its time, providing readers with a humorous yet insightful glimpse into Vic...

"The Greatest Plague of Life: or, the Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant" is a humorous exploration of the trials and tribulations faced by a lady in her quest for the perfect domestic help. The narrative, rich with wit and satire, delves into the social dynamics of the Victorian era, highlighting the often absurd interactions between employers and servants. Through the protagonist's misadventures, the authors, Augustus and Henry Mayhew, provide a keen commentary on class dis...

The present volume is the first of an intended series, which it is hoped will form, when complete, a cyclopædia of the industry, the want, and the vice of the great Metropolis. It is believed that the book is curious for many reasons: It surely may be considered curious as being the first attempt to publish the history of a people, from the lips of the people themselves—giving a literal description of their labour, their earnings, their trials, and their sufferings, in their own “unvarnish...

History is written by historians, and the voices of ordinary people rarely feature. But this unique collection of interviews from the middle of the nineteenth century allows their voices to be heard. The journalist Henry Mayhew tramped the streets of London interviewing working people; this Hesperus selection from his work London Labour and the London Poor shows how they coped with the ups and downs of health and illness while continuing with the daily trial of scratching a living and feed...

London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of newspaper articles written by the great journalist Henry Mayhew between 1849 and 1850. A dozen years later, it had grown into the fullest picture we have of labouring people in the world's greatest city in the nineteenth century: a four volume account of the hopes, customs, grievances and habits of the working-classes that allows them to tell their own stories. Combining practicality with compassion, Mayhew worked unencumbered by ...

This vintage book contains Henry Mayhew's account of the London Underworld during the Victorian period, constructed from authentic first-person accounts by beggars, thieves and prostitutes. Hailed as the first and perhaps greatest sociological studies of poverty in 19th-century London, this survey practiced the techniques of oral history - a hundred years before the term was first coined. It provides a vivid and authentic description of the labour, earnings, and problems of the lower class...

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 thoug...

Excerpt: "Ever since we first commenced housekeeping, I cannot say the creatures have let me know one day's perfect peace. A more indulgent master and mistress I am sure they never could have had. For myself, if they had been my own children I could not have looked after them more than I did—continually instructing them, and even sometimes condescending to do part of their work for them myself, out of mere kindness, just to show them how; and never allowing a set of fellows from those drea...

In the years 1849 and 1850, Henry Mayhew was the metropolitan correspondent of the Morning Chronicle in its national survey of labour and the poor. Only about a third of his Morning Chronicle material was included in his later and better known, publication, London Labour and the London Poor.First published in 1981, this series of six volumes constitutes Henry Mayhew’s complete Morning Chronicle survey, in the sequence in which it was originally w...