The Life of London's Underbelly in the Victorian Era. True Stories Told by Beggars, Thieves, and Prostitutes

Before you is the first and most complete study of London's criminal world, undertaken by publisher and journalist Henry Mayhew in the mid-19th century. Together with his assistants, the author visited the slums of the East End and collected true... stories from thieves, prostitutes, and other outcasts of society who earn their living through dishonest means, profiting from the vices or naivety of more affluent city dwellers. This book is a source of invaluable information for sociologists, historians, and criminologists, and within it you will find truly Dickensian plots and realize that over the past century and a half, the morals of the townspeople and the tricks of con artists have not changed very much.