Henry Mayhew
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Cities in modernist literature
The alienated modernist self is a product of the big city rather than the countryside or small town. Katherine Mullin describes how an interest in the sensibility associated with the city – often London, but for James Joyce, Dublin – developed from the mid-19th century to the modernist period.
Juvenile crime in the 19th century
Novels such as Oliver Twist have made Victorian child-thieves familiar to us, but to what extent did juvenile crime actually exist in the 19th century? Drawing on contemporary accounts and printed ephemera, Dr Matthew White uncovers the facts behind the fiction.
Tom and Jerry’s Life in London
The Gentle Author explores Pierce Egan’s 19th-century bestseller, Life in London, in which Tom and Jerry's 'rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis' offer readers a unique glimpse into both high and low urban culture.
Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
Victorian businessman Charles Booth set out to see if poverty levels were exaggerated - and found they were worse. His map shows the patchwork nature of the capital: poor and rich live side by side, much like today. Booth's work helped establish the old age pension, first paid on 1 Jan 1909.
