Henry Mayhew (1812–1887)

I was supposed to be reading chapters 1 and 5 and skimming chapter 4 for my course, but have been defeated. I was briefly interested in the sub-sections on the lives of costermongers, and I am heartened by Mayhew's realization that the best way to improve the 'morality' of the poor is not to give them tracts they can't read. But... then I was bored and got bogged down in the rest. Hopefully the course materials will bring this to life. I understand it was initially published section by show more section and that would make it more readable. show less

"London Labour and the London Poor" is an extraordinary piece of mid-19th-century journalism. Henry Mayhew, a writer and editor well-known in his time (he was an early editor of Punch), spent years roaming the poor neighborhoods of London, seeking out stories of the poor and downtrodden. He carefully describes the work and economics involved with each profession, and presents many faithfully recorded statements from the people he finds.

From mudlarks (scavengers during low tide on the show more Thames), to prostitutes (of several distinct classes, such as soldiers' women and moonlighting housewives), to street food-sellers (who knew that one could write so engagingly about the sale of baked potatoes?), Mayhew presents an astonishing portrait of the lives and struggles of poor people in the world's richest city at the height of its power. His writing is detailed but never dull, and he provides invaluable economic data without letting it overwhelm his storytelling. (In particular, his description early in the book of the bustle of activity in the Brill market is one of the loveliest stretches of historical descriptive writing I've ever seen.) Additionally, the statements from his informants are extraordinary and heartbreaking; each one could spawn a novel all by itself.

This particular edition is a collection of well-chosen excerpts from the original three-volume work, plus a few selections from the later fourth volume (edited by Mayhew but largely written by others). My only complaint about this version is that it has no index and only a very general table of contents, for which it loses half a star. But even with these oversights, it is a marvelous reading experience and a priceless source of information about Victorian London. Today, "London Labour and the London Poor" has become an essential resource for anyone who writes about Victorian culture, from Dickens scholars to steampunk and alternate-history authors, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. show less

The people in general is ashamed to say how they thinks on their children. It's wretched in the extreme to see one's children, and not be able to do to 'em as a parent ought; and I'll say this here after all you've heard me state - that the Government of my native land ought to interpose their powerful arm to put a stop to such things. Unless they do, civil society with us is all at an end. Everybody is becoming brutal - unnatural. Billy, just turn up that shell now, and let the gentleman show more see what beautiful fabrics we're in the habit of producing - and then he shall say whether we ought to be in the filthy state we are. Just show the light, Tilly! That's for ladies to wear and adorn them, and make them handsome. [It was an exquisite piece of maroon-coloured velvet, that, amidst all the squalor of the place, seemed marvellously beautiful, and it was a wonder to see it unsoiled amid all the filth that surrounded it.] "I say, just turn it up, Billy, and show the gentleman the back. That's cotton partly, you see, sir, just for the manufacturers to cheat the public, and get a cheap article, and have all the gold out of the poor working creatures they can, and don't care nothing about them. But death, Billy - death gets all the gold out of them. They're playing a deep game, but death wins after all. Oh, when this here's made known, won't the manufacturers be in a way to find the public aware on their tricks. They've lowered the wages so low, that one would hardly believe the people would take the work. But what's one to do? - the children can't quite starve. Oh no! -oh no!"

This book is a collection of Henry Mayhew's letters to the Morning Chronicle, concentrating on those that he didn't later use in London Labour and the London Poor. I had been looking forward to reading it, but the introductory essays were almost enough to put me off, being repetitive and frankly, quite dull.

The first, 'Mayhew and the 'Morning Chronicle', describes Mayhew as being indolent, often in debt and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and not well liked by his colleagues in journalism and publishing. The second, 'Mayhew as a Social Investigator', is repetitive and rather boring, and I was left wondering what slop-work and the sweating trades might be, as the author of the essay didn't bother to define them. However Mayhew comes out of this essay rather better, as although his political opponents keep on denigrating his working methods and findings, he is able to defend himself successfully with the support of the people working on 'London Labour and the London Poor' with him.

But when it comes to the actual letters I found them a much more interesting read, as Mayhew didn't paraphrase what the workers told him, so their authentic voices shine through. In the case of most of the trades covered in these letters, wages have gone down so much over the previous twenty or thirty years, that workmen are earning much less even though they are working much longer hours and even working on Sundays which they used to have off and in many cases their wives and children have to work with them, instead of keeping house and attending school as they used to. Told in their own words, their poverty and desperation comes across strongly, and Mayhew's analysis shows that the increase in poverty should be blamed on increased competition rather than increased population which was the received wisdom at that time. show less

One of the short books published by Penguin to mark 80 years in business, this is a few extracts from London Labour and the London Poor and other Mayhew works. Fascinating social history despite the flowery style. I particularly liked the description of a train journey from Waterloo to Clapham, a ride I know well, now passing between tall blocks of new apartments mostly bought by foreign investors.