The Victorian Underworld
by Donald Thomas
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Description
No previous age was better equipped than the Victorian period, with its new system of shorthand and its cameras, to bring the present alive in the future. Here, through the eyes of its inhabitants, Donald Thomas portrays London's 19th-century underworld, which was sheltered by an underclass and united with it in a hatred of the police. In its enclaves near the fashionable West End thrived thieves and beggars, pornographers and pickpockets, which slavers and murderers, who preyed on rich and show more poor alike. In The Victorian Underworld, Donald Thomas pushes open the door of a strange, and strangely familiar, world. Donald Thomas is a distinguished biographer and novelist; his life of Robert Browning was a runner-up for the Whitbread Award. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
So-so collection of material on crime in Victorian-era England. The chapters on prostitution and pornography aren't terribly interesting, and while the chapters on burglary and murder are rather more interesting, it's pretty much a rehash of what you can find in other books. All right, but nothing particularly spectacular.
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True Crime
156 works; 1 member
Author Information
37+ Works 1,360 Members
All Editions
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1998
- Important places
- England, UK
- Important events
- Victorian Era
- Dedication
- For Christopher Turk
- First words
- It was in June 1832 that Fraser's Magazine first warned its readers of the existence of a new and well-organized criminal class whose leaders acted as patrons of crime, arranging the disposal of stolen goods, and... (show all) even regulating the admission of new members to their fraternity as if they had been nominating apprentices to an honourable craft. (Prologue)
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 364.942 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Crime Biography And History Europe England & Wales
- LCC
- HV6949 .E5 .T48 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Crimes and criminal classes
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 213
- Popularity
- 154,047
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 2
