Jacksonville Public Library

The Victorian city, everyday life in Dickens' London, Judith Flanders

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 479-499)and index

platesillustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

The Victorian city

bibliography

876370710

Judith Flanders

everyday life in Dickens' London

"The nineteenth century was a time of unprecedented change, and nowhere was this more apparent than London. In only a few decades, the capital grew from a compact Regency town into a sprawling metropolis of 6.5 million inhabitants, the largest city the world had ever seen. Technology--railways, street-lighting, and sewers--transformed both the city and the experience of city-living, as London expanded in every direction. Now Judith Flanders, one of Britain's foremost social historians, explores the world portrayed so vividly in Dickens' novels, showing life on the streets of London in colorful, fascinating detail. From the moment Charles Dickens, the century's best-loved English novelist and London's greatest observer, arrived in the city in 1822, he obsessively walked its streets, recording its pleasures, curiosities and cruelties. Now, with him, Judith Flanders leads us through the markets, transport systems, sewers, rivers, slums, alleys, cemeteries, gin palaces, chop-houses and entertainment emporia of Dickens' London, to reveal the Victorian capital in all its variety, vibrancy, and squalor. From the colorful cries of street-sellers to the uncomfortable reality of travel by omnibus, to the many uses for the body parts of dead horses and the unimaginably grueling working days of hawker children, no detail is too small, or too strange. No one who reads Judith Flanders's meticulously researched, captivatingly written The Victorian City will ever view London in the same light again."--, Front jacket flap

Part one: The city wakes. 1810: The Berners Street Hoax ; Early to rise ; On the road ; Travelling (mostly) hopefully ; In and out of London -- Part two: Staying alive. 1861: The Tooley Street Fire ; The world's market ; Selling the streets ; Slumming ; The waters of death -- Part three: Enjoying life. 1867: The Regent's Park Skating Disaster ; Street performance ; Leisure for all ; Feeding the streets ; Street theatre -- Part four: Sleeping and awake. 1852: The funeral of the Duke of Wellington ; Night entertainment ; Street violence ; The red-lit streets to death -- Appendix: Dickens' publications