Life in the London underworld during the Victorian era. Authentic stories told by the poor, thieves, and prostitutes.

Before you is the first and most comprehensive study of the criminal world of London, undertaken by the 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 make a living dishonestly, profiting from vice or the gullibility of more affluent city dwellers. This book is a valuable source of information for sociologists, historians, and criminologists, where you will find truly Dickensian plots and see that over the past century and a half, the customs of city dwellers and the tricks of swindlers have not changed all that much.