The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London - Hardcover

Flanders, Judith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250040213 ISBN 13: 9781250040213

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2014

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author of The Invention of Murder, an extraordinary, revelatory portrait of everyday life on the streets of 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.

About this title

About the Author

JUDITH FLANDERS is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the foremost social historians of the Victorian era. Her book Inside the Victorian Home was shortlisted for the British Book Awards History Book of the Year. Judith is a frequent contributor to the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Spectator, and the Times Literary Supplement. She lives in London.

Reviews

*Starred Review* By the end of the nineteenth century, London was the most populous city in world history and the center of an immense political and commercial empire that enveloped all populated continents. In his novels and essays, Charles Dickens vividly conveyed the color, dynamism, and squalor of the metropolis. Of course, Dickens had an ax to grind, so his efforts at social criticism led to some distortions. Also, he died in 1870, missing three decades of critical growth and reforms at the end of the Victorian era. Flanders, a Londoner, is a contributor to various British journals. She takes a broader and less judgmental approach than Dickens. Still, her imagery is often intense and striking even without editorial comment. Here is a putrid, disease-ridden water system filled with human and animal waste, characteristic of some of today’s Third World urban centers. At Covent Garden, home to a huge food market and theaters, and also a center for vice, rich and poor mingled on a daily basis. The streets of London were a constant assault on the senses with their noise and smell. This is a superb portrait of an exciting, thriving, and dangerous city. --Jay Freeman

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250040213
• ISBN 13: 9781250040213
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 544