The Victorian Underworld by Donald Thomas

The Victorian Underworld by Donald Thomas

Defined by night houses and cigar divans, populated by street people and entertainers, the Victorian underworld was an insular yet diffuse community, united by its deep hatred of the police. Its gin shops and taverns were teeming with thieves, beggars, cheats, forgers and pickpockets, preying on rich and poor alike. Career criminals sometimes showed a craftsmanship that would put their descendants to shame: it took true professionals to remove a vast fortune from the Bank of England, and in one case conspirators even recruited officers from Scotland Yard. Those who failed in such enterprises found themselves in the convict hulks, where the mortality rate might reach 40 per cent, or in the new prisons, their faces masked and identified only by numbers. Donald Thomas's novels and biographies have been steeped in the "other England" of Victoria's reign - a place of Hogarthian realism untouched by middle-class propriety. In this book he depicts that underworld through the eyes of its inhabitants.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9780814782385
ISBN 10	0814782388
Titre	The Victorian Underworld
Auteur	Donald Thomas
État	Non disponible
Type de reliure	Hardback
Éditeur	New York University Press
Année de publication	1998-09-01
Nombre de pages	1
Note de couverture	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible