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joyceontheroad's review
4.0
I did enjoy the vivid depiction of London. Takes one back in time. I did appreciate the background related to the texts, in terms of publishing. This provides additional context.
smitchy's review
4.0
A very different look at 19th century London and it's poorest people. Very different to what you read in most fiction. Highly recommend to anyone who want to look at that period in history.
obscuredbyclouds's review
4.0
This was a nice surprise. It's not fiction and if you are not interested in the real lives of London Victorian lifes, then this is not for you. But I found it engaging and it really conjured up the images of the time for me as well as being historically interesting.
cicisamson's review
4.0
Of Street Piemen gave me a kind of nostalgia akin to reading a Dickens novel. It details the poverty-stricken underbelly of a London that isn't a million miles away from what it is now. Mayhew's accounts detail the everyday lives of individuals whose welfare is dictated by their ability to be successful salespeople, despite their existence on the lower side of the wealth divide. These people are by no means extraordinary, but Mayhew's approach to detailing their stories made them so. Of Street Piemen reminded me that there are far more Tiny Tims than there are Scrooges, and that, perhaps, it is the stories of those Tiny Tims that are of the most import.
Interspersed between these accounts of the ordinary are descriptions of what I would describe as journeys - a balloon ride, a train ride, a shipyard. Locations of the mundane that Mayhew uses to flesh out the backdrop of the disparate narratives. My favourite quote from throughout this succinct collection is as follows:
For me, this eloquently illustrates the state of things in Victorian London. It is a melting pot of life itself, a myriad of life and death; of love and hate; of wealth and suffering. Mayhew's subjects make the best of what they have been given. Perhaps that is the best lesson that we can learn - to see the positive, and to make the most of it.
Interspersed between these accounts of the ordinary are descriptions of what I would describe as journeys - a balloon ride, a train ride, a shipyard. Locations of the mundane that Mayhew uses to flesh out the backdrop of the disparate narratives. My favourite quote from throughout this succinct collection is as follows:
To contemplate from afar the strange conglomeration of vice, avarice, and low cunning, of noble aspirations and humble heroism, and to grasp it in the eye, in all its incongruous integrity, at one single glance - to take, as it were, an angel's view of that town where, perhaps, there is more virtue and more iniquity, more wealth and more want, brought together into one dense focus that in any other part of the earth.
For me, this eloquently illustrates the state of things in Victorian London. It is a melting pot of life itself, a myriad of life and death; of love and hate; of wealth and suffering. Mayhew's subjects make the best of what they have been given. Perhaps that is the best lesson that we can learn - to see the positive, and to make the most of it.
between_colorful_chapters's review
2.0
Könnyed angol olvasmánynak szántam, de nem igazán volt egyszerű. Szerencsére egy nagyon rövid, kis kötetről van szó. Nem volt nagy szám. Nem volt valami nagyon cselekménydús
fairybookmother's review
4.0
If you've ever been to London, it's interesting to see this Victorian view of everyday streets overlaid with those memories of modern London.
nusighba's review
So apparently, if you journal your travel with slightly sophisticated words, it will be considered a classic! regardless of how ABSOLUTELY BORING and POINTLESS it is! I want back the 10 minutes I wasted on the driest travel blog to ever exist.