num_pages: 544
description: 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 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.
language: English
title: The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
publisher: Atlantic Books