The Victorian Underworld

[The following review refers to the Penguin paperback edition reprinted in 1991.] First published in 1970, 'The Victorian Underworld' by Kellow Chesney still remains informative in its own way, telling us about the criminal world hidden beneath the facede of Victorian prudishness, but to some readers, especially the readers who have already some knowledge about this nether world, the book is too general and looks even cursory. Not that Kellow Chesney (about whom I know nothing) didn't homework. It is that the book covers too many topics about which we have come to know more thanks to the scholarly efforts done after the book was originally published. The book contains the following chapters: 1) The Mid-century; 2) The Borders of the underworld; 3) The wanderers; 4) Citadels of the underworld; 5) Gonophs, footpads and the swell mob; 6) Cracksman and fences; 7) Beggars; 8) Magsmen, macers and shofulmen; 9) The sporting underworld; 10) Prostitution. The book comes with many illustrations, plus glossary of colloquial words, which is very helpful and interesting to read. I said 'criminal world' but the fact is that the panorama you see here is not restricted to them. Some works are more legitimate though ill-paid, and the term 'underworld' is used quite inclusively. So this book re-creates the life of various kind of people -- traveling circus, child theives and fences (ala 'Oliver Twist'), religious fakes, boxers and promotors, etc. The list goes on and on, but what is most impressive is that there are sub-divisions or minor categories in each of them. You should not use a broad word 'prostitutes' when thinking about the night life in London for some of them are totally different type from the others. The book shows us, for example, the merits and demerits of life in a brothel in London, or the possible fates of the (few) luckier fallen women and of the unlucky ones. Though the book is a fascinating read, it has some demerits. The bibliography is too old (for instance, today Steven Marcus's 'The Other Victorians' is indespensable when writing about prostitution in Victorian England), and sometimes Kellow Chesney quotes too long passages from other sources like Charles Dickens or Henry Mayhew, which go on more than several pages. Now these primary sources are (or would be) available on internet or in e-texts, and this makes the book look slightly dated. Still 'The Victorian Underworld' is always readble, free from pedantic ideas about the Victorians. Written with a compassionate heart, the author leads us to the kaleidoscopic world of the other Victorians. It will give you a good overview of the world which Victorians like Dickens knew well, but would not fully reveal on the books.

Chesney's description of the Victorian underworld allows you to hear the swarm of swells, street hawkers and beggars on The Strand. You can smell the unsanitised alley ways, marvel at the criminal and criminally overcrowded "rookeries" full of the poor and sympathise with the prostitute. The poverty, hunger and cruelty is crushing. In compassionate and unsentimental fashion, Chesney pays tribute to these people for surviving at all in Victorian London. A wonderful, thought-provoking book. You can almost catch a fleeting glimpse of Dickens on his night walks.