The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum - Rilegato

Wise, Sarah

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0224071750 ISBN 13: 9780224071758

Casa editrice: Bodley Head, 2008

Riassunto

* In 1887 Government inspectors were sent to explore the horrifying - often lethal - living conditions of the Old Nichol, a notorious 15-acre slum in London's East End.
* Among much else they found that the rotting 100-year-old houses were some of the most lucrative properties in the capital for their absent slumlords. Peers of the Realm, local politicians, churchmen and lawyers were making profits on these death-traps of as much as 150 per cent per annum.
* Before long, the Old Nichol became a focus of public attention. Journalists, the clergy, charity workers and others condemned its 6,000 inhabitants for their drunkenness and criminality. The solution to this 'problem' lay in internment camps, said some, or forced emigration - even policies designed to prevent breeding.
* Concentrating on the last fifteen years of the nineteenth century, The Blackest Streets is set in a turbulent period in London's history, when revolution was very much in the air - when unemployment, agricultural depression and a crackdown on parish relief provided a breeding ground for Communists and Anarchists.
* Author of the prize-winning The Italian Boy, Sarah Wise explores the real lives behind the statistics - the woodworkers, fish smokers, street hawkers and many more. She excavates the Old Nichol from the ruins of history, laying bare the social and political conditions that created and sustained this black hole which lay at the very heart of the Empire.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"A revelatory book... scrupulously researched and eye-opening." (John Carey Sunday Times)

"An excellent and intelligent investigation of the realities of urban living that respond to no design or directive. All is chaos, accident and randomness. This is a book about the nature of London itself." (Peter Ackroyd The Times)

"Her achievement is remarkable... Wise misses nothing... This breadth and balance lend The Blackest Streets both its scholarly heft and its freshness... This engrossing work shines a light not only on a turbulent period in London's history but on humanity itself. Only the best histories can claim as much." (Clare Clark Guardian)

"Sarah Wise has created an exceptional work, in that it is both scholarly and page turning - a genuine treat." (Gilda O'Neil)

"Spilling facts, lives, conditions, intolerable burdens and the spirit expressed by spontaneous dancing in the streets, The Blackest Streets is a little masterpiece." (Edward Pearce Herald)

Descrizione del libro:

A brilliant new book about the seedy side of Victorian London by one of our most talented young historians.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Bodley Head
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0224071750
• ISBN 13: 9780224071758
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 352