Seems fascinating. Bought it to read, maybe to release.

This was a bit of a disappointment. The subject is interesting (to me, at least) and the book should have been, but reading was an effort. Maybe what I'd have wished for was more of a cultural perspective. A flash of it came in the very last page:

" - the 'other England' of the Victorian period lived long enough to forget the Queen whose name was associated with it. The destruction of cities in the Blitz of the early 1940s, the dispersal of their populations in the brave new world of twenty years rebuilding and the settlement of new immigrant communities obliterated at last the neighbourhoods formed by costers and street-folk, penny gaffs and padding-kens, the haunts of dodgers and the swell mob. Until that point, the century long past remained the predominant force in the present."

London fascinates me. Thanks a lot, oofiri.

I quite agree with oofiri on this one. The subject is very interesting, but Thomas doesn't get much out of it. His book is filled with details and lacks all analysis. It was entertaining to read about some famous criminal cases, but that's not all one wants for At its best and most thought-provoking the book was at the end describing Victorian penitentiary and justice system.

To BC-meetup

Picked this up at the Helsinki area bc meetup tonight. I've always been interested in Victorian times so this sounded fascinating!