Record Number: 1320

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1830 and 31 Dec 1849

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London
other location: low lodging house

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

passive reactive unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reading Group:

group of London thieves

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

London thieves

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

London thieves in the low lodging house

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

William Harrison Ainsworth

Title:

Jack Sheppard

Genre:

Fiction, History

Form of Text:

Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either as penny numbers or in volume

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group
reading group

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Source Information:

Record ID:

1320

Source:

Print

Author:

Henry Mayhew

Editor:

n/a

Title:

London Labour and the London Poor

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1861

Vol:

1

Page:

416

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, (London, 1861), 1, p. 416, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1320, accessed: 18 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

None