Customer Reviews

A Dictionary of Victorian London: An A-Z of the Great Metropolis (Anthem Art and Culture)

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This is an A-Z compendium of Victorian England's landmarks, people, places, things, advertising, food, medicine, and much else. Almost anything sociological, political, economic, educational, or entertaining is referenced in this profound work of scholarship. I've spent days reading this book and still haven't run out of new details. It's a great source of facts.

Having a curiosity regarding the day to day life of Victorian London, from back-alleys to Buckingham, I purchased "A Dictionary of Victorian London; an A-Z of the Great Metropolis" by Lee Jackson. I was disappointed to find that each entry is little more than snippets of text garnered from other authors, letters to various publications of the time or pieces of newspaper articles from the era.

The word "dictionary" calls to mind a reference work, something that defines, describes and clearly details its subject. Owing to the fact that none of the entries in this book (insofar as I could tell) are actually accompanied by a clear definition or description rather than a paragraph drawn from another source which, one assumes, refers in some way the entry title - I cannot agree with calling this a dictionary.

The author also clearly states in Appendix 1: A Note on Sources, that "excerpts have been taken from three works of fiction." How then should I take such an entry as fact? Therefore, I do commend the author for his diligence and research for having dug up all these quotes and articles to cite in his "dictionary" but I personally would rather have had more information and less opinion, propaganda and fiction.

The book is a a selective dictionary, not an encyclopedia, so not every word or term used by Victorian Londoners will be found here. It does provide some surprising insights into not only the lanaguage but daily life. Here a reader can find the legal maximum for gunpowder in a private residence, the work of mudlarks and other strangely employed chlidren, and other odd facts. Certainly a good choice for those hungry for bite sized bits of information about the age of Sherlock Holmes, Charles Dickens, and Queen Victoria herself.