HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

** 125
otherwise lack-lustre tarts.
Richard Maxwell for his part challenged scholars who emphasized '%he picturesque elements of
Mayhew's work" and "thus ckqxived it of its theoretical face."I"
Drawing on a sociogdc
approach to adme and society. Maxwell's essay has deeply influenced my view on the power of
Mayhew's urban vision - for Mayhew's decision "to devote so much atteation to the people of the
streas came at a crisis-poist" I"
in his jmmdistic cares. Maxwell sketched out his intapetation
of M aw's theay of everyday life, which, he believed, embodied W ' s
street-folk whose
physiological axxi psychological characteristics wue material, cumemal, mnadc. and "absdutely
[set] apart from aha city dwellers."
Maxwell believed that Maykw wrote about Loadon's
"undiscovered population" in a "state of 6~0~)mic crisis" '" to establish tkir imaginative and
historical place in Victaian Lordm Secoadly, he created "a distinctive vision of city life" that
.. "dreams of freedom, reconcllrn g an environment that 'assassinates you with reality' and an
indivi&al seasibility that wants aiem~as and mobility."
He advocated strong cultural
continuities &wem Maybew's earha minx wak and "the huge monumem of L,ondon Labour".
Maxwell concluded by calling for "a fresh urderstanding of how Maw's obsession with the
streas allows him to move towards a disthmive vision of city We." 13'
1971 to 1981 marked ten years of intease scholarly research on Mayhew with Karel Williams's
'" Ibid., 52.
Maxwell, 104.
Ibid, 87.
12' Ibid., 99.
Ibid., 91.
130 Ibid., 102.
13' Ibid., 89-90.