Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Dore's "London: A Pilgrimage"

After thinking about Chambers' Book of Days (see previous post), I wanted to compare it to Jerrold and Dore's London: a Pilgrimage  (1872). However, there appears to be no full-text facsimile on either Hathitrust or Google Books. This proves the continuing value of actual brick and mortar libraries.

Here is a link to a collection of 27 of Dore's iconic images from a web exhibition at the British Museum. However, the images are divorced from the text that originally appeared alongside them. Of the 180 images in the original, only 27 were chosen. Why? Are they more dramatic? How could they have left out the final image, the "New Zealander" artist sketching the dystopian ruins of central London (below)? 

 There are at least two editions of London: a Pilgrimage in print. The Dover edition presents just the images. The Anthem edition has the advantage of including the text and images in their original layout, though in a smaller page format. 

Even though the book wasn't particularly well-received when it was published in 1872, it has become a kind of touchstone for the popular imagination of Victorian London, especially its poverty and inequality.

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