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2. Henry Mayhew: ''London Labour and the London Poor'' – This four volume work by social theorist Henry Mayhew is full of rich, accurate accounts of what life was like for the "down and out" (the poor and working classes) in Victorian London. Mayhew interviewed everyone from small shop owners, to prostitutes, to pure-finders (those who collected dog poop for money). This groundbreaking look into the life of London's poorest was, and remains, one of the most important works on working-class culture ever published. Mayhew's work has also been annotated by Penguin Classics into a 512-page book.
3. Bernard Lightman: ''Victorian Science in Context''] – Science was an extremely important part of life in Victorian England. New scientific discoveries were being made almost daily, and for the first time, newspapers were affordable to almost everyone, so scientific knowledge spread like wildfire among all classes. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was published right in the middle of the Victorian era, in 1859. To those living in the nineteenth century, science was somewhat akin to magic, and was an endless source of fascination.
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