The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Occupations

Last week we have amused ourselves on several outing places back in 19th century’s Victorian era in London. I hope you enjoyed it! Today, together with Boz, I’d like to introduce you to some interesting people from that era. If you happened to live at that time in London, you would certainly meet these people quite often. They are people who provided services for your family and daily household, but maybe…just maybe..some of them don’t get much appreciation from the society at that time. So, right on this Victorian Celebration, why don’t we get to know some of them? Let’s leave whatever you are doing right now behind you, and just imagine yourself as someone who lived in London on 19^th century… After you ladies and gentlemen… J

Note: These are the occupations which appeared quite often in Dickens’ Sketches by Boz. Of course there are many other unique occupations that existed in Victorian era, but I limited my post only with them who are described in the book, and which I found quite interesting.

Coachman

source

As we all know, a coachman is the driver of a horse-drawn coach. Driving them was a special skill, and the driver of them played an important role in the society of the time. The coachman had a specialized skill set, not unlike the modern taxi or bus driver. He had an unusual position in society because of his important role in commerce, travel, and even mail delivery, often working directly with the rich upper classes despite coming from an impoverished, uneducated background. Some coachmen took pride in the speed of their service, and carriage racing remains a sport to this day. [source]

Waterman

Waterman is one of the workers you would find in a hackney coach stand, an occupation you can found on the early 19^th century. Public houses are kept open during the night for the accommodation of the coachmen.  The figure represented upon this plate is employed as waterman to the stand, who is licensed, and wears a badge with his number engraved thereon: his business is to feed and water the horses, and to open the door for the passengers, that the driver may remain upon his box: he also has charge of the coaches during the time that the coachmen take their meals. [source]

Costermonger

Costermonger, or simply Coster, is a street seller of fruit (apples, etc.) and vegetables, in London and other British towns. They were ubiquitous in mid-Victorian England, and some are still found in markets. As usual with street-sellers, they would use a loud sing-song cry or chant to attract attention. Their cart might be stationary at a market stall, or mobile (horse-drawn or wheelbarrow). Costers met a need for rapid food distribution from the central markets (e.g., Spitalfields for fruit and vegetables, Billingsgate for fish). Their membership as a coster was signalled by their large neckerchief, known as a kingsman, tied round their necks. [wiki]

source

A costermonger selling fresh herring from a barrow in a street market near Seven Dials

Chimney Sweepers

A chimney sweep is a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys. It was a job children could do better than adults, thus most of chimney sweepers are children. Children as young as four years old were sold to master chimney sweeps most often by orphanages but sometimes by their own families. The children would do the work in exchange for learning a trade and being housed and fed. All the money the children earned was turned over to the master sweeper. Tales of mistreatment abounded and the children often begged for food from the customers they served.

A chimney sweep was required to climb up the inside of the chimney, sweeping and scraping soot into a bag. The tight spaces occasionally caused the sweeps to become stuck. A chimney in poor condition might cause the sweep to lose a grip or footing and fall to his death. Another hazard of the job was the illness caused by inhaling the soot. [ehow].

Chimney sweepers were often linked with The 1st of May event. They usually perform the dancing.

Parish Beadle

R. Ackermann. Published in 1824

Beadle, sometimes spelled "bedel," is a lay official of a church or synagogue who may usher, keep order, make reports, and assist in religious functions; or a minor official who carries out various civil, educational, or ceremonial duties. Dickens emphasized the important role of a parish beadle at that time in Sketches by Boz [chapter 1 of 'Our Parish']: "The parish beadle is one of the most, perhaps the most, important member of the local administration. He is not so well off as the churchwardens, certainly, nor is he so learned as the vestry-clerk, nor does he order things quite so much his own way as either of them. But his power is very great, notwithstanding; and the dignity of his office is never impaired by the absence of efforts on his part to maintain it."

If you have already read Oliver Twist, you might remember the character of Mr. Bumble who took Oliver to the working house. Mr. Bumble was a parish beadle.

The illustration of Mr. Bumble & Oliver Twist
source

Curate

A clergyman in the Church of England who is employed to perform divine service in the place of the incumbent, parson or vicar. He must be licensed by fixed estate in the curacy, he may be removed at pleasure. But some curates are perpetual. [source]

Henry Singleton. "The Curate of the Parish Returned From Duty." London, circa 1800 
source

So, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of our journey in Victorian London of today. Permit me to order a coach for each one of you, to bring you back to the present. However, before we part, I have the pleasure to remind you that you are invited to our (Boz and I J) journey of next week. We are going to go down the streets and shops of Victorian London. Until we meet again…. J

P.S. If you happened to miss our outing last week, you can still join me and Boz in Victorian London Amusements.

Charles Dickens: Dickens’ Bicentenary 1812 – 2012

[conclusion in English is in the bottom of this post]

Dalam rangka perayaan 200 tahun kelahiran Charles Dickens 7 Februari tahun ini, Lucinda Dickens Hawksley—seorang keturunan Dickens—bekerja sama dengan Charles Dickens Museum, London, menerbitkan sebuah biografi sang penulis besar Inggris ini. Jika sebelumnya telah banyak biografi Dickens yang telah diterbitkan, apa yang membuat biografi yang satu ini berbeda? Tak lain dan tak bukan adalah ciri khasnya yang menjadikannya layak (atau ‘wajib’) dimiliki para Dickensian (penggemar dan pecinta Dickens) di seluruh dunia. Biografi ini bukan hanya mengisahkan kehidupan sang penulis, namun juga karya-karyanya, bagaimana mereka ditulis, dan apa yang melatarbelakangi tema mereka, juga bagaimana kondisi psikologis Dickens saat itu memberikan pengaruh pada novel yang ditulisnya.

Namun yang paling menarik, mungkin, adalah koleksi imitasi relik-relik yang berhubungan dengan kehidupan Dickens dan karya-karyanya yang disisipkan dalam buku ini. Aku sudah pernah ‘memamerkan’ isi buku ini sebelumnya, dan kurasa relik-relik itulah yang membuatku bertekad memiliki (dan membaca) buku ini.

Biografinya sendiri diawali dengan kelahiran Dickens serta sedikit latar belakang kedua orang tuanya, John dan Elizabeth Dickens, dalam chapter Early Years. Kemudian sedikit demi sedikit alurnya maju ke masa kecil Dickens yang pahit saat bekerja sebagai child laborer di blacking factory, cinta pertama Dickens, perkawinannya, dan seterusnya hingga ke saat kematian Dickens. Selain itu, buku ini juga mencantumkan kisah singkat ke-sepuluh anak-anak Dickens. Dan di sela-sela kronologis kehidupan Dickens itu, terselip kisah tentang novel-novel Dickens sesuai dengan waktu penulisannya. Dengan demikian kita jadi mengetahui pada tahap mana dari kehidupan Dickens sebuah novel ditulis, sehingga kita akan memahami latar belakang penulisan dan temanya. Bagian tentang novel-novel ini mengungkap banyak hal menarik yang akan membantu kita memahami kisah dalam novel-novel itu. Maka, biografi ini perlu dibaca untuk melengkapi pemahaman anda akan novel-novel Dickens, apa yang ingin dikatakan Dickens di dalamnya.

Bagian yang paling menarik bagiku, selain tentang karyanya, adalah tentang Ellen Ternan—kekasih Dickens selama 13 tahun terakhir kehidupannya, dan pengalaman Dickens dalam kecelakaan kereta api yang mengubah lima tahun terakhir hidupnya. Dari cerita tentang perceraiannya dengan istrinya Catherine, membuatku mengenal sisi lain kepribadian Dickens yang negatif. Memiliki affair dengan wanita lain mungkin tak mengherankan bagi sosok se-populer Dickens, namun sikapnya yang mencampakkan Catherine begitu saja memang sulit untuk dimaafkan. Bagaimana pun juga, Dickens tetaplah seorang manusia yang memiliki kekurangan, dan hal ini tak menyurutkan kekagumanku pada kejeniusan Dickens dalam menulis, dan perhatiannya yang besar terhadap ketidakadilan di dunia yang ia tuangkan dalam tulisan-tulisannya.

Conclusion:

This is not an ordinary biography. Like all biographies, you will find the complete story of Dickens’ life—from his early years, child laboring, first love, children, marriage, love affair, his fond of theatre, his journeys to other countries, to his final years and at last..his death. But besides that, this book also contains facsimile items from Dickens personal clippings, from his handwriting in manuscripts, his marriage certificate, his photographs, to the newspapers which Dickens edited. These items are attached within the pages, and would certainly become valuable collectible items for all Dickensians. Through these items, I feel very close to Dickens himself, as if I was visiting him in his writing room, where he’d showed me his clipping. Looking at the facsimile item of Oliver Twist reading material, for instance, I feel like Dickens was showing me how to read it, adding scribble notes in the margin to emphasize certain parts, and then asked me to read it loud for him (which I actually did! J).

This book is written in a chronological style, including the writing process of his novels. From this part, I get to learn how much Dickens’ personal life affected his writings. As I planned to read all Dickens novels, this book provides me a study of theme and background of each novel, which gives me a better understanding for my readings. I found several interesting facts about his novels, for instance, the ending alteration of Great Expectations. How many of you know, that the first edition of Great Expectation had a different ending than what we read now? It was Dickens’ fellow novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton who had persuaded Dickens to change it to be more acceptable to the readers.

Other interesting fact I find in this book is about Dickens’ love life. Dickens ended his marriage with Catherine soon after he fell in love with Ellen Ternan—who become Dickens’ lover in his last thirteen years of life. One of Dickens’ negative personal characters is, perhaps, his selfish idea about women’s youthfulness. One of the reasons Dickens dump his wife was because Catherine become fat and lazy after giving birth to ten children. The same feeling Dickens had for his first lover, Maria Beadnell. After finding out that Maria wasn’t as pretty and slim-waisted as he remembered from her youth, Dickens dumped her. No wonder, that Dickens’ female main characters in most of his books are always young, tender, and beautiful. More about his separation with Catherine, I don’t agree with his abandoning Catherine after their separation. He didn’t even consult Catherine when their boys were planned to study abroad. I think it’s rather funny, that Dickens had big concerns on child and women injustice, but he just dumped his own wife who—as a woman—didn’t have any power to fight at that time.

Anyway, I realized that Dickens is only a human—an eccentric one perhaps—however his writings and legacies keep inspiring us today and many years ahead. There are still many other interesting aspects of Dickens, including his journey to America, France and Italy, as well as his connection to many famous artists and writers (do you know that Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Elliot and William Makepeace Thackeray had appeared as debutants in Dickens’ magazine: ‘All The Year Round’?). All I can say is, that this book would be a perfect companion for your Dickens reading.

To close this review, I will quote an article of Charles Eliot Norton, an American academic and writer, about Dickens (published on 1868):

“No one thinks first of Mr. Dickens as a writer. He is at once, through his books, a friend. He belongs among the intimates of every pleasant-tempered and large-hearted person. He is not so much the guest as the intimate of our houses. He…helps us to celebrate Christmas with heartier cheer, he shares at every New Year in our good wishes: for, indeed, it is not in his purely literary character that he has done most for us, it is as a man of the largest humanity, who has simply used literature as the means by which to bring himself into relations with his fellow men.”

Note:

This review is published for memorizing the death of Charles Dickens, 142 years ago, on 9^th of June 1870.

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (1)

The first book I pick for Literary Classics Challenge is Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens. This book will also qualify for A Victorian Celebration, The Classic Bribe and The Classics Club Project. Right now I’m still on page 476 of 688. So far this is the least engaging work of Charles Dickens I have read (I have read before Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities). Perhaps, it’s being partly a collection of literary-journalism that makes Boz less favorable to me.

I admit it that the first quarter of this book is a little boring, that I must entertain myself by imagining London on Victorian era. Then I searched the internet to create posts on several topics related to Victorian London. These posts (the creating process) really helped me to keep maintaining my reading enthusiasm. Reaching the second half of the book, I begin to enjoy it. ‘The Tales’ part is more fictional, and despite of the shortness, I can still grab the usual Dickens’ plot and characterization I’ve been familiar with in the stories. There are two or three of the tales that I like very much, and several others made me laugh… J

So, it’s now 212 pages more to go, and I hope I can finish Boz by this weekend. This week is not my productive week in my reading life, there are a lot of things happened, mostly because my father is ill. My next two books are quite light, Black Beauty and The Picture of Dorian Gray, so I hope I can finish those two within June.

Simon Tuggs on Sketches by Boz

Simon Tuggs

Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens

Being some kind of short stories collection, it is difficult to pick an interesting character from this Sketches By Boz. I usually like characters that are experiencing character switch within the story, which is impossible to find in a short story. However, I’ll try to discuss about a character which appeared in 20 pages of chapter IV in ‘Tales’ section.

This is what Dickens described about a young man named Mr. Simon Tuggs:

“He was as differently formed in body, as he was differently constituted in mind, of the remainder of his family. There was that elongation in his thoughtful face, and that tendency to weakness in his interesting legs, which tell so forcibly of a great mind and romantic disposition.”

Frankly speaking, I didn’t quite get in the plot very well, but from what I gathered, Simon is a son of a grocer who had just possessed twenty thousand pounds from a will. The family didn’t take any longer to close the grocery and moved to Ramsgate. On the ship to Ramsgate, the family got acquainted with a couple: Captain Masters and Mrs. Belinda Masters. Shortly enough, Simon found himself attracted to Belinda, who seemed to return the feeling, despite of her marriage with Captain Masters. And after six week being together, Simon fell in love with Belinda, a feeling that they both called “platonic love”.

From Dickens’ description, I can see that Simon is physically weak and emotionally romantic. When the solicitor announced that the Tuggs had won the will, Simon fainted twice (the sign of weakness). And seeing how quickly he became attached to Belinda, only showed that he is a romantic person. It seems from this story, that weakness and romanticism are not a perfect combination, actually it’s a dangerous combination. Add a large sum of money (remember what the Tuggses just got from the will?) in it, and bad people can use someone like Simon.

Weigh in Wednesday (6): Graphic Novel vs Traditional Novel

When I am in reading process, a huge movie is performing at the same time inside my mind. Of course, I created the scene and image by my own imagination, based on the description of what I read from the book. That’s why I love traditional novel because it provides me a wide room for imagination. With graphic novel, I cannot do such thing. Graphic novel already provided the image or illustration for the story, thus we lose the freedom of imagination. So, weighing the two choices of this week, I pick traditional novel! Novels are always promising the fun of reading pages full of words! J

What about you? Are you a fan of graphic or traditional novel? You can share your weigh in Wednesday, hosted by Lauren.

And if you love memes, please check out my weekly meme : Character Thursday

Top Ten Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About: Top Ten Tuesday Rewind (5)

I’m glad that we can pick any past topic we want for this week’s top ten Tuesday (it’s Top Ten Tuesday Rewind, woohoo!). This time I’d pick a topic I haven’t write, since I hadn’t joined this meme at that time, it’s about books I had strong emotions about. Here’s the top ten emotional classics book I’ve ever read (in random order):

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Until now, To Kill A Mockingbird is still my favorite book of all time. I have read it twice, and twice it stirred my emotion.

Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewicz

The part which left a great effect to me is the scene of Paul asking Jesus when he (Paul) run away from Christians’ slaughter by Nero: “Quo vadis, domine?”, and Jesus answered: “Because now you leave my people, I would go to Rome, to be crucified for the second time” (or something like that, as I read the translation copy).

The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank

I’m touched by how Anne always kept her hopes in life, even though life had not been friendly to her.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

It’s the only Dickens’ book that shed my tears (until now, because I haven’t read all of his books). It’s the true love showed by Sydney Carton that caused it…

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I know, Monte Cristo does not suppose to be an emotional novel, however I found my self quite engaged by the last chapter, especially when Dantes met Mercédès for the last time.

L’Assommoir by Emile Zola

Reading Zola means you must be prepared, for Zola is a true naturalist. He writes the worst of life, and it’s often striking and even shocking. L’Assommoir did shocked me with the dying scene.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

This perhaps is the most touching children book I’ve ever read.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The melodramatic ending of Uncle Tom has successfully shed my tears..

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

I think its epistolary style gives a more emotional touch to Celie’s fight as a woman and an African-American.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marcia Marquez

When it said emotions, it doesn’t have to be something touching, right? Anger or disgust is emotion too. And I put this book in the bottom of the list because I HATE the male protagonist: Florentino Ariza!

What about you? What books do you think have the strong emotion? You can share your top ten Tuesday here.

And if you love memes, please check out my weekly meme : Character Thursday

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Amusements

What interested me mostly of Sketches by Boz is that it’s the earliest work of Charles Dickens. After reading three of his books: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities—and so far I love the way he writes—Sketches by Boz seems to be the perfect further reading, as I am curious of how Dickens’ first writing would be. For example, had his cynical humor and long-but-beautiful-wording already appeared from the beginning? Further on, Dickens later wrote about Sketches by Boz: "They comprise my first attempts at authorship. I am conscious of their often being extremely crude and ill-considered, and bearing obvious marks of haste and inexperience." Don’t you find it interesting too, to read ‘the inexperienced’ Dickens after being familiar with his masterpieces?

I am now in page 234 (only certain chapters of them, and will come back later for the rest), but so far I have found so many interesting materials that I want to share here. Sketches by Boz contains illustrative of everyday life and people of London—where Dickens live. I don’t know what genre I should put this book in, it’s not a short stories collection (although Dickens wrote several fictions at the last section), for most of the contents are non fictions. Through the illustrations, we came to know London in the 19^th century, the people, the culture and the scenes. For me (who have never been to England), it’s quite difficult to imagine the scenes from Dickens’ description, so I browsed the internet to find out about common places or words. And now, in A Victorian Celebration 2012 event, let me take you to London on the Victorian era of 19^th century, together with Boz…

Note: I will divide my post about Victorian London in four parts, each will discuss about different topics:

1. The Amusements

2. The Occupations

3. The Streets and Shops

4. The Transportations

And this is the first part, The Amusements. In Victorian days, the middle classes have several events throughout the year where they can amuse themselves:

Tea Gardens

Tea garden is one of rural middle class Londoners’ means of leisure in their Sundays. The tea garden was one of the few places ladies could enter a mixed gathering in public without criticism.  It was one place where people from all social classes were welcome.

George Morland, The Tea Garden, circa 1790

Greenwich Fair

The first three days after Easter, beginning on Easter Monday is a carnival season in Victorian London (correct me if I’m wrong, as this is what I gathered about the fair). The fair was an outdoor activity. According to what Dickens described (chapter XII – Greenwich Fair), at those days you would see all kinds of transportation gathered around the park. Houses around there were turned into tea-shops, pedestrians lingered in group at the roadside. The entrance of the park was full of gingerbread, spice nuts, or toys stalls. Here and there would be couples sitting on the grass.

source

There were also traveling menageries with wild beast shows, where they exhibit wild beasts, ‘dwarfs’ (abnormally small person) or other natural curiosities. The heart of the fair—according to Dickens—was in the Richardson’s booth, where they performed a variety of melo-drama, pantomime, comic songs, overture and some incidental music, all in twenty five minutes. There are clowns too, and they also performed some Roman plays. But the numerously-frequented booth of the whole fair was ‘The Crown and Anchor’, the temporary ballroom. There you could get refreshment snack, orchestra, and of course…the dancing area.

Astley’s - circus

Is the famous amphitheatre in Victorian London. The Victorian era marked the golden age of the British circus. Astley's Amphitheatre in Lambeth, London, featuring equestrian acts in a 42-foot wide circus ring, was the epicentre of the 19th century circus [wiki].

From what Dickens described in Sketches by Boz (chapter XI – Astley’s), I think the circus was just like any other circus shows, with horse riding, theatrical performances, orchestra and clowns.

source

May Day Celebration

A celebration held every 1^st of May in Victorian London. May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. Since the reform of the Catholic Calendar, May 1st is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of workers. Seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the Maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons [wiki].

Besides Maypole, May Day is famous with its ‘Jack in the green’, a participant in traditional English May Day parades and other May celebrations, who wears a large, foliage-covered, garland-like framework, usually pyramidal or conical in shape, which covers his body from head to foot. The name is also applied to the garland itself. May Day dancing is often linked with chimney sweepers.

Vauxhall Gardens

Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Vauxhall Gardens opened at night, but at chapter XIV of Sketches by Boz, Dickens took us to see what Vauxhall Gardens was in the daylight, how ‘the veil of mystery that hung about it’ was vanished. It’s interesting how Dickens put it in his writing: “…then we saw for the first time, that the entrance, if there had been any magic about it at all, was now decidedly disenchanted, being, in fact, nothing more nor less than a combination of very-roughly painted boards and sawdust.”

Vauxhall gardens offered orchestra concert, firework show, comic singers, rope-dancing in the open theatre. A balloon ascent was also one of the interesting attractions at the garden.

A General Prospect of Vaux Hall Gardens, by Johann Sebastian Muller 

The Eagle – a music hall or tavern

The Eagle, on City Road, London, was an East End tavern on the corner of City Road and Shepherdess Walk that presented regular musical entertainment. The Eagle did a roaring trade as one of the first music halls. The Eagle was sold in 1883 to the Salvation Army, perennial enemy of drink and the music halls. The building has since been demolished and the site now boasts a new Eagle pub which has a display of old music hall prints.

The nursery rhyme Pop goes the Weasel features the Eagle. It is about a father spending his weekly wage in the music halls and then having to ‘pop’ or pawn his ‘weasel’ to raise additional money. The ‘weasel’ is thought to refer to a piece of equipment in the tailoring industry. Tailoring was one of the main occupations in London’s East End. [source]

The complete rhyme:

Up and down the City Road

In and out The Eagle

That's the way the money goes

Pop goes the weasel.

And that would be the end of our Victorian London virtual walk of today, hope it amuses you as much as it does me. See you in our next walk—I hope—next week!