Dusty Bob : A cultural history of dustmen, 1780-1870
Maidment, Brian200708UU
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Why did dustmen exercise a hold over the imagination of Regency and Victorian artists and writers? A study of the cultural representation of the dust trade, this book offers answers to this question by showing the ways in which London dustmen were associated with ideas of contamination, dirt, noise, violence, wealth, consumerism and threat. Why did dustmen exercise an extended hold over the imagination of many Regency and Victorian artists and writers, including George Cruikshank, Henry Mayhew, Charles Dickens as well as numerous little known dramatists, caricaturists, print makers, journalists and novelists? This book, the first study of the cultural representation of the dust trade, provides many varied answers to this question by showing the ways in which London dustmen were associated with ideas of contamination, dirt, noise, violence, wealth, consumerism and threat. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, including plays, novels, reportage and, especially, visual culture, "Dusty Bob" describes the ways in which dustmen were perceived and mythologised in the first seventy years of the nineteenth century. Largely chronological in approach, this study shows how the image of the dustman emerged from a number of visual and perceptual assumptions about his work and habits established in the last decades of the eighteenth century and went on to become the focus of mainly humorous and carnivalesque representations in the early Victorian period. In particular, the dustman was drawn over and over again by caricaturists using ideas derived from both available stereotypes and from new and pressing social concerns. Later Victorian social analysts, notably Mayhew and Dickens, also had much to say about dustmen, and Dickens's 'Golden Dustman' - Nicodemus Boffin in "Our Mutual Friend" - draws on many of the ideas and images discussed here. Although "Dusty Bob" centrally comprises a detailed and original piece of research of interest to scholars and advanced students of Victorian culture, it has been written with a broader readership in mind.
Main title:
Dusty Bob : A cultural history of dustmen, 1780-1870 / Brian Maidment.
Author:
Imprint:
Manchester : Manchester University Press : [distributor] NBN International Ltd : [distributor] Footprint Books : [distributor] Footprint Books : [distributor] Macmillan(US), 2007.
Collation:
240 p. : 71 b&w, ill. ; 23x16x3 cm.
Notes:
Hardback.
ISBN:
0719052831 (hbk)9780719052835 (hbk)
Dewey class:
363.728
Local class:
363.728
Language:
English
Subject:
Refuse collectors -- History -- 18th century -- England -- LondonRefuse and refuse disposal -- History -- London (England)Refuse collectors -- History -- 19th century -- England -- LondonRefuse and refuse disposal in literature -- History -- 18th centuryRefuse and refuse disposal in literature -- History -- 19th centuryRefuse and refuse disposal in art -- History -- 18th centuryRefuse and refuse disposal in art -- History -- 19th centurySocial & cultural history -- c 1700 to c 1800 -- c 1800 to c 1900 -- London, Greater LondonBritish & Irish history -- c 1700 to c 1800 -- c 1800 to c 1900 -- London, Greater LondonModern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 -- c 1700 to c 1800 -- c 1800 to c 1900 -- London, Greater LondonWaste management -- c 1700 to c 1800 -- c 1800 to c 1900 -- London, Greater LondonHistory
BRN:
2427475
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Total copies: 1