PICTURES FROM AN EXHIBITION: THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN HENRY MAYHEW’S NOVEL 1851

VOL. 59, BOOK 1, PART B, 2021, pp. 31-40 Full text (En)

Author:
Maria Dimitrova

Affiliation: St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia

Abstract

The paper discusses Henry Mayhew’s novel 1851: Or, the Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Sandboys and Family, Who Came Up to London to ‘Enjoy Themselves,’ and to See the Great Exhibition. The novel, itself written in 1851, offers a valuable commentary on one of the most significant events inVictoriane conomic and social history. In particular, the paper explores the novel’s ambivalent attitudes to production and consumption and to the producing and the consuming classes, as well as the way these attitudes are created or sustained at the level of narrative structure.

Key words: Victorian literature, Henry Mayhew, the Great Exhibition, production and consumption